NBA Wizards vs da Bulls

Tonight, Sam, Mike and I went to an NBA game at the Verizon Center in DC (3 nights in a row into DC). The local team, the Wizards, on a 4-game winning streak, were up against the Chicago Bulls. While the Bulls are nowhere near the team they were in the 90s with Michael Jordan, they are still a formidable force.

We knew it was going to be a good night when the National Anthem was sung by 4 members of the cast of Spamalot!

The Wizards got out to an 11-0 lead before the Bulls got on the Board. They worked their way back into the game and were up by more than 10 points in the 3rd quarter. The Wizards worked their way back into the game and got a one point lead with only a few minutes to go. The Bulls then scored 11 points in a row to win by 10 points.

We were high up, but had a great view of the game. They fly blimps around inside and there is plenty of other entertainment on during the breaks in the game. At one stage, they were doing a competition right near us, and if you look carefully, you can see Sam's head on the big screen between the 2 guys.

You may wonder what these symbols on the big screen are about. They are the symbol of the NFL Dallas Cowboys and bring an instant Boo to the entire arena. Very creative, as the Dallas Cowboys are one of those teams that you love or hate, there is absolutely no fence-sitting (a bit like the Power I guess).

Spamalot

Tonight, Mike, Jennifer, Liz and I went to the Washington DC National Theatre to see the Monty Python Musical Spamalot, looslely based upon Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

We started with dinner at a local Chili's, where Mike learned what a 'small' meal in the US actually means.

Then it was on to the Metro and into DC.

The National Thetare is a beautifully restored theatre and the venue was nice and intimate. Which brings me to the show.

It is the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their quest to find the Holy Grail.There were coconuts, corpse-collectors, the Lady of the Lake (yes she makes an appearance), peasants and their battles with the violence inherent in the system, a black knight, a large wooden rabbit, French Taunters, Swallows, a flying cow, Tim the Enchanter, the Knights who say Ni, shrubberies, ...

We had a lot of fun, and there was some new stuff amongst the favourites. They even snuck in a bit of Life of Brian, and Finland, Finland, Finland.

The White House Christmas Tree (and other Christmas lights)

Every December, a spectacular Christmas Tree is set up on the Ellipse outside of the White House. It is surrounded by smaller trees representing each of the states (and territories). There are large electic trains set up underneath the tree. We (the 5 of us, plus Mike & Jennifer), headed into DC tonight to see the tree. As you can see it was a bitterly cold night, so we were quick. You can see the Washington Monument and the White House in the background of some of the shots.

Next stop was the Australian Embassy, with its own lights (a surfin' Santa).

On the way home, we looked at some of the Christmas lights set up outside of houses and businesses. One house in particular near us (on the unfortunately named Collingwood Drive), has a huge number of lights, which are synchronized to music broadcast over their own local FM station. There were Dolphins, Deer, plenty of trees and stars. It was very spectacular, and lots of vehicles were stopping by to have a look.

Another Visitor

Not only had Mike graced our presence for a few days, but so has our friend from Annapolis, Jennifer. She is now down in Mississippi, but was in the area for a few days and took the opportunity to visit us at our place and also catch up with Mike.

Tonight we attended our church's Christmas potluck dinner and Cantanta. There were a lot of people there (it's amazing what a bit of food can do).

Piano Recital

This afternoon, the girls had a piano recital at the home of their music teacher. Gemma opened the program with some Christmas Songs (Ode to Joy, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Jolly Old St Nicholas), and Alyssa closed the program with three of her own choice (Innocence, Dance of the Hours, La Donna Mobile). There were 8 kids in between and when it was all done, the teacher asked if anyone would like to play again (rhetorically), and Gemma said she would love to. So she played Ode to Joy again (perfectly I might add). SHe has certainly got over her problem with performing in front of crowds.

We then enjoyed afternoon tea with the performers and their fans (6 of the 10 are from our street).

Mike Makes it!

Today (rather tonight, very late), Mike made it to Dulles. After a 6 hour delay due to a cancelled flight from LAX, and the concurrent loss of luggage, I met up with Mike in the terminal where we registered his missing luggage before heading home in the "monster storm" that had been predicted (actually, it was nothing more than a bit of rain).

He was none the worse for wear for his 32 hour ordeal, and made quite a few friends along the way. At one point during the afternoon, he called and I thought he said he was in Dulles when he was actually in Dallas!

Great to break our drought of Aussie visitors (which will turn into a flood in January with no less than 8 Aussies making the treck to Chez Bird). Mike came bearing gifts from Australia, amongst which were the precious Minties, a delicacy we have been unable to source here in DC (unlike Tim Tams which are available in a number of spots around town), and a footy stats book which will keep Sam entertained for days.

A Christmas Gathering

Tonight we got together with our LifeGroup from Church for a meal and a White Elephant Christmas. As you can see, some of the gifts were quite spectacular, and a good time was had by all.

Leaves

Today was Leaf day in our household. I spent about 8 hours mowing, blowing and sucking up leaves from both the front and back yards, and filled about 30 bags in the process, which you can see neathly arranged ready for collection. Today was one of the few days where it was sufiicienly dry to gather the leaves. Liz and Alyssa had done some of the preliminary work, but both yards were still covered in leaves. As darkness fell, I filled the last bag. Some of our trees still have some leaves on them, but I am told that they never lose all of their leaves. We'll see if that's the truth in a couple of weeks.

Due to our warmer than normal weather (apart from the snow last week!), the trees have been rather confused, but most of the leaves have all come down at nearly the same time. Worse, some of the bulbs in our garden think it's spring.

Christmas

No, I haven't got the date wrong on this post. Beacuse we will be in Utah for Christmas and the New Year), we decided to do Christmas early, at least as far as the gift giving goes, so we didn't have to drag all the stuff across to Utah, then back again.

We all did really well, thanks to our recent trip to Europe (lots of Dr Who stuff) and the general cheapness of things over here.

Here you can see the kids showing off some of their gifts from back home.

The White House

This morning, Liz and I got to visit the White House and the East Wing.

The White House itself is a fairly small building (all the important stuff happens in the West Wing which we weren't able to visit). It was decorated for Christmas, and the indoor White House Christmas tree is amazing. We were able to tour the enire ground floor. We visited all the "coloured" rooms - red, green etc. The view from the central front is amazing with the Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument clearly visible. We spent well over an hour working our way through the rooms and had to keep reminding ourselves where we were. Major events in 20th century history happened in some of thise rooms.

Now to work on a West Wing tour ...

The White House is closed to the general public and only available by special arrangement. One of the restrictions is no cameras. The photos I have pasted here are courtesy of WikiPedia.

Bells

No, not a Monty Python skit, but handbells.

Liz and some of the ladies of church have been meeting on Sunday afternoons and making strange noises. Today they were unleashed on the world (well church at least). And they were pretty good (and had a great time in the process).

Each has two bells they need to sound (and silence) in time. There are also techniques to starting, finishing and keeping count. They did very well with their Level 1 pieces and challenged themselves with a Level 3 piece as well. As you can see, it takes a lot of concentration and teamwork.