Lights-a-Twinkle

27 December 2008

There are thousands of lights – specifically, 450,000 plus – at the Festival of Lights on the grounds of the Washington DC Mormon Temple, more formally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So what better place to visit on a December night when the temperature was reading 62F [16C] at 6:30p.

Having lived in Utah for eight years (back in the 1980s), we’re not unfamiliar with the Mormons or the twinkling landscapes they create on the grounds of their temples during the Christmas season. Our first introduction to the Festival of Lights was at Temple Square, in downtown Salt Lake City. I still remember standing still, mouth agape, when I first saw the scene laid out before my eyes then. Last night’s festival was just as impressive.

The Washington DC Mormon Temple

We spent over an hour on the temple grounds, enjoying the magical setting we found ourselves in. The centerpiece — the temple — stood tall, a brilliant white monolith amidst the colorful lights. After wandering around the colorfully lit trees, we stopped to watch a brief live Nativity performance. Then we went inside the visitor center where a replica of Thorwaldsen’s Christus statue stands with open arms to greet one and all. (Thorwaldsen, a Danish artist, sculpted the original statue in 1821 for a church in Copenhagen.) We wandered around the lobby, checking out the Christmas trees — one for each continent — decorated with dolls and ornaments from different countries.

A pond multiplies the lights decorating the trees in front of the visitor center.

This brief visit to see the Festival of Lights turned out to be the crowning touch to our Christmas weekend. That said, there are a few more places in and around DC that will continue to be dressed in holiday cheer through the end of the month. If time permits, we’ll try to squeeze a few more into our busy schedule.

In the meantime, if you would like to see more photographs from last night’s stroll at the Festival of Lights, please visit my online gallery.

A Christmas Stroll in DC

25 December 2008

Merry Christmas!

Christmas dinner this year was neither turkey with all the trimmings nor honey-glazed ham with all the side dishes that option entails. Instead, we went to M&S Grill in DC for a seafood dinner — well, surf & turf in Mui’s case. Yes, I know — how could we! But what can I say; it’s not that easy to find a restaurant serving a traditional menu on Christmas Day.

Seeing as how we were having a balmy Christmas Day compared to many parts of the country, we took our cameras with us to capture some of the holiday cheer in the city. After dinner, we bundled up and went for a photographic stroll that took us to the National Christmas Tree on the ellipse on the south side of the White House.

The National Christmas Tree

The crowds weren’t as bad as previous years, but they were large enough to deter us from walking the ‘Christmas Pathway of Peace’ around the 41 feet [~12 m] tall Colorado blue spruce that has been decorated for the holidays since 1978. We made do with some photographs from a distance and then drove to the Capitol where, wonder of wonders, we easily found a parking spot.

Tripods shouldered, we walked over to the Capitol grounds to photograph the Capitol Christmas Tree. Yes, we have two major trees in the nation’s capital! I wasn’t thrilled to see the bleachers that are being set up for the Obama inauguration in front of the floodlit façade of the Capitol Building, but with less than a month to go, seeing evidence of such preparations was inevitable I guess.

On a warmer night, we would have taken the time to examine the ornaments made by the children of Montana to decorate the Capitol Christmas Tree (the tree is a gift from that state), but by this time it was getting awfully cold. So, we took our photographs and hurried over to the nearby US Botanic Garden for a couple of shots of the colorfully lit up trees on the grounds. On our way back to the car, we walked by the reflection pool, hoping for a nice photo op of the Capitol, but the breeze was ruffling the surface and no reflections were to be had.

No reflections, but a nice view of the US Capitol and the Capitol Christmas Tree.

In the face of the sudden dip in temperature, we wimped out at this point and returned home instead of looking for more holiday cheer in DC. It was 10:00p when we pulled into the driveway, more than a little chilled, but happy that we had taken the opportunity to wander around DC on Christmas night.

If you'd like to see more images from our stroll on Christmas night visit my online gallery.

Happy Holidays 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR