Chance of a Lifetime

Today at work, a teacher friend offered up tickets to go to the Lighting of the National Christmas tree. I jumped at the chance and even pushed another teacher out of the way to take them. (OK not really...but I did feel bad for taking them until she told me she is going to the Inagural Ball)
Nate even rearranged part of a briefing to go! We knew it was going to be a tight squeeze to get to the White House by 4:30. I met Nate at his work and we RAN to the metro. When we got to the metro, I grabbed my wallet for my smartcard and took off. The escalator at Rosslyn is super high. Half way up, Nate says, "Can you hold Link? I'll grab E and we can walk it up." I put my wallet in my pocket. I am sure you can guess where this is going. I loose it on the train. We realize this a second after the train takes off. We decide to go on anyway. We run to the White House and make it!
These are secret service agents on top of Santa Workshop! Hmmmm does that make them Secret Santas?? The ceremony starts at 5:00, but they want you in your seats at 4:30. I brought tons of snacks for the kids. We sit down and I start dishing snacks out. By 5:00 we are out of snacks and the boys are already getting restless. For a full 45 minutes they squirm and whine and cry and pout and wiggle and you name it. I felt so bad for the people in front of us and behind us. About 2 minutes before the President speaks, Lincoln loses it. I mean FULL on cry...LOUD! Nate grabs him and takes him to the back. About a minute after Nate leaves Ethan looks over at me and says, "Let's go Mom. We can see the tree from the Metro." We had not gone through all of this to not see the tree. While Nate was in the back with Lincoln (screaming), a lady looks at Nate and says, "ahh...he must be a Democrat." It was great!! As soon as Bush was finished speaking, they asked that we all stay at our seats until he was gone. Nate came right over and stood at the end of the aisle. A lady a couple seats behind me says, "Your husband is behind you." hint..hint...get the heck out of here! :)
So, besides the lost wallet, screaming kids, and Bush speaking, it was a chance of a lifetime!