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Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas in the City

So, with the new year right around the corner, I've been thinking about resolutions. And keeping up with this blog is one of them! :) My other resolution is to seriously cut back on sweets. When I came home for Thanksgiving, I think I had gained a solid 7 pounds. When you're this short, 7 pounds is no small thing. So, I thought, gosh, let me get back to normal by Christmas. That was until I realized how many delicious holiday things go on in this City! So, I threw in the towel and ate so many sweets that I haven't had an actual meal since Thanksgiving dinner and I'm now wearing yoga pants because they're the only pants that fit anymore. Black yoga pants somewhat pass as black dress pants. Or maybe my boss just feels so bad for my extensive weight gain because he force feeds me cookies, that he just ignores the fact that I basically wear sweats to work. (Yes, I'm exaggerating. I'm still wearing normal clothes to work. But it's not comfortable to sit at a desk all day in those bad boys.)

In addition to eating tons of cookies and candy, I've been learning how to live in the cold. For starters, people here buy humidifiers. I'm sorry, but I've been raised to HATE humidity and all that it does to us Floridians in the summer - from making us sweat in our work clothes at 7 am to frizzing our hair in less than 2.5 seconds after we walk out the door...when we just spent 30 minutes straightening it! But anyway, I gave in and bought a humidifier. I held out as long as I could, but once the skin on my face started to feel like it was being burned off with a blow torch because it was so dry, I finally conceded. Maybe humidity isn't such a bad thing after all.

The cold weather really isn't all that bad...so far. I think I might be singing a different tune come February or March when you're all at the beach and I'm still bundled in a marshmallow suit.  But for now, the cold weather really has me in the Christmas mood. A couple of weekends ago, a group of us went into the city, grabbed some hot chocolate and went to see the National Christmas tree.  The tree is terrible - if you've seen my pictures on Facebook, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But there's still something really special about seeing our nation's tree and having the White House in the background from one angle, or the Washington Monument in the background from another angle. It was one of those moments that made me stop and just really appreciate being here in that moment, with those people (obviously it would be better with all of you, but they're about as good of stand-ins as I could ask for).   On our way in, we stopped in the Willard downtown.  There's a lot of history stemming from that hotel - it's actually where the word "lobbying" came from because people would go wait in the lobby of the hotel to talk to the politicians about their causes.  But anyway, the inside of the Willard is spectacular on any normal day, and at Christmas time it just becomes so much better. The tree inside the Willard is actually better than the national tree...not that it's hard to beat though. I'm pretty sure my tree is also better than the national tree. But anyway, when we stopped in there, we stumbled upon a group of carolers. It was another one of those moments that just made me thankful to be standing there at that very moment.

So anyway, enough mush for now. I fly home tomorrow and I can't wait to see everybody this week.  I love DC, but I'm definitely more than ready for a dose of home. But for now, Merry Christmas.

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