Due to the overwhelming response to yesterday's challenge (italics dripping with sarcasm, of course) I thought I'd post the answer:
That beautiful gilded ceiling is found in The Warner Theater downtown Washington, D.C.
I always love going in there because it feels much more like a palace you'd find three blocks from Notre Dame rather than a theater found three blocks away from the White House. Ornate ceilings are a lost art.
Blake and I saw The Nutcracker at the Warner just before Christmas. It was glorious (though, admittedly, the male dancers make Blake too uncomfortable for him to thoroughly enjoy the show). I am hoping that we can make it a yearly tradition. Nothing feels quite so Christmas-y as the Nutcracker.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
A Quest
I'll give you ten points (and will forevermore be impressed with you) if you can guess where this ceiling is:
It's beautiful, don't you think?
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
HoliDecorations
My in-laws house is always decorated beautifully, but I especially love it at Christmas. These photos don't really do it justice (I stole them from Blake's phone), but I was too busy enjoying myself to take too many photos.
I'm having a fun time remembering Christmas Eve: a perfect salmon dinner, lots of baked treats, a concert (complete with choreographed dance moves to "Let it Snow") by the kiddos, the annual nativity, discussing the likelihood of Santa being real with some of the older curious kids, and watching the excitement on their faces as they opened gifts.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is listening to and chatting with the kids. They always have the funniest things to say. This year my favorite kid-ism came not from my nieces and nephews, but from one of our 12-year-old Sunday school kids.
Blake and I taught a Christmas-themed lesson a week before Christmas. We had some extra time at the end and the kids were getting obnoxious and loud (in such a way as only those middle-school-aged kids can be), so I read them my favorite Christmas story: The Other Wise Man. My family reads The Other Wise Man every year on Christmas Even in addition to Luke 2. It's a beautifully told and beautifully illustrated story.
After two pages the kids were hooked. They pulled their chairs in close and, miraculously, closed their mouths. They were unusually quiet right up until the point where Herod sends his troops to kill all of the babies. At this point there was some interjection from the heretofore silent peanut gallery.
Christian interrupted: "wait! wait! Herod killed all the babies?!"
Me: "Yes, Christian, he did. Horrible, right?"
Christian: In a shocked tone "Well, I hope he goes to HELL!"
Tate: scandalized "Christian! We don't say HELL, we say HECK!"
Me: Trying to stifle a giggle "um, ok, let's just continue on with the story..."
Man I love those kids. They always keep me entertained.
It's amazing how far behind in life I've gotten due to my nasty battle with strep over the break. Alas. I'll catch up someday. Sooner or later the un-written ideas in my head and the dust/hair bunnies tumbling across my floors will force me into fully catching up to the present.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Taking a break with the wee elves.
It's going to be a crazy week this week, but I had to take a quick break from the madness to look back at some of my pictures from Christmas. I made these Santa/Elves props for our Christmas party and ended up bringing them to our family Christmas Eve party to entertain the kiddos. They (Right: Ella, Coco and Sidney. Left: James and Jack) had a great time posing as Santa in front of the Christmas tree.
I think my favorite part was trying to direct them how to hold the beards and hats: no James, the beard goes over your mouth and chin...not up over your eyebrows...but close...well, close enough...
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sigh
Remember how I planned to spend my time off making my way through this list of things to get paid for while I wasn't working?
Well, some of the cute kidlets were sick at Christmas Eve dinner...so I was sick two days later. Strep throat is never fun, but at least it can be cured with a quick round of Zythromax, a comfy bed, and a stack of movies.
So besides sniffling, drinking tea, taking meds and waiting to be less uncomfortable, here's what I actually accomplished over my break:
- Going to the temple with my Blake and having a Cafe Rio lunch with old friends
Yep. Did both of those things on Christmas Eve eve. It was fun to see Scott & Kirby and fun to try the new Cafe Rio location in Arlington. We even got a free meal, which is never a bad thing.
- Going to a pre-Christmas kickoff
We briefly made it out of our post-Cafe Rio food coma in time to head to a party hosted by some friends from church. There must have been 30 kids there running around having a great time...and that made it all the more festive.
- Cooking and baking galore
I got a little bit carried away baking for Christmas eve dinner. I made homemade oreos, a french lemon tart, spiral sugar cookies, chocolate chip meringues and chocolate and caramel dipped marshmallows. I have a sugar hangover just thinking about it.
- Eating, eating and more eating
Check, check, and triple check.
- Wrapping and subsequently opening presents
Wrapping presents is one of my favorite things to do and I had a wonderful time doing it this year. I treated myself to several different kinds of paper, ribbons and tags and had a grand old time listening to music, watching Christmas movies, and creating Christmas masterpieces.
- Watching my nieces and nephews perform the nativity
There was surprisingly little crying. We even had a Joseph this year thanks to a flannel shirt and a quickly drawn beard on Sidney. It was as cute as ever.
- Celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Blake's family
Christmas is always so fun with kids. We had a big dinner, presents and the nativity with all the nieces and nephews, then woke up late on Christmas, went to church and finally opened presents around 3:00 p.m. My how things have changed since the early days of waking up at 5:30 to bother my parents into letting us open gifts.
- Sharing in the kids' anticipation of Santa
Most of them still believe. And the ones who don't are still so excited for Christmas that it doesn't dampen the spirit of anticipation.
