Christmas Vacay!

So now that I'm a working girl I used the first of my vacation days and took the week after Christmas off.  I headed home on Christmas Eve and spent the next few days with the fam.  We had a great Christmas, church, yummy Christmas dinner, Marley & Me and some other good movies.  After the family time I headed to Birmingham, Alabama to meet up with the "Core Four" aka Sarah, Melissa and Karen.  The girls and I met up for one night of fun!  We went shopping, ate at Outback and then headed out to the Five Points area of Birmingham.  Little did we know that there was a bowl game going on in Birmingham the next day, Rutgers vs. NC State.  People didn't understand that we weren't there for the game.  It was so good to see the girls.  One of the few things I don't like about DC is that they're not here!

After returning from Birmingham, my Mom and I headed to Atlanta to watch the Tigers play in the Chick Fil A Bowl.  We met up with some friends from Baton Rouge and headed to the Atlanta Civic Center to see a King Tut exhibit.  No photos from that, but it was amazing to see all the ancient jewelry and other things in the collection.  That night we headed to the Atlanta Aquarium.  I won't lie...I LOVE aquariums.  I think they're absolutely beautiful and I love watching the fish swim around.  The Atlanta Aquarium was particularly nice, with lots of interesting exhibits.

The next morning we headed to the Chick Fil A Bowl parade.  It was fun, a few too many Shriners in tiny cars.  The best part of parade was of course the LSU Band!  After the parade we went to Fanfest where I met up with Melinda and her family!  We watched Les Miles and the team walk through and listened to the band play some more.  Then we got our faces painted...I just got a Tiger on one cheek and Melinda got her whole face painted--just like 2005!  Post-Fanfest we headed to our ozone layer seats...seriously they were so high up!  

What a game!  Sorry George Tech, LSU finally came together as a team!  Looks like we found a quarterback!  Since it was New Year's Eve, after the game we headed back to the hotel just in time to get some gin and tonics and watch the ball drop.  The next morning we headed back to Irmo and a few days later I headed back to DC!  

What a great vacation!  Not relaxing at all, but soooo much fun!

(Photos coming soon!!)

Christmas...DC and Beyond!

Hi everyone!  Sorry to be so late with this Christmas blog, but as soon as Christmas was over it was back to the real world and I got busy.  Now let's talk about Christmas!  Thanks again to Michelle for beginning the festivities with her Christmas cookie party. The next weekend, Sarah, Amy and I headed north...to the Big Apple!  It was my first trip to NYC and we had a GREAT time!  We left bright and early on Saturday morning, taking the DC to NY bus.  BTW the bus is the way to go...much cheaper than the train and almost as fast.  We didn't hit any traffic until the Lincoln Tunnel.  Our bus driver made the trip a great one...he said such memorable phrases as "we do what we do" and "make sure you get back on the right bus, you'll know because it's the cool bus."  

And the bus was called "Destiny" so of course we made of lot of "it must be destiny" jokes.

Once we arrived in the city (and walked past Macy's) we were starving, so after hopping off 

of the subway we looked around for a place to eat.  We stumbled upon a diner called Eat Here Now.  So we did.  Then we headed to the apartment we rented. It was great!  Right on Lexington Ave., a block from the subway...

awesome!  After dropping off our stuff we headed to Rockefeller Center to be the ultimate New York tourists.  We walked inside 30 Rock and all around the outside.  We saw the tree and the ice skating rink.  There were sooooo many people.  I've never experienced human gridlock...YIKES!  

Before leaving the area we stopped by Magnolia Bakery for some cupcakes...it was just like Lazy Sunday.  We loved those cupcakes like 

McAdams loves Gosling.

After Rockefeller we headed to Times Square.  By this time our feet were frozen so we made

 our way into the Virgin Records store and looked around for awhile.  

While there I got a call from my cousin Dana.  After figuring out where Dana and my other cousin Meredith live we headed to the East Village to meet up with them.  

After hanging out at their place for a little while we headed to a delicious sushi restaurant.  After dinner we were exhausted so we headed back to the apartment and caught some ZZZs.

