a little dose of christmas cheer from...

...non other than the President of the United States.

Tim surprised me yesterday with the possibility of a ticket to the National Christmas Tree Lighting. I guess that since the Park Police were working the event that tickets were available to their friends and family, so he got me one this morning. Thankfully, convincing my boss to let me leave work two hours early to attend wasn't difficult at all.

Here's Tim at work:

Now, what I didn't plan for was the weather. It was almost 60 degrees today, so it didn't occur to me that it would dip to 40 degrees once the sun set. Needless to say that earmuffs, and a heavier jacket, and maybe even some fleece socks would have certainly been nice. At one point I thought about tackling one of the volunteers that were walking around handing out hand warmers (apparently they were just for the important people). It was coooooold, and even now that I'm home, and comfy, I still don't think my toes have thawed.

Now to the seats. I had fantastic seats! I had a "white" ticket, which put me in the reserved seated section in the 12th row. Twelve rows back from the stage, directly in front of the box the president and his family were sitting in. How cool is that?

Randy Jackson hosted the evening, with performances by Jordan Sparks (of American Idol fame), Sheryl Crow, Ray Lamontagne, Common, Celtic Women, and some local school quires. The Marine Corps Band accompanied.

Here's a picture of Sheryl Crow:

Speaking of Ray Lamontagne, Tim and I really like his music and neither of us knew he would be there. Tim, however, had never actually seen what he looked like. Apparently while Tim was on duty, Ray was standing right next to him the whole time prior to performing and Tim didn't even realize it. In fact, he didn't realize who it was until they announced him and Ray walked up on stage. Needless to say, Tim's a little disappointed about not getting to say "Hey, Ray." I think that's kinda funny.

And lastly...here's the tree :)



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And in other non-news, for those of you missing your Oliver updates...here's proof that he's still doing nothing and getting lazier by the day :)