- Chatting with my family on the phone
The darn time difference makes this difficult, but we had a great time chatting.
- Watching multiple movies at home and at the theater
We saw Sherlock Holmes (two thumbs way down! super boring!) and MI4 (two thumbs, surprisingly, way up!) in the theaters, watched Midnight in Paris twice (Blake got it for me for Christmas) and filled in the other time with episodes of Castle, The Dead Zone, and rental movies.
- Painting my toenails (because it's vacation and I have time to be luxurious)
Didn't do this one. Oh well.
- Picking out and installing a new bathroom light fixture (hopefully)
Check. I'll post pictures soon. The bathroom is a like-new, light-flooded, room. I could hardly believe it! And for less than $40.00! It was definitely one of those things that made us both wonder why we'd waited so long to do it.
- Painting the guest bathroom, guest room and downstairs puppet theater
I painted the guest bathroom, but didn't get to either of the other two projects. In my sickness-induced stupor it took me two loooong days of painting just to do the tiny bathroom. I probably shouldn't have done that (hindsight is much clearer than strep-throat clouded sight), but it looks so good that I have no regrets. Once we added the new light fixture and bought some bright white towels it looked like a brand new space. We've definitely classed up the joint.
- Staying in my pajamas for a long as I want to
Sickness = pajamas. End of story. Poor Blake had to deal with seeing me only in PJs or painting clothes (which are worse...much worse) for a week straight. I think he'd forgotten that I clean up ok. In fact, I think I'd forgotten that I clean up ok.
Now it's back to reality. I've finished my round of antibiotics and Blake should be starting his today (I am feeling extremely guilty for sharing this particular Christmas gift with him). Wish us luck.
Well, some of the cute kidlets were sick at Christmas Eve dinner...so I was sick two days later. Strep throat is never fun, but at least it can be cured with a quick round of Zythromax, a comfy bed, and a stack of movies.
So besides sniffling, drinking tea, taking meds and waiting to be less uncomfortable, here's what I actually accomplished over my break:
- Going to the temple with my Blake and having a Cafe Rio lunch with old friends
Yep. Did both of those things on Christmas Eve eve. It was fun to see Scott & Kirby and fun to try the new Cafe Rio location in Arlington. We even got a free meal, which is never a bad thing.
- Going to a pre-Christmas kickoff
We briefly made it out of our post-Cafe Rio food coma in time to head to a party hosted by some friends from church. There must have been 30 kids there running around having a great time...and that made it all the more festive.
- Cooking and baking galore
I got a little bit carried away baking for Christmas eve dinner. I made homemade oreos, a french lemon tart, spiral sugar cookies, chocolate chip meringues and chocolate and caramel dipped marshmallows. I have a sugar hangover just thinking about it.
- Eating, eating and more eating
Check, check, and triple check.
- Wrapping and subsequently opening presents
Wrapping presents is one of my favorite things to do and I had a wonderful time doing it this year. I treated myself to several different kinds of paper, ribbons and tags and had a grand old time listening to music, watching Christmas movies, and creating Christmas masterpieces.
- Watching my nieces and nephews perform the nativity
There was surprisingly little crying. We even had a Joseph this year thanks to a flannel shirt and a quickly drawn beard on Sidney. It was as cute as ever.
- Celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Blake's family
Christmas is always so fun with kids. We had a big dinner, presents and the nativity with all the nieces and nephews, then woke up late on Christmas, went to church and finally opened presents around 3:00 p.m. My how things have changed since the early days of waking up at 5:30 to bother my parents into letting us open gifts.
- Sharing in the kids' anticipation of Santa
Most of them still believe. And the ones who don't are still so excited for Christmas that it doesn't dampen the spirit of anticipation.
- Chatting with my family on the phone
The darn time difference makes this difficult, but we had a great time chatting.
- Watching multiple movies at home and at the theater
We saw Sherlock Holmes (two thumbs way down! super boring!) and MI4 (two thumbs, surprisingly, way up!) in the theaters, watched Midnight in Paris twice (Blake got it for me for Christmas) and filled in the other time with episodes of Castle, The Dead Zone, and rental movies.
- Painting my toenails (because it's vacation and I have time to be luxurious)
Didn't do this one. Oh well.
- Picking out and installing a new bathroom light fixture (hopefully)
Check. I'll post pictures soon. The bathroom is a like-new, light-flooded, room. I could hardly believe it! And for less than $40.00! It was definitely one of those things that made us both wonder why we'd waited so long to do it.
- Painting the guest bathroom, guest room and downstairs puppet theater
I painted the guest bathroom, but didn't get to either of the other two projects. In my sickness-induced stupor it took me two loooong days of painting just to do the tiny bathroom. I probably shouldn't have done that (hindsight is much clearer than strep-throat clouded sight), but it looks so good that I have no regrets. Once we added the new light fixture and bought some bright white towels it looked like a brand new space. We've definitely classed up the joint.
- Staying in my pajamas for a long as I want to
Sickness = pajamas. End of story. Poor Blake had to deal with seeing me only in PJs or painting clothes (which are worse...much worse) for a week straight. I think he'd forgotten that I clean up ok. In fact, I think I'd forgotten that I clean up ok.
Now it's back to reality. I've finished my round of antibiotics and Blake should be starting his today (I am feeling extremely guilty for sharing this particular Christmas gift with him). Wish us luck.
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