December

Brent found a recipe for a gingerbread cake with Guinness, so I made it. Twice. We took one to my company Christmas party, where I felt I had to warn people it contained two sticks of butter.

In December I flew to Washington D.C. for the RCAP national convention. The weather was gloomy but I still spent a lot of time between meetings walking around town and taking the subway. The highlight of the trip was the National Cathedral, which I walked to twice from my hotel at Wardman Park. It's absolutely stunning from all angles. It's been 16 years since I was in Paris, but the National Cathedral seems more beautiful even than Notre Dame.

I took the docent tour with a girl from Ireland who was in the country visiting her sister... who lives in Redlands, CA but was in D.C. on business. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon.

It was difficult to photograph all the interior details because of the light, and there were thousands. So much history and care.

Cathedral grounds.

Wisconsin Ave. townhouses.

National Cathedral from Wardman Park Marriott.

We went to Berkeley to see KU (Brent's alma mater) play Cal. It was a brutal game, and KU won, so we got out of town in a hurry since we were decked out in Jayhawk gear. It's tough to talk about this right now because KU got knocked out of the national championship last weekend in the Elite 8 round... March Madness is aptly named.

I found this Lanco ball watch at the antique mall a few blocks away. I mentioned it to Brent and he snuck off to look for it... but I hadn't described it well and he wasn't sure. We went over and picked it up on Christmas Eve. I'm spoiled.

Our first Christmas together... with a fireplace!