The next day we woke up and headed to breakfast at Alice's Tea Cup, an Alice in Wonderland

themed restaurant.  Our breakfast was so good...and the tea was delish! After breakfast we headed to 5th Avenue to see the Christmas windows. Our favorite was the Cartier window...jewels popping out of animatronic boxes...yes please!  We decided to hit up Bergdorf's (I felt like I was in Gossip Girl!).  Sarah and I both picked up some Lollia hand creme...it's awesome and smells great.  We then hit Central Park.  It's so beautiful!  

After grabbing some delicious hot dogs and awful pretzels we headed back to the apartment to pick up our stuff.  We then caught the bus and headed back to DC. New York was fun, but DC truly is home sweet home.  And don't get me started on the NYC subway system...I LOVE THE METRO!

After all the fun we had in NYC, I needed some DC Christmas in my life.  So one day after work, Amy and I headed over to the National Christmas tree.  That's one of the coolest things about working in DC...we're only one block away from the White House and just around the corner from the Washington Monument.  

The National Christmas tree was so beautiful and covered in tons lights.  There were also Christmas trees from all 50 states and all US provinces.  I made sure to look for the trees of my favorite states...South Carolina, Louisiana and my new home state, Maryland.  There was also a nice, warm fire....a Yule Log, or as we like to call it...a Mule Log.

Christmas Cookies!

Riddle me this...what's more Christmasy than baking Christmas cookies? NOTHING! So imagine my excitement when my co-worker Michelle invited myself, Amy and Sarah over to her house to bake some yummy cookies. All we had to do was bring a recipe and a smile :) I really wanted to make mint choclate chip cookies, but the Safeway grocery store didn't have any mint choclate chips. Needless to say I was pretty bummed. Instead I bought some red and green striped choclate chips....festive, but not mint. Oh well.

After the grocery store we made our way to the Eastern Market area of DC (so cute!) to Michelle's house that she shares with four other roommates. Once there we began our baking. This is the part of the story where I want to drop a hint to all the bakers out there: olive oil does not equal vegetable oil!!! When we couldn't find the veggie oil, we thought "We'll use olive oil...same thing right." The answer is NO! What resulted is what we now refer to as--cookie blob.

After the disaster that was cookie blob, we decided to follow the recipe on the back of the choclate chip package...our perfect cookies came out of the oven just a few minutes later. We hung out for awhile, ate some cookies and chatted by the fire. Very cozy DC evening!

After leaving Michelle's we had plans to go see the national Christmas tree. We made it to the parking area around the tree, but not to the actual tree. It was soooooo cold that we only made it about 20 steps from the car. We decided we were not dressed for the cold and would come back another, not as cold, day to see the tree.

New Posts Coming Soon!

So to be honest...I hadn't been doing anything "blog worthy" until last weekend. So...get ready for two fun blogs coming your way this week!

First Snow!

While sitting at work today I looked out the window and to my surprise saw some snow falling!  It was just a few flurries and only lasted for a few minutes, but was the first time I've seen snow so early in the year.  I'm sure it was just the beginning of more to come!

My Top 10 Best Days Since Moving to DC

10. Every Sunday: The Pen15 Club might not have won our kickball division, but I think we had the most fun! I also think we were the best flip cuppers out there. Playing in the shadow of the Washington Monument is pretty awesome. Although I was glad to have my Sundays back at the end of the season, when the spring rolls around I'll be ready to get back out on the field.

9. Pumpkin Carving: Amy invited Sarah M. and I over to her house to carve pumpkins. I'd been missing Louisiana and after a conversation with Karen decided that I should try to make a fleur de lis pumpkin. I think it turned out rather well!

8. ICFJ Awards Dinner: It was a VERY long day, but what an amazing opportunity. Meeting George Stephanopoulos, Christiane Amanpour, George Irish and so many other amazing media people. Also hearing the speeches of the Award winners Aliaksei Karol of Belarus and Frank Nyakairu of Uganda was amazing. After spending a week with them and their families it was wonderful hearing them do so well and seeing others react to all the amazing things they've done.

