Pandas and Snow!

The last couple days have brought snow and more is expected, but some might say the bigger news is the departure of one of DC’s favorite residents, Tai Shan.  He is one of the pandas at the National Zoo and is being sent to China today.  Tai Shan was born in the summer of 2005, and we’ve followed his growth during our zoo visits.  On one of our previous visits we got our picture taken with this panda statue as well as the one at the specially built panda habitat (One of our photos of Mei Xiang made it into the BBC).  Yesterday was the last day Tai Shan was out for the public, and he did not disappoint by playing in the snow. I guess he takes after his father Tian Tian who rolled down one of the snow covered hills and then stood on his head.  Not to be forgotten are my favorite friends, the red pandas, who also were quite adorable on Sunday as they shared a meal from the same bowl.  Enjoy the photos here or at SmugMug

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A Southern Christmas

We spent this Christmas with Emily’s extended family down in Roswell, Georgia. Emily went down a couple days before me to spend some extra time with Britt and Meghan, two of her close childhood friends. I drove down, stopping in Durham to see my friend, Cliff, and his fiancée, Paola.

By Christmas Eve, everyone was together. We went to Mass in the afternoon with the Van Stones, and then went over to the Conboys’ house for their annual Christmas Eve open house. It was fun to meet the parents of Emily’s friends, especially after hearing so many stories. After leaving the party, the six of us drove around Atlanta looking at Christmas decorations. One house was especially impressive: the owner had designed a light show that was in sync with a radio station being broadcast from their house. Very impressive! We all went to bed early to allow “Santa Claus” to visit.

Fortunately for us, Santa had come a bit early to our hotel room. When we got there, a fireplace with cookies, carrots for the reindeer, and stockings were set up. As it turns out, Jen had hand-stitched stockings for the family a few years ago. Maggie made Jon and me stockings that matched.

We all started moving a bit slowly on Christmas.  By 9:30 we were all up and gathered in Bob and Maggie’s room, where Maggie had made an overnight coffee bread – a Conger Christmas morning tradition. We opened our stockings and a few presents, and we sat around enjoying each other’s company. In the early afternoon, we headed over to John and Penny’s house to see everyone else. The kids were – of course – quite excited. We got to see them play with a few more gifts, including a very impressive display of Michael’s strength in opening one of his adventure gifts. We had a DELICIOUS feast, prepared entirely by Penny, and complete with the family sweet potato soufflé, cheese grits, stuffing, and many other delicious dishes. After dinner, we spent the evening playing games and talking. It was a great day – one we won’t forget soon. Thanks for the fun memories!

More Cupcakes and Christmas Yumminess

Santa came and went this last week, and Emily made sure all of us could enjoy the season in a delicious manner. Unlike the cupcakes, her cupcake balls made it out of DC (much to my chagrin). If you ask, she will make some for you. However, she really enjoyed making these ones in the shape of Santa hats and Christmas trees with ornaments.  Here’s a “taste” and the rest are located here.

Washington DC at Christmas

Washington is a wonderful city during the holidays — all of the monuments are lit, and the Christmas displays accent the beauty.  As usual, we decided to take in both the Capitol Christmas Tree and the National Christmas Tree.  Mother Nature decided we would see a lot more snow than lights, leaving a white blanket across everything.  During the storm last Saturday we ventured to the Capitol with Emily’s parents, trudging over a mile in the foot deep snow and windy conditions.  The tree from Arizona did not disappoint.  Two nights later, the city was still paralyzed, and I headed over to the National Christmas Tree (It was too difficult to go to both on Saturday).  The tree was still closed, but the lights were still shining.  Here are some images and the rest are at SmugMug.

DC Snow

As some of you may have read, DC was walloped this weekend with a heavy blanket of snow.  Before the storm I didn’t quite believe the hysteria as most DC ‘snowstorms’ are dusting or a couple of inches.  I even joked about it earlier this year.  However, this storm brought back memories of President’s Day weekend in 2003 when the city was snowed in and people were cross-country skiing down M St.  At this point I don’t have any photos processed, but I will get to them soon.  The images below are from two weeks ago when DC received its first snowfall of the season.  It was almost as if Mother Nature was telling autumn to leave before she rolled in just before winter officially starts.  Enjoy these and I will get this weekend’s shots up as soon as possible.

Moonrise over DC and the Red Panda

By the looks of the recent posts it doesn’t look like we live in DC anymore, but that’s not the case.  Below are some photos from earlier this fall when we went to watch moonrise over the monuments.  It was a gorgeous sunrise.  The next day I headed over to the zoo (which is practically in my front yard).  One of my favorite animals there is the Red Panda.  Here are some photos of it, but there are some from my earlier trips there as well.  Check out all the photos at SmugMug.

