Christmas in Washington, DC- 12/13

For the past couple of years, we would spend a day in San Francisco in December, seeing all of the wonders of the city at Christmas time. This is something that Kristen's family always did, and we were lucky enough one year to be invited along. I thought it was a special day, and wanted to make it a tradition of our own.

So here we are for our first Christmas in the nation's capitol... There must be some Christmasy stuff around the city- right?

We started our day in Georgetown- which I had hoped would have some wonderful window displays, but nothing was extraordinary. I did love the hustle and bustle of the streets and shops though... We had lunch at Clyde's- which was wonderful and will be a place that we will return to for our Christmas day in the city for sure.

The coolest part about Clyde's, were the 2 giant nutcrackers outside the front doors-

From there we walked over to DC Cupcakes. But guess what? So did everyone else. Here is the line-

No thanks! Instead we grabbed some macarons from Olivia's. They were great, but I don't think we will ever be satisfied after tasting macaron's in Switzerland... And not the coconut macaroons, but these beautiful, light, airy, tiny French meringue sandwiches-

Anyway.

All around Georgetown were these sculptures, made out of cellophane wrap, that at night lit up. The exhibit was called GLOW and it was that night only. I found it odd to have an art exhibit in December that wasn't Christmasy at all (why not July?), but they were fun to find and look at-

Next we drove into DC and went to the US Botanical Gardens. I had read that they had a wonderful display at Christmas.

After a short wait in line outside, we were in! All the poinsettias were cool to see. This tree was taller than Macy-

And I'd never seen hot pink ones-

Throughout the building (all gardens inside- yes!), there were miniature DC landmarks, completely made of natural materials. The US Capitol-

 Supreme court-

Lincoln memorial-

White House-

 They had a huge room with model trains, and national light houses through.  again everything made out of natural materials. I was thrilled to see Thomas on the tracks-

The pictures do not do this awesome display any justice!

From there, we walked over to the tree outside of the Capitol Building, and saw this sunset-

 It was amazing.

I really liked the Capitol tree. You could tell it was a beautiful tree and the fact that you could just walk right up to it, without crazy crowds, was great.

Next we walked to Union Station... Macy was feeling a bit tired at this point-

I told her she looked like a homeless bum and she needed to hustle up! It was also SantaCon in DC this particular day, so we had seen several Santa's walking around. A quick reminder of that too, and she was up and running trying to stay on the good list!

Union Station was beautiful-

Inside we found a giant (fake) tree decorated and donated by the Norwegian Embassy-

 

And another model train display- 

 But most importantly- we found a McDonalds! By this point it was dark and cold, and almost dinner time. Brian wasn't feeling too hot still, so we decided to sit and eat. The kids were psyched for McDonalds, us not so much. But it was a much needed break.

Then we were off again!

Macy has never ridden the Metro here in DC, so we decided to take it and not walk outside. She was thrilled-

I had read online that the Willard Hotel was supposed to be beautifully decorated inside, so that was our next stop-

We were not disappointed. Not only was it beautiful, but when we walked in there was a high school chorus group in the lobby singing Christmas carols!

From there, we walked to the White House. You could see the tree from far, far away because it was so bright-

 there we also found the "pathway of peace" which is one tree dedicated to each of the 50 states. The trees were not as cute as they used to be, so said some spectators, when school children from each state would send in ornaments to decorate their tree. Now everything is LED lights-

What was very cool though, is the fact that Google had kiosks there where kids could code (design) a light display for each tree. Tate chose Arkansas, and Macy wanted California- but it was designed already for the entire year- so she chose Tennessee. Their design was on the tree for 1 hour the following day for all the visitors to see.

The tree was smaller than I thought it would be, and was wrapped in net lights- not my favorite

We later learned that the tree was recently planted in 2011, after the then existing tree was damaged in a winter storm.

The coolest part about this tree, was the huge village and model trains that ran underneath it-

I could have watched forever! Defiantly my favorite of the day.

It was now 8pm and we were exhausted! We had left the house before noon and had been walking, or standing in line, for most of the day. Our kids were awesome. We were so very excited to check this all out, which in turn made them so very excited about it all. Can't wait to see what else we will find next year...