Red, White, And Blue Christmas
Rob and I were extremely privileged to be invited to the White House open house by our good friend Shayne. Rob and I jumped on the opportunity to go. While we could have brought the kids we thought it would be nice to take our first tour of the White House, especially with a 2 ½ year old and shiny decorations, by ourselves. So that morning I took Cameron over to Christy’s house. To my surprise he had no problem saying goodbye to me. So off I headed to the Springfield metro station to catch my train to DC, but off course this is the DC metro area and I hit some horrible traffic and missed my first train. I was lucky that there was another train about 15 minutes later. I haul it through the station and made my second train and then I was off. A few stops later this very handsome man got on the train. A few more stops and we were walking to the White House. First we had to get in line to see if we were on “The List” and show our id’s then we headed into the building where we had to go through security. After that we were basically on our own.
It was a self guided tour. We first headed down a wood paneled hallway and up a small set of stairs where the first of many Christmas trees was set up. There was also a wooden sleigh with Santa. Rob and I stopped by the tree to have our picture+of+Picture+010.jpg)
taken and then we were off. Down a long wreath lined hallway+of+Picture+014.jpg)
to an area decked out with a large bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by a garland filled with tons of red glass balls. In the other corner was a trio of singers caroling. As we moved through White House the halls were lined with collections of Christmas cards from Presidents past and photographs of poignant moments in Presidential history.
We then headed up a large staircase to the second floor. On the second floor we went through East Room. It is a large formal room used for State dinners, receptions, concerts and many other events. In this room was a portrait 0f George Washington. This portrait of Washington has been in the White House since it was first occupied in 1800. It was only removed once by Dolley Madison for safe keeping when the White House was burned in 1814. After that the Green room, the Red room, and the Blue room which housed the White House Christmas tree 
decorated with all of the state ornaments hand painted by artists from each of the 50 states, The Virgin Islands, and Guam. Beyond the Blue room is the State Dining Room. In there we were able to see the official White House gingerbread house. 
After leaving the Dining room the halls were filled with the voices of the Glenn Draper Singers. While marveling in more fabulous decorations and portraits of Presidents past (Regan, Clinton, Bush Sr. just to name a few) we listened to a few more carols and visited with Shayne before we headed back to the train. We did stop outside for a few more photos
and then headed back to our original destinations. Rob back to work and I headed to get the kiddos and get dinner ready. All in all it was truly a magical day and I know that we both enjoyed every minute of it. If you would like to know and see more there are a couple ways to do it. The White House's official website has a tour online here and on HGTV they are showing a tour of the White House decorated for the holidays here for the times they are airing it. One of the great things about this tour was that I was able to take pictures. I have literally hundreds (I believe I took over 300) of photos that I would love to share. But for whatever reason right now I am having difficulties with the two sites that I load my photos to. So for now you will have to live with a little teaser and I will get more up when I get things straight.
Rob and I were extremely privileged to be invited to the White House open house by our good friend Shayne. Rob and I jumped on the opportunity to go. While we could have brought the kids we thought it would be nice to take our first tour of the White House, especially with a 2 ½ year old and shiny decorations, by ourselves. So that morning I took Cameron over to Christy’s house. To my surprise he had no problem saying goodbye to me. So off I headed to the Springfield metro station to catch my train to DC, but off course this is the DC metro area and I hit some horrible traffic and missed my first train. I was lucky that there was another train about 15 minutes later. I haul it through the station and made my second train and then I was off. A few stops later this very handsome man got on the train. A few more stops and we were walking to the White House. First we had to get in line to see if we were on “The List” and show our id’s then we headed into the building where we had to go through security. After that we were basically on our own.
It was a self guided tour. We first headed down a wood paneled hallway and up a small set of stairs where the first of many Christmas trees was set up. There was also a wooden sleigh with Santa. Rob and I stopped by the tree to have our picture taken and then we were off. Down a long wreath lined hallway to an area decked out with a large bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by a garland filled with tons of red glass balls. In the other corner was a trio of singers caroling. As we moved through White House the halls were lined with collections of Christmas cards from Presidents past and photographs of poignant moments in Presidential history. We then headed up a large staircase to the second floor. On the second floor we went through East Room. It is a large formal room used for State dinners, receptions, concerts and many other events. In this room was a portrait 0f George Washington. This portrait of Washington has been in the White House since it was first occupied in 1800. It was only removed once by Dolley Madison for safe keeping when the White House was burned in 1814. After that the Green room, the Red room, and the Blue room which housed the White House Christmas tree decorated with all of the state ornaments hand painted by artists from each of the 50 states, The Virgin Islands, and Guam. Beyond the Blue room is the State Dining Room. In there we were able to see the official White House gingerbread house. After leaving the Dining room the halls were filled with the voices of the Glenn Draper Singers. While marveling in more fabulous decorations and portraits of Presidents past (Regan, Clinton, Bush Sr. just to name a few) we listened to a few more carols and visited with Shayne before we headed back to the train. We did stop outside for a few more photos and then headed back to our original destinations. Rob back to work and I headed to get the kiddos and get dinner ready. All in all it was truly a magical day and I know that we both enjoyed every minute of it. If you would like to know and see more there are a couple ways to do it. The White House's official website has a tour online here and on HGTV they are showing a tour of the White House decorated for the holidays here for the times they are airing it. One of the great things about this tour was that I was able to take pictures. I have literally hundreds (I believe I took over 300) of photos that I would love to share. But for whatever reason right now I am having difficulties with the two sites that I load my photos to. So for now you will have to live with a little teaser and I will get more up when I get things straight.
1 comment:
oh how fun and without having to tell anyone NO! :) Glad you both could enjoy such a lovely time together!!
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