Merry Christmas - Christmas Eve 2007

Yesterday was a very nice day. As I mentioned in the last post, we had planned to spend the day much like we did on our first Christmas in DC by ourselves. And we did.

Our first stop was the ice rink just outside the National Gallery of Art . It was pretty crowded with skaters and we enjoyed watching everyone having fun. Although Jim really wanted to see the Zamboni. After we finished watching the skaters, we headed over to the museum to see the Edward Hopper exhibit. Nighthawks is one of his most famous paintings and it was really something to see it for real.

Once we were done with that we headed towards the National Christmas tree.....but wait! They were clearing the ice rink.....could it be? Yes!! They were bringing out the Zamboni. Jim's inner child took over so I told him to go on and run ahead, I'd catch up. Camera in hand, he trotted off. He cracks me up sometimes. We sat on the cold ledge of the ice rink while the Zamboni driver smoothed out the ice. When he was finally done the skaters were chomping at the bit to get back on the ice. After watching them resume skating we got up to continue our stroll to see the tree.

We arrived at the tree just as the sun began to set. Jim took this picture of the back of the White House. I love how he caught the last rays of sun reflecting off the building. He also took this one of the Washington Monument.
Then we turned our focus on the National Christmas Tree and all the little state trees that surround it. The National Tree is a live tree planted in the 1970's and now stands just over 41 feet in height.Both of us are from Tennessee so we took this shot of the Tennessee State tree decorated with purple iris, the state flower.Now remember be mentioning that we sat on the cold ledge of ice rink? Well, my ass was still frozen from it so I headed over to the Yule Log, actually a huge pit filled with huge logs and very toasty warm. A few minutes facing the fire then a few minutes with my back facing the warmth and I felt much better.By now the sun was set, the full moon on the rise and we had dinner reservations at Corduroy waiting for us. It was about a 7 block walk and I debated taking a cab since I was a little tired. After spending 4 weeks laid up with my neck problems, I wasn't completely back up to par. But after a few minutes rest on a bench in front of the White House I decided to walk. It was a nice evening, the streets weren't crowded and we took our time.

We arrived at Corduroy with enough spare time to enjoy a pre-dinner drink. Champagne for me and Murphy's Stout for Jim. (Oh, ok, we had two each). By the time our glasses were empty it was time for dinner. My favorite appetizer of all on the menu is the lobster salad with basil oil. OMG it's so good. Diced lobster meat mixed topped with micro greens and drizzled with basil oil. The only other appetizers that tempt me are the soups which change seasonally or the Salad of Beets, Baby Carrots and Goat Cheese.

Since we were both ordering seafood as our entrees, we selected a bottle of Aubry Brut Champagne to go with it. Wonderful stuff and like most of the wine list at Corduroy, the mark up isn't bad at all.

Jim selected the Striped Bass served with kabocha squash seasoned with Thai spices. The bass, as always, was cooked to perfection. The squash was very tasty and had a nice light bite of heat to it from the Thai seasoning. I ordered my favorite entree, Seared Sea Scallops, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Chardonnay sauce. Sweet delicious scallops each sitting atop a pillow of the smoothest, creamiest garlic mashed potatoes ever and surrounded by the rich, tasty Chardonnay sauce and mushrooms. It's heaven on a plate.Too full for dessert, we ask Katt, our server extraordinaire, for our bill and wished her a Merry Christmas. We were full, happy and tired. It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve together. After we got home we spent a little bit watching TV then went to bed. I slept like a rock and don't even remember my head hitting the pillow.

Merry Christmas everyone. Tomorrow I'll post about our Christmas dinner, roasted capon with saffron and lemon. I'll just say this much tonight, *brpp* it was delicious.