7. Leesburg Outlet Mall: Do I really need to explain this one? Let's just say Amy and I had a very productive trip.

6. Hiking Great Falls: Amy, Elizabeth and I headed to Great Falls, VA and hiked all over the place. The trail was amazing...there were tons of rocks to climb all over. My favorite was hiking to the top of a tall rock that overlooked the river. We ate a picnic lunch and had a fantastic day in the wilderness.

5. My Birthday Weekend: So I know it's technically not one day, but it was a fantastic weekend! On my actual birthday I had to work, but the gals at the office bought me a delicious cupcake! You know it's bad news when Sarah M. and I go out, and that's exactly what happened on Friday. We started out going to The Space, this really random bar/event space by the convention center. It was a fundraiser for New Orleans so it was filled with Louisiana people...and one random guy from California who tried to tell us that USC was better than LSU. Did he realize where he was? After that, we of course ended up at Rumors...which is basically just a DC version of Fred's. Some of the guys from the LSU Alumni group joined us and we had a blast dancing to some great music. I spent most of Saturday recovering from Friday night. Saturday we went to Bourbon in Adams Morgan to celebrate. Turns out I was was too tired to do much celebrating...oh well it was still a great weekend!

4. Halloween: What's better than dressing up for Halloween once? Dressing up for Halloween twice of course! I went as a "Greek Goddess," toga and all, Amy went as a '80s rocker, but Sarah M. won best costume: Hannah Montana! On Halloween we went to a party at at friend of Sarah's. The party was great and we had fun meeting some new people. We tried to go out after the party...but the line to get into the bar was too long. Instead we ended up next door at a pizza place. And one slice just wasn't enough! The next night was my kickball end of season party at True Story in Adams Morgan. I have a feeling the bar didn't know what it was getting itself into...open bar with WAKA in attendance...not a good idea.

3. Misty's Trip to DC: Oh how I missed this girl! While Misty and Amy went to NKOTB I rested up for all the fun I knew we would have over the next few days. On Friday I met the ladies in Georgetown. The next day we played tourist and walked all over the city. We visited the Korean, Lincoln and Vietname Memorials, the Washington Monument, the Capitol and Union Station. Come back soon Misty!

2. Georgetown Boat Club: We were invited to the White House Photographer's BBQ at the Georgetown Boat Club. After spending the afternoon chowing down on hot dogs and hamburgers we sat on the dock of the club and watched the sun set over the Potomac. The boat club is on the river right below the Key Bridge. After dancing to the band we headed further into Georgetown in search of cupcakes, but all the cupcake shops were closed. Instead we went to a small pub and watched Michael Phelps win his billionth gold medal...Go Team USA!

1. Labor Day: This was without my favorite day of the past few months. It's hard to beat a day off of work, but Sarah M., Amy and I made the most of it. We knew we wanted to get out and do something touristy so we decided to stop at Cosi, grab lunch to go and head to the Iwo Jima Memorial. After finally making it to the memorial (it was hard to figure out how to drive to it) we sat in the shade and ate our lunch. I think we were all surprised at how big the memorial is, it definitely looks smaller in pictures. Next to the memorial is a bell tower given to the US by the Netherlands. We were able to climb to the top of the tower and were greeted

by one of the best views of DC I've ever seen. We were even more surprised to find out that we managed to get to the tower on a day where we could watch a guy play the bells. That's the thing I've discovered about DC...there's always something going on. After the memorial and bell tower we headed to Georgetown and visited the Old Stone House, DC's oldest building. It was this day that we developed our "DC To Do List" full of fun things that we want to do in the District. I'm sure I'll spend time filling this blogs with stories about the things on that list!

My First Blog!

Hi Everyone!

So I decided (after some prodding by my Dad) that I'm having too many great experiences in DC to not write them down and share them with others. So I'm starting a blog. I figure I make all my Fellows at work do it, so I might as well too!

I'll use this to document all the fun times I'm having here in DC...so look for updates soon!

Love,

Emily