White House Christmas Decorations (VLOG)

Another VLOG Episode

 

Gates to the White House

Getting Ready:

Touring the White House is always exciting.  No matter what you think of the resident at the time of your visit.  I have been living in the area for a few years now and I have visited under three different presidents.  There are couple of different tours you can take.  You may have seen an earlier post, in which it was just a garden tour.  Will this post is about the Christmas Decorations.  

You must have a ticket and go through a background check.  When you receive the invitation, be sure to read it, all of it, and the small print.  It is constantly changing, so the rules may be different than the last time you visited. 

When should I go?

My wife and I like going during the week, in the middle of the day.  Parking is always a challenge.  The Metro can get you close, and is not a bad ride.  However, recently the crime spree in DC has cautioned me to recommend the Metro Rail.  If you travel in a group, you should be fine.  But the other issue with public transportation, is there is no where to store you stuff (backpack, purses or camera bag) while you are touring.

With all of that in mind, I drove.  I paid for parking at the Willard hotel.  Just across the street from the entrance.  I did have to return to the car once prior to the tour.  This is because of the small print, I mentioned above,  My wife and her friends thought they could bring in their clutches.  But you cannot.

Christmas Tour

During the Christmas time, you can see how the "House" is decorated for the holidays.  each room is a little different.  I believe, but I am not sure, the First Lady is un charge of decorations. This year was a great a tour, as you can see from the video.  It was a great day, a little on the cool side, but clear.  Our group was able to take a few minutes before the tour and see the Williad Hotel Lobby decorations. The hotel lobby is always a breathtaking adventure.  

Plan your visit

To arrange a tour, visit the White House web site.  Follow the directions.  Make sure you read any restrictions on what can be brought into the White House.  If you drive, parking will run between $30-$50 in a garage.  I recommend spending the money on parking.  

You will have to wait outside for a 30-50 minutes, once you make it past the first line ranger checking you invitation/ticket.  Depending on how many people are visiting, you could be waiting outside the compound for close to an hour.  I would arrive in plenty of time, maybe an hour and half prior to your time slot.  They will let you in early, but I am not sure about how late (past your time slot) they will admit you.

Take a moment to view the history while you are there, not just Snap a picture and move on.  Do not be afraid to ask the staff, posted through out the tour questions.  In my experience they have all been very informative to the visitors.  

Salutations:

Thank you for visiting the site.  You will find the video is hosted on Rumble, if you don't Rumble you should try it out.  

November 2013 Quick Hits

This November has been one heck of month in life and times of Tronster.  Last month, our leaders shut down the government for a couple of weeks, throwing a monkey wrench in my plans.  This month, I have been transferred to a new company and I moved to another location. The shutdown has affected the selling of my old house and now I still have it, and I wanted sold by now.

Moving forward, we had an election here in VA, I am sure if you live in the USA, you have heard about this election.  It was all over the news.  It ruined TV for two weeks, as the ads on TV were terrible.  But that is over now, and our taxes are sure to rise in the next few years.  Oh well.  

The short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas apparently is a different this year.  Which would explain why ever since Halloween there has been Christmas stuff at the stores.  

I must say, the announcement by many retailers to open up on Thanksgiving is disappointing to me.  Why not leave this time of year alone. Again I think it has to do with Calendar. Retailers want to separate people from their hard earned money for a couple of extra hours this year.

I was never a fan of the “Black Friday” rush, just because I do not like being around that many people, but I do understand why people like the idea.

Everyone Be safe out there and have a great a time.

The Polar Express

Recently my wife and I visited Dollywood in Tennessee.  We had a great time, watching the shows and viewing all the Christmas lights.  Shortly after returning from Dollywood, we put up our own lights.  They do not compare, but they are nice.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we are watching through the Christmas movies.  Now I believe the reason for the season is the celebration of the Birth of Christ.  I am a movie watcher and enjoy many types of movies.  One of my favorites is the classic film, Miracle on 34th Street.  I will post about the movie a little later.  Tonight I will be talking about the Polar Express.

There was a ride at Dollywood, for the Polar Express, it was a 4-D movie.  The seats were set up to make you feel like you were on the train.  Racing through the mountains up and down and side to side. It was tons of fun.

The movie itself is pretty good too.  I really enjoyed the special effects and the animation.  My wife and I enjoyed the film very much.  I hope everyone checks out this film.

Merry Christmas

Christmas TIme and Movies

I am a sucker for movies.  I do not write reviews, mainly because it is hard for me to criticize something that entertain me for a couple of hours.
Now that Christmas season is drawing near my wife and I have drug out all of our Christmas DVDs and we are going to watch them between now and Christmas.

The First one we watch, while decorating the house, is National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  The Griswold Fun Family Christmas.  The antics of the family always make me laugh.  Considering this movie was released in 1989, 23 years ago, family gatherings still happen this way.  You love your parents and they support you with everything you do, your spouses family is condescending towards everything you do.  Sunshine and I laugh out loud when the lights finally come on, and when the dog, affectionally known as "snot" sees the squirrel.

Although the true meaning of Christmas is missed in this movie, the spirit of family is presented.  We will be watching more and at the end of the season, I will have to give a list.  If you have any recommendations  let me know.  Maybe it can be added to the schedule.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas At Dollywood

Dollywood at Christmas time.  The fill the park full of lights and have a Light Parade every night.  The park has 10 different shows that occur through out the day in different theaters.  Sunshine and I, along with a good friend, attended 5 of them.  The Christmas on Ice skate show was excellent.  The group that performed was from New York City.  There was Christmas in the Smokies and O Holy Night.  We enjoyed every one of the shows.  There are live performers, singers, actors, and skaters.  There were lots of kids in the park while we we there and they were all excited.

The best part is they do not shy away from telling everyone that Christmas is about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  There are not many places you can go today to enjoy the true Christmas story and this was a welcome change of pace.

Now I live in northern Virginia, and Dollywood is in eastern Tennessee, somehow Sunshine was able to talk me into buying season tickets.  So we will be returning, probably not before Christmas, but returning none the less.

Have a great day and Merry Christmas!!!