Kevin's mom sings in a number of local choirs, and every holiday season she performs in a variety of concerts in various venues around town. We usually try to make it to a few, but with time constraints this year, we were only able to attend one.
That one was the National Choral Arts Society's concert at The Kennedy Center. When we're in town, we attend this one on Christmas Eve, but this year we went to the abridged version earlier in December. The concert was on Monday night, and the length was cut down to accommodate that. But it was still a great show, perhaps better for clocking in at under an hour and a half.
Every year this concert is sponsored by a different ambassador, and music from that ambassador's home country is included in the program. This year the chosen country was Argentina, which made for a very fun concert. The Argentinian songs were performed by the Pan American Symphony Orchestra, who traveled to DC for this show. The music and language was just familiar enough for me to follow it, but different enough from my usual experience.
The choir also performed a number of traditional USian carols. And this year there was an extra treat. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, of Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers fame, joined in on guitar for a few songs. The guitar isn't an instrument I normally associate with Christmas music, but Silent Night was apparently originally composed for the guitar. It was cool to hear variations of these songs that I'm not used to. I left wishing we would be in town for the full concert this year. Hopefully next year's concert has some similar surprises.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Finding the Christmas Spirit
I love Christmas. I hold off on the carols and decorating until after Thanksgiving, but I'm usually ready to head out and get a tree that Saturday. This year was a bit different though. This year, Thanksgiving took a lot out of me. I spent the week after in a sort of zombie-like haze, trying to catch up on sleep and laundry and being thankful for the leftovers in my fridge. While people talked about Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, I could barely bring myself to care about presents. I started to worry, ever so slightly, that I would fall too far behind and be scrambling to get things done at the last minute.
On Friday, Kevin was talking about various gifts he was planning to get for friends and family. Something he said triggered an idea in me, and almost instantly I had figured out nearly all of my presents. The ones for family, anyway. With a firm idea the fog lifted from my brain, and I started planning out the stores I would need to visit.
We got up bright and early on Saturday to get the tree. It was raining, but that only helped us to be more decisive when we found a good one. Then I went out shopping in the afternoon and, miracle of miracles, I made a huge dent in my Christmas shopping list. And it's an impressively long list.
On Sunday I had one or two things more to buy. I actually found myself eager to go to Tyson's, the massive, nightmarish mall near our house. But I decided not to fight it and braved traffic. Parking was impressively easy. They implemented a new system to show empty parking spaces with red and green lights (and blue for handicapped spaces), and I was able to find a spot almost immediately. In the mall I quickly found what I wanted, rewarded myself with what is fast becoming a traditional cup of lobster bisque at Brio, and managed to not spend any money at Barnes and Noble.
I still have one or two more things to buy, and I need to wrap most of what I have bought and get it shipped to Colorado. But I'm feeling very on top of things. We have a fully decorated tree that I love looking at. The pile of presents beneath it is growing. Now all we need is some snow and everything will be perfect. I love this time of year.
On Friday, Kevin was talking about various gifts he was planning to get for friends and family. Something he said triggered an idea in me, and almost instantly I had figured out nearly all of my presents. The ones for family, anyway. With a firm idea the fog lifted from my brain, and I started planning out the stores I would need to visit.
We got up bright and early on Saturday to get the tree. It was raining, but that only helped us to be more decisive when we found a good one. Then I went out shopping in the afternoon and, miracle of miracles, I made a huge dent in my Christmas shopping list. And it's an impressively long list.
On Sunday I had one or two things more to buy. I actually found myself eager to go to Tyson's, the massive, nightmarish mall near our house. But I decided not to fight it and braved traffic. Parking was impressively easy. They implemented a new system to show empty parking spaces with red and green lights (and blue for handicapped spaces), and I was able to find a spot almost immediately. In the mall I quickly found what I wanted, rewarded myself with what is fast becoming a traditional cup of lobster bisque at Brio, and managed to not spend any money at Barnes and Noble.
I still have one or two more things to buy, and I need to wrap most of what I have bought and get it shipped to Colorado. But I'm feeling very on top of things. We have a fully decorated tree that I love looking at. The pile of presents beneath it is growing. Now all we need is some snow and everything will be perfect. I love this time of year.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Endless Celebration
Thanksgiving week was intense this year. Kevin and I hosted for the second year in a row, and we had a busier week than I've had in a long time.
Dad and his girlfriend arrived on Tuesday, and Connor came over for dinner and pinochle. We didn't quite finish the game before it was time for bed, but we played some.
