Merry Christmas from The District Darling

The week before Christmas, our Christmas party extravaganza continued in the Lyles' household. John's work party was held at Local 16 which is just a short walk away from our house. There was hot spiked cider, festive appetizers and good conversation to be had. 

Later that week we had a small dinner party with our friends, the Browns, before they headed down South to spend the holidays with their family. Laura cooked a fabulous meal, I made homemade fudge, and we watched Christmas Vacation to top off a wonderful evening. 

Then, at the end of the week, our landlord and neighbor, Albert, threw a grand party for us and the other residents of our building. Since there are only a few of us, it was  small gathering and full of good food (Albert made his "World Famous Bean Soup") and good wine. We truly are fortunate to have such a fun group of neighbors in our little Dupont abode. 

John was off for Christmas this year and boy, was I glad. We kickstarted our Christmas vacation by taking a walk through the National Zoo for Zoolights (it's free through Jan 1). It was rather impressive and spanned a large majority of the zoo grounds and even included a petting zoo. The twinkling lights plus live music and piping hot funnel cake made for a perfect, laid-back holiday date. 

We spent the rest of the days leading up to Christmas sitting in front of our cozy fireplace, eating homemade icebox spiral cookies, and watching way too many Christmas movies (well- I mean, is there really such a thing as "too many"?). 

Then, in the blink of an eye, Christmas was here. I must admit, it was different not being surrounded by our families- but it still sweet spending it with the one who I love the most, and dear Henry Wyatt of course. This year, since I didn't have the support of family- I prepared the whole Christmas feast, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day included, with the help of my spectacular sous chef John (he doesn't trust my knife/chopping skills just yet, plus he's the master of cleaning up my catastrophic kitchen messes). 

On Christmas Eve, after the church service (where there was a live nativity) we had a huge appetizer spread (thanks to my big brother), then made:Christmas pizzas topped with red and green veggies, Italian sausage, and mozzarella served with a tossed salad with cinnamon-sugar pecans, pears, cranberries, goat cheese, and homemade vinaigrette using the cinnamon pear vinaigrette we purchased at the Filling Station during our NYC trip last month (whew, that was a run on sentence if I've ever seen one). Yummy!

Then it was time for our Christmas Eve tradition.  For the past two Christmases we've given each other pajamas, I give John a Christmas book, he gives me a Christmas movie and then we feast on cookies and eggnog and/or cocoa (with extra marshmallows, of course) while we watch said Christmas movie. Then, we finish off the evening by reading the Christmas book. It's a tradition that I love and look forward to continuing throughout the years. This year, I gave John the Grinch Who Stole Christmas book and he gave me A Charlie Brown Christmas for our Christmas Eve movie. I also snagged the cutest PJ shirt that has little Westies all over it. Crazy dog mom, right here. 

Even Henry got to open a Christmas Eve gift compliments of my Mother. 

The next day, we had Christmas breakfast (breakfast sausage casserole, homemade cinnamon doughnuts with browned butter glaze, orange juice with champagne ice cubes, and coffee), opened gifts and unloaded our Christmas stockings. I was of course, taken aback by the thoughtful nature that John put into the gifts that he gave. My favorite gift being a necklace that spells "love" in Morse Code. You guys, I've got a romantic-that's for sure. 

After we got done opening all of our gifts, trying on all of our new threads, and giggling over Henry walking around the house in his new snow boots- the cooking started back up. The lunch menu included: cranberry-pear sauce, skillet apple stuffing, brown sugar glazed ham, sweet potato casserole, asparagus with balsamic butter sauce and a pistachio cake. I was honestly surprised- it all turned out, was warm when served and the only thing that was burned was a small portion of my right palm. 

After our feast, we were on our way to see a Christmas Day movie. We had originally intended to see Into the Woods, but since it was sold out- we opted for Mr. Turner at the local independent movie theater, E Street Cinemas. After eating so much, sitting down in a comfy seat while watching a movie on the big screen was much needed. 

Friday, we finally made it around to touring our neighborhood art gallery, The Phillips Collection which happens to be one of the most prestigious in the nation. It features works by Degas, O'Keefe, Van Gogh, and Monet to name a few.  We also received a pleasant surprise when we were told that weekends are free admittance (excluding any special exhibitions)! 

Saturday, we continued our museum appreciation tour by going to the Freer and Sackler Galleries on the mall. One of my favorite pieces of art that I saw wasn't really a single piece, but a room rather- the Peacock Room. It was absolutely beautiful and the pottery that adorned the walls was the icing on the cake.

That night, we toasted to the end of a wonderful, fabulous, first Christmas spent together in D.C. over some of the best margaritas in town at Cafe Oaxaca (which was reminiscent since it's the first place that we had dinner as D.C. residents earlier this year). 

I just love my little family and there's nothing more perfect than spending the holiday with them. I hope that your holiday season was just as wonderful! Cheers to another fabulous week in the District!