Cupcake Time

For those who don’t know this by now, Emily loves to bake.   She also loves Christmas.  Put these together and it means I – and our coworkers in DC – get lots of goodies. (Emily received many compliments at the company Christmas party).   Last week, we attended a potluck dinner so Emily put together her yummy spinach squares and cute cupcakes.  The cupcakes were adorned with little candy-canes, evergreens, and other goodies Emily’s parents gave her for her birthday.  While the photos are nice the goodies themselves are (were) even better.  Maybe she’ll make some of these in the future.

Thanksgiving

As we mentioned earlier, Thanksgiving weekend was busy for us.  In our previous post you saw that we attended a lovely wedding, but this was just one of three major events for us.  Beforehand we spent time with my (Rob) family in Redding, PA.  My uncle and cousin share the same birthday and this year it was over Thanksgiving.  Making it even more special, it was their 21st and 50th.  To celebrate, we all went out to a club on Wednesday, and Bryan and Patti invited both sides of their families over for Thanksgiving supper.  This was a huge celebration with 70+ family members and friends. Emily and I were delighted to be a part of it! Below are some of the happy faces but head over to SmugMug for some more.

Wedding: Jillian Kannengieser and Greg O’Mullan

Last weekend, after months of waiting and an earlier bridal shower (Emily only), we were excited to go to Jillian and Greg’s rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and wedding (All Photos Here).

The rehearsal was at St. Anne’s church, where the bride, groom and their attendants practiced walking around the church. We were all ready for the big day! (Rehearsal Photo Gallery)

We left St. Anne’s to head to the Milleridge Inn for dinner. We were in a beautiful private room that was nicely decorated for Christmas with a gorgeous tree and a wreath on every window. After a cocktail hour and time catching up, we sat down to a lovely meal. We all had holiday crackers, which we popped open for a little game and a crown. The bridesmaids and Greg’s parents gave lovely toasts, and Greg and Jillian practiced their dancing a bit. Carolers even joined us for about 10 minutes to sing lovely holiday tunes and a special song for Greg and Jillian.  I was the official photographer of the evening and had fun taking pictures of the entire affair. Near the end of the evening, Greg and Jillian gave a lovely speech and handed out sweet thank you gifts to everyone. (Thanks for the Long Island wine! We can’t wait to enjoy it!) (Rehearsal Dinner Photo Gallery)

The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful blue sky. What perfect weather for a wedding! We headed to the church for the 11:00 wedding ceremony. As always, we waited anxiously and excitedly for the procession to start. Greg’s parents walked down the aisle looking lovely. Mrs. Kannengieser was escorted down the aisle by her two sons. The lovely bridesmaids walked down and finally Jillian and her father came out. She looked beautiful and radiant, and Greg looked stunned when he saw her. The wedding – though wonderful itself – was also special because the priest who married Jillian and Greg was the same priest who had married Jillian’s parents 32 years earlier, also on Thanksgiving weekend. The ceremony was quite nice, though it had a few additional moments of comic relief. After the mothers came up to light the unity candle, they both blew out their candles. Whoops! Greg’s reaction was especially priceless. When Jillian’s brother came to give the rings to Jillian and Greg, everyone in the congregation thought he dropped the rings. Apparently at the exact moment he was handing over the rings, the button on his tux popped off (that’s his story anyway). The tux shop got a special “thank-you” during the toasts. Those funny mishaps aside, Jillian and Greg left the church happy and married. (Wedding Photo Gallery)

Next….onto the reception at Westbury Manor. Wow! It was unbelievable. The cocktail hour had so much food, including a sliders’ station, a sushi station, a mini-hotdog station, a cheese table (Emily enjoyed that), fruit trays, pasta stations, taco stations, and more food that we couldn’t even walk by. After a while, we all made our way to the beautiful reception hall and to Table Georgetown. The bridal party danced their way into the hall, and Jillian and Greg shared their first dance. The band was quite talented and had everyone on the dance party singing “Tonight’s gonna be a good night” until we were asked to be seated for our meal. Everything was yummy, but we were excited when the meal was interrupted by a special guest — Mr. Met! There were some fun pictures taken as the bride and groom danced with the mascot. It was such a fun wedding, and Emily and Jillian even got to enjoy a dirty girl scout (A Tombs specialty) together. Thanks so much for inviting us and allowing us to be part of this wonderful weekend! Congratulations to the wonderful couple. (Reception Photo Gallery)

Great Falls in Autumn

In September I was fortunate to visit my sister in Ottawa and since she is still getting on her feet up there she was able to visit Emily and me here in Washington for a long weekend. We spent most of the time enjoying the area around my house, but on her last day here I took her to Great Falls (Thanks Greg for showing me the park). Instead of hiking on the Maryland side, Heather and I headed to Virginia where we could actually view the falls. While we were there for the fall colors and waterfall the most interesting thing was the group of kayakers in the rapids below the falls. They battled the water all evening. Here are some of the images including the blurring tactic Heather taught me (Thanks Heather).