Nickolas went to the White House today for his first time! We had the privilege to take a tour of the White House holiday decorations with our co-workers. Making it even more special, the theme this year was "Holiday in the National Parks", the National Park Service being an agency with the Department of the Interior where Dan and Aimee work (and met - haha). So, we felt it fitting to take our little Buffalo (the bison being the mascot for Interior) for a tour. Unlike other years, our tour began at 5:30 so it was dark outside at the time. Overall, it was very pretty with all of the lights and various gold-leaf decoration that all had a nature theme and Nickolas had a great time looking around at every sparkly decoration.
Nickolas toured the East Wing Corridor with its pretty pine cone wreaths, the Vermeil Room (home to many First Lady's portraits) as well as the room where President Roosevelt had his fire-side chats. The East Room was beautiful and the echoes of a children's choir were heard throughout. He toured the Green Room, the Red Room, and gazed all the way to the top of the huge tree in the Blue Room. We never saw a tree so large and full in that room before. It was decorated with hand-painted ornaments from a majority of the nearly 400 National Park units. The State Dining room was very lovely. What was incredible was this year's White House gingerbread house was literally white -- coated with white chocolate! Apparently, the house was depicted with historical and architectural accuracy by the White House Executive Pastry Chef, according to the tour booklet. Finally, the tour led to the cross hall and entrance hall where Nickolas was eyeing up the Presidential Seal. We had to tell him not to bring the tape measure along for when that house becomes his. However, he did grab on to one of the trees in the cross hall, so that behavior may not get him to the Oval Office. We'll see...
More information on the holiday decorations at the White House can be found at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/holiday/2007/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/holiday/2007/