On Wednesday my cousins arrived, as did Danielle and Eric. We ended up having more people over for dinner on Wednesday evening than we did for Thanksgiving. The meal was a lot simpler though, since it just involved chopping things up and setting them out on the buffet so everyone could make their own tacos.
Thursday was the Thanksgiving whirlwind. We cooked. We ate. We drank. I fell asleep before the football game ended, but other people were up until almost 2.
Since no one had to be anywhere, we spent Friday drinking mimosas and beer and playing games. Once again I fell asleep before the rest of the party. I just can't get by on as little sleep as I used to.
Everyone left fairly early on Saturday morning (well Connor stuck around for a while because we couldn't find his keys and then we watched The Lego Movie instead of looking for them because sitting was better than standing). We did some picking up, but mostly Kevin and I lounged around building up strength for his high school reunion that night.
The reunion was fun, even if I was starting to feel a bit burnt out. It was interesting to meet a bunch of the TJ crowd, and it was nice that there was no pressure on me to know anyone or make small talk. For example, after I met a bronie, I was able to exit the conversation and avoid him for the rest of the evening with very little effort.
Sunday was a day of rest and laundry and leftovers. I tried to go to bed early, but ended up reading until my normal bedtime. Oops.
Monday was my company party, which meant that our branch of the office was full and noisy and then we all had to troop downtown for the fancy dinner. I cannot for the life of me understand why this party is on a Monday instead of a Friday, but there it is. The servers kept our wine glasses full throughout dinner (so much for everyone gets one glass of wine, though I suppose that if you never finish it it all counts as the same glass). We left early, and I still barely made it home awake.
On top of the Monday night party, my company scheduled a mandatory meeting for Tuesday morning. I made it, but it was rough. When I got home, I basically just went to sleep. I spent the entire night dreaming that I was wandering around a library inside of a castle, which helped to refresh me. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling almost human.
The house still isn't quite back in order following the festivities of the past week, but it's getting closer. Two more loads of laundry ought to get us there. We're finally almost down with the leftovers. I'm even starting to get excited to cook again. But this week took a lot more out of me than I was expecting it to. We may need to scale back the Thanksgiving celebration in future years (or at least not follow it immediately with back to back parties).
Dad and his girlfriend arrived on Tuesday, and Connor came over for dinner and pinochle. We didn't quite finish the game before it was time for bed, but we played some.
On Wednesday my cousins arrived, as did Danielle and Eric. We ended up having more people over for dinner on Wednesday evening than we did for Thanksgiving. The meal was a lot simpler though, since it just involved chopping things up and setting them out on the buffet so everyone could make their own tacos.
Thursday was the Thanksgiving whirlwind. We cooked. We ate. We drank. I fell asleep before the football game ended, but other people were up until almost 2.
Since no one had to be anywhere, we spent Friday drinking mimosas and beer and playing games. Once again I fell asleep before the rest of the party. I just can't get by on as little sleep as I used to.
Everyone left fairly early on Saturday morning (well Connor stuck around for a while because we couldn't find his keys and then we watched The Lego Movie instead of looking for them because sitting was better than standing). We did some picking up, but mostly Kevin and I lounged around building up strength for his high school reunion that night.
The reunion was fun, even if I was starting to feel a bit burnt out. It was interesting to meet a bunch of the TJ crowd, and it was nice that there was no pressure on me to know anyone or make small talk. For example, after I met a bronie, I was able to exit the conversation and avoid him for the rest of the evening with very little effort.
Sunday was a day of rest and laundry and leftovers. I tried to go to bed early, but ended up reading until my normal bedtime. Oops.
Monday was my company party, which meant that our branch of the office was full and noisy and then we all had to troop downtown for the fancy dinner. I cannot for the life of me understand why this party is on a Monday instead of a Friday, but there it is. The servers kept our wine glasses full throughout dinner (so much for everyone gets one glass of wine, though I suppose that if you never finish it it all counts as the same glass). We left early, and I still barely made it home awake.
On top of the Monday night party, my company scheduled a mandatory meeting for Tuesday morning. I made it, but it was rough. When I got home, I basically just went to sleep. I spent the entire night dreaming that I was wandering around a library inside of a castle, which helped to refresh me. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling almost human.
The house still isn't quite back in order following the festivities of the past week, but it's getting closer. Two more loads of laundry ought to get us there. We're finally almost down with the leftovers. I'm even starting to get excited to cook again. But this week took a lot more out of me than I was expecting it to. We may need to scale back the Thanksgiving celebration in future years (or at least not follow it immediately with back to back parties).
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