I’m just about to turn the calendar page and celebrate another birthday.  For the record, having a birthday in January is not exactly ideal. If you think about it, the calendar pages are pretty full in October, November, December and right in to the first day of January.  By the time my birthday rolls around in mid January, people are burned out.

Each year for the past several years I’ve published a list of Christmas quotes; a list of inspiration if you will. It’s no surprise that I think the past couple of years, in particular, have found many of us in need of a little extra dose of holiday inspiration; something to help us find joy in the moment while we hold on to hope for the future. Maybe some sort of Christmas miracle?  Or, at the very least a beautiful Christmas melody to make us smile and cry with emotion at the same time.

Because Washington, DC is almost in our backyard and because it’s that festive time of year, we took ourselves on a fun holiday outing to the United States Botanic Garden.  But, wait!  What happened to the month of November? How did we get to December so quickly?  Is it just me?

One could easily spend an entire month exploring Washington, DC.  The list of places to see and visit is beyond extensive and with 19 Smithsonian Museums to explore, that’s 19 days right there!  The memorials, the food scene, the nearby historical homes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as well as Harper’s Ferry and other significant places in history, a month’s time would fly by in the blink of an eye.

His sign read, “I’m 91 years old and I’ve never protested before today.”  The daily headlines exclaimed hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of the United States from coast to coast on the last day of the month of June 2018. With a message of opposition to the current administration and a resounding message that all immigrants are welcome, the people marched.

In full disclosure The National Portrait Gallery is not exactly off the beaten path in Washington, DC.  But, I’m betting you don’t hear as much about the gallery as you do other museums in the city.  Case in point.  The National Portrait Gallery had 831,000 visits in 2017 while the National Air and Space Museum had 1.6 million visits.  (Smithsonian Visitor Statistics) So, yeah, in my book it’s a bit off the beaten path.

When you think of Washington, DC, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? The DC Murals, right? Ha! I’m betting your answer was politics.

When most people think of Washington, DC, politics is probably the first thing that comes to mind.  It’s only natural.  But, here’s the thing, the city has so much more to offer, that politics really does seem to take a back seat on most days.  Don’t ever let the current political vibe dissuade you from visiting such a beautifully diverse city.

I hate to admit it but we’ve been living just outside of Washington, DC for the past 3 1/2 years and it was only just today that we finally made it to Ben’s Chili Bowl – the iconic diner.

We continue to wait.  Six weeks plus three days and counting…  To silence the inner countdown clock, if even for just a few hours, we took ourselves on a bit of an adventure to Great Falls National Park where we took a good long hike and spent the afternoon communing with Mother Nature.  And then we stuffed ourselves with hamburgers, fries and a decadent milk shake topped with whipped cream and a cherry.  It did the trick.  Unfortunately, today the inner countdown clock is ticking louder than ever.

It should come as no surprise that I am a lover of the written word; of books.  No matter how many times we pack up and move, there are a dozen boxes of books that move with us.  Over the years I’ve downsized as much as I can, but I have my collection of true loves and I will never part with them.  So, with that thought in mind, if it’s possible to be in love with a library, then I am hopelessly in love with the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.