Monday, November 30, 2009

19 hours.

Why 19 hours? Oh that is just the number of hours I spent in a car this weekend. I think I will be completely content if I never have to get in a car again. However, it was all worth it for the amazing Thanksgiving "break" I had. I say "break" in quotation marks because when you have a real job you don't really get anymore "breaks." I went home the night before Thanksgiving right after work which was just in time for me to catch rush hour at every major city between here and my home - woohoo. As soon as I got home I joined my mom in the kitchen for some serious baking. I made three new flavors of cupcakes - gingerbread, eggnog, & chocolate candy cane - all available at Lil Tubbies Bake Shop. I think they turned out pretty good...


Thanksgiving was delicious as usual, but it was a little sad because my dad's side of the family is spread out everywhere so we did not get to spend the holiday with everyone. Friday morning Brie and I got up early, as in 8 am, for a quick shopping spree before we headed up to National Harbor with my aunt and uncle. Let me just say that National Harbor (though it was freezing) was AWESOME. We stayed at the Gaylord Hotel and I think it is one of the prettiest hotels I have ever been to. It was all decked out for Christmas and they had a tree lighting, fireworks, a choir, fake snowfall, a "dive-in" movie theater at the pool where they played Christmas movies, and a fountain light show every night. And my favorite part was the Peeps hide and seek - they had peeps hidden all over the hotel atrium.

Here is what the atrium looked like during the day...
A peep hanging out on the roof!
A night shot...

On our first night at the hotel we went out and explored all the little shops at National Harbor which is where I discovered my favorite store EVER...the Peeps store!!Then we of course tried out the local cupcakes from Cake Love. I gotta say I was not impressed. Maybe I'm turning into a cupcake snob but they just didn't do it for me and they paled in comparison to NYC cupcakes. From left to right is red velvet, chocolate raspberry, german chocolate, lemon swirl, and peanut butter banana. I wouldn't recommend any of them...they serve them cold and preface your cupcake experience by saying that they taste best at room temperature. I took that little preface as an excuse as to why their cupcakes sucked. We tried them cold and then again at room temp...they didn't get any better. Nice try Cake Love.The next day we got up and went to a little Christmas market in the middle of National Harbor, revisited the Peeps store (how could you resist?!), and then went to the ICE! exhibit. It was so cool...literally! The place was 9 degrees so you had to wear special parkas (those trendy blue things you will see in the pictures below) and you got to go through an entire museum of ice sculptures. Apparently these Chinese artisans flew in and did all of the sculptures by hand. They even had an ice slide! When we went in I wanted to get my picture with a penguin and I got a little too excited and accidentally knocked his nose off. Oops! Now I know why my mom always made me keep my hands to myself in stores. Here's the moment captured on camera...

My uncle with the penguin (notice the nose)
Right after my accident - note my look of shock.
The nose!

Ummmm...hope I don't get in trouble for that! Accidents happen...haha. Later that night we took a light show of DC which I interpreted to be a light show, like Christmas lights. It turns out it was a 4 hour history lesson. Think 8th grade DC field trip and sub zero temperatures. Yep. We made the best of it though. The next morning we packed up our things and headed back. My aunt and uncle are seriously the best, Brie and I had SO much fun. I wish I was going to the Peeps store tomorrow instead of work...

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