Our last few weeks in Washington DC

Our last few weeks in Washington have been flying by. Here is some of what we have been doing in the lead up to Christmas and our departure.

In the last few days that Jeannie and Sophie were here we were given a guided tour of the Capitol by a staffer to Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz from Florida. Among other things, we saw the amazing interior of the dome and the frieze around it, which tells the story of American history, the crypt room, where George Washington was supposed to have been buried (he did not want this however and was instead buried at his home in Mount Vernon. We also saw the room which first housed the US Supreme Court, before it was moved to the building across the road.











We also paid another visit to the wonderful Botanical Gardens for their annual Christmas display. There is a display of working miniature trains, which weave their way around a giant Christmas tree as well as sculptures of famous buildings from Washington and around the world. All the building are made from various parts of nature, such as acorns, bark, leaves, seed pods, twigs etc. It is amazing to see the work that has gone into them!


The train encircles the Christmas tree, which is flanked by models of miniature Capitol hill houses.


The girls loved the model of the Capitol. The detail in it was fantastic.

The Smithsonian Castle

Here comes Thomas!

In the gardens outside we were lucky enough to see a blue jay and a cardinal, which is pictured below. They are so beautiful and have become my favourite bird while we are here.


James continued his tour of Presidential houses by going to see President Lincoln's summer house, in Northern Washington DC.


The girls met their friend Elena and Aidan at Lincoln Park for a live nativity scene, complete with hot chocolate, candy canes and carols. They enjoyed patting and feeding the animals, which included a baby llama, only 3 weeks old! (I'm not sure if llamas were actually present at the birth of Jesus or not, but it was very cute!)


Pia and Ella finished off their art class and ballet class. Ella's ballet class gave a little performance on their last day. Here she is with some of her classmates and teacher, Miss Heidi.






And here, Pia, shows some of her creations from her Ceramic Safari class.

We have also been to the Kennedy Center to see The Washington Chorus give a performance of Christmas songs and carols. The Kennedy Center is the official memorial to President Kennedy and is beautiful inside. It is set on the banks of the Potomac River. We were amazed to see when we went onto the terrace that the river is currently frozen. It doesn't seem that long ago the girls and I were cruising on it when Mum and Dad were here.





On Sunday, Santa paid a visit to Eastern Market and the girls had their photo
taken with him and wrote down their Christmas wishes for him.




Earlier that day we went to church at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (it's quite a mouthful!). This is an amazing church, one of the 10 largest in the world. Apparently all the Catholic parishes in the United States contributed to its building fund. The mosaics inside it are beautiful and there are many shrines to Mary, as you would expect, given the name of the Basilica.


James has also been on a day trip to Philadelphia and just today took the girls for their third visit to Mount Vernon, which you may have read about before here. James is planning to do an update on those 2 visits soon, so stay tuned for his post!