Jess' Tour....A Flash of Washington, DC....Part I

Capital "hill" ....now I know why they call it "Capital Hill!" Jess dropped us off in front of the Capital, so we could get in line for our tour she had booked for us at the newly opened Capital Visitor Center. She ended up parking her car at her work in front of the Department of Education building and then walking/running back to the Capital building.

Standing in line waiting to get into the Visitor's Center. (Jess still wasn't back from parking her car. We were hoping she would get back in time to enter with us.) We were the next group to enter the building and she came down the steps to enter in time with us!

the dome

Portrait of Pocohonatas' Wedding

Nancy Pelosi's office

In the crypt...

Looking down onto the main floor of the Visitor's Center

Visitor Center Gift Shop

Looking up and out from the Visitor Center

Inside the Library of Congress

Standing next to a Christmas tree in the Library of Congress

One of Jessica's favorite places: The Library of Congress

Inside the Library of Congress, they had an exhibit of Thomas Jefferson's personal library. Very interesting to see his whole collection of books.

The construction in front of the Capital for the Inauguration on Jan. 20.

These signs were everywhere there was construction going on.

In front of the Capital Christmas tree.

Jessica's Tour: A Flash of Washington, DC.....part 2

Looking at the Washington Monument...a view from the front of the Capital building
Botanical Gardens

more Botanical Gardens...

Cactus

View of the Capital at dusk...

Food court inside the Native American Museum

This is the space Jess had her event in from work. She helped plan an event for Hispanic Business Association of Washington DC. There were over 200 people in attendance.

This is the building: Native American Museum where the event was held

From the Native American Museum, we took the metro at Union Station to near the White House. This is the building next to the White House; the Eisenhouwer Executive Office Building. This is the building where Jessica visited January 7 with people from work that did

work on the event at the Native American Museum.

Welcome to the White House

There was all kinds of construction going on right in front of the White House in preparation for the Inauguation on January 20 of President-elect Obama.

You can't see it very good, but we are standing in front of the White House.

The White House at night

National Christmas Tree and Washington Monument at night....We walked around the back of the White House where there was a long line of people standing in line waiting to get into the White House. Apparently, there was event President and Mrs. Bush were hosting (that, as Jess said, "We weren't invited to." haha...)

From the White House, we walked back to where we got the train and rode back to Union Station. There we visited the Starbucks where Jess gets coffee on her way to work in the morning. We also got to see a little sandwich shop (below) where she often has lunch.

Inside Union Station

Sandwich shop where they have yummy food.

Having ourselves a very Merry Christmas....

After a good night of sleep, we opened presents on Christmas morning.

It's always Jess' job to pass out the gifts.
We found this shirt for Jess, which she loved! She has been watching alot of MSU
games with one of her new friends. Yet, she's still a Michigan fan. :)

A new shirt and tie for Keith from Jess.

After our gifts were opened, we had to get the final preparations finished up for dinner. This is what the placesettings looked like. Nice napkin holders that were made by Jess. So, pretty!

Our guests arrived, and while we were finishing up waiting for the food to be baked in the oven, they entertained themselves playing cards in the living room. I believe one of the games they were playing was Dutch Blitz. This picture shows Alan, Erika, and Evamarie and Bethany, friends of Jess.

Alan and Erika, on the left and Gabe and Evamarie on the right.

Bethany and Hannah are in Jess' prayer group at church.

Our family

We sure had ourselves a VERY Merry Christmas in Virginia 2008!

Preparations....

Peanut butter pie was one of the tasty desserts Jess made. mmmm...
Cranberry sauce from scratch for the little individual molded salad cups she made. Yum!

Cheesey potatoes are all ready to bake.

I did ALOT of dishes that day...helping Jess with cleanup after she prepared the dishes.

Keith did some "deep cleaning" which he's great at!

After the food preparations were finished, Jess started making

her placecards to complete the table decorations.

Here are the name placecards all completed....it was

EARLY EARLY Christmas morning by that time. ;)

We were so proud of Jess and the nice dinner she prepared. She made all the food with the exception of the ham, which Erika Cropsey brought. We really enjoyed sharing Christmas dinner with her new friends. Everyone enjoyed themselves and, we had a great day together.

Lot's of great memories of Christmas 2008! (Thank you, Lord, we were able to make this trip!)

Welcome to Jess' House....All Decorated for Christmas....

Welcome to Jess' home!
Her housemate loves to decorate.

The gas fireplace at night all lit up. Pretty.

More pretty decorations in the living room.

Beautiful Christmas tree!

*For all the midwesterners, look out the window....NO SNOW! That made us very happy!

Oh the Joys of Traveling during the Holidays...

This is what our house and yard looked like when we left town late morning of December 23.

Since we saved literally hundreds of dollars by booking our flight out of Lansing

we ended up having to drive in some inclement weather.

After we arrived at Capital City Airport in Lansing, in order to park our car in the long-termparking lot, Keith had to shovel the parking space in order to park the car in the space! Just in case you are wondering if he's smiling or not, he is smiling about leaving the snowy weather for a few days. :)

After we checked our luggage in, we sat down and a few minutes later saw Jim Emery walking toward the check-in desk. They were also waiting for their flight out to Dallas via Chicago. Well, with the weather being the way it was, there ended up being over 400 flights cancelled in Chicago. We ended up spending quite a few hours with Jim and Marge. Fun times! Yes, we had a few laughs, even though we were all wondering if we would ever reach our destinations.

Our flight to Detroit was also cancelled, and we ended up leaving out of Lansing at about 6:30 p.m. They never did get out on the 23rd, but ended returning to Grand Rapids and flying out the next day with a different airline. They made it to Dallas the next evening, thankfully!

When we finally arrived in Detroit, we had missed our connecting flight to Dulles, so didn't end up leaving Detroit until after 11:00 PM. We didn't get into Dulles until around 1:15 a.m. Christmas Eve morning. We had been in contact with Jessica all day to keep her informed of our flight status. She was there to pick us up after we picked up our luggage. It was GREAT to finally get there, after a long day sitting in the airports. Thankful we were able to get there when we did.

White As Snow....

The month of December has arrived along with alot of snow! With snow, brings cold weather, hot chocolate/lattes, shoveling the driveway, and cleaning off the cars. For me, I prefer a nice sandy beach, warm temperatures, and sunshine! One can always dream, right?!? Don't get me wrong, I do think a picture of freshly fallen fluffy snow on the trees, etc. is beautiful. It makes me think of the song, "White As Snow," and how Jesus washes our sins away and makes us white as snow. With Christmas coming, I can't help but reflect on being white as snow.