A Carlson Christmas Eve

Say what you will about Christmas, but for the Carlson clan, it is Christmas Eve that is the real show-stopper. The day is all about tradition, and whereas Chrismtas day ends as soon as the dishes are washed from brunch, Christmas Eve lasts all day long.

You start with a family movie. Traditionally a musical, like Chicago, RENT or Walk the Line, but this year was saw Black Swan.

Then on to Tex-Mex for lunch. This is a time for general discourse on the movie, spilling salsa on your shirt and planning how long you can nap before mass.

This year we attended Christmas Eve mass at 4:00. At our uber-liberal Catholic church,  the homily included direct reading from Dr. Seuss' The Grinch.

Directly following mass acomes fondue dinner at the Stoopman house.

Important note: for me, the best part of fondue dinner is not the fondue, but these amazing cucumber sandwiches. I never try to make them myself, or have them anywhere else, but they are 100% essential for the Christmas Eve menu.



Look at that dill and TELL ME you don't want one right now. Well too bad - you can't. You have to wait until next Christmas Eve.

Of course the star of the show is the cheese fondue. Every year the fondue is a little bit different, different cheese-to-wine ration, and heated differently.

This year, the fondue tasted excellent but we had a stringy problem:



You almost had to cut the cheese off your fondue fork it was so stringy, but we killed the whole pot of cheese regardless. Of course fondue dinner isn't complete without chocolate fondue, into which we dip ice-cream-filled cream puffs, strawberries and banana slices.

After we've finished smearing chocolate over the Stoopman table-cloth and have made an attempt at helping to clean, we whisk back up the street for the last activity of the day: family movie in the living room.

Back in the day we accomplished this with VHS tapes, then graduated to DVDs, but this year we ordered The Preacher's Wife on demand. However, not even Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston can keep you awake after eating a pound of cheese and a half-pound of chocolate, so after about an hour, we're all asleep anyways.

You can see how I'd like Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. More yummy food, more movies, more entertainment, plus the anticipation of presents in the morning!

Christmastime View

True to form, my schedule during the weeks leading up to Christmas was dictated by The Washington Chorus, whose concert series reach 10,000 every Christmas.

Of the five Christmas shows, four are held at the Kennedy Center (the fifth being held at the Strathmore music hall). It is really something else, rehearsing in the beautiful Concert Hall, and then performing when every single seat is taken.

We usually don't sell-out the hall when performing Rachmaninoff or Bach, but when we're singing Christmas carols, audiences go crazy, buying up tickets like there's no tomorrow.

Best experiences of 2010

After posting my 10 Favorite "Things" of 2010, I thought it prudent to do a list of my favorite experiences this year. Go figure most of them involve travel or theater.

Here they are, in no particular order:



Glee Live!
How to even put in words how AMAZING seeing the cast of Glee perform their hits live on stage at Radio City Music Hall. "Life Changing" may sound strong, but honestly I left the show feeling like a different person.

The music was incredible, the energy in the crowd palpable, and before the show started, we were lucky enough to "meet" most of the cast. And I have the photographic evidence:

Post: Seeing Glee Live  (more Glee cast in the post!)


Savannah
Savannah was the ultimate spring break trip: hitting the open road with your best friends for days of sightseeing, eating and drinking in one of the hottest, most intriguing cities in the U.S.

Savannah is notorious for its lax drinking laws, which permit (no - encourage!) drinking in the streets. In addition to its alcohol laws, we learned new things about Savannah. We ate the best southern food around and visited the renowned and picturesque Bonaventure Cemetery.



Weekend in Connecticut
One of the more ridiculous weekends in recent memory is my weekend trip to Connecticut to visit the veritable PSF Schumacher.

While I was ostensibly there to photograph the brilliant northeastern fall foliage, instead I found myself wondering if people from Connecticut worship Satan?



London air show
One of my coolest experiences in 2010 was traveling to the Farnborough Air Show, right outside of London.
 

I was supporting the U.S. aerospace industry, taking pictures and blogging from the airshow and from the various events my employer put on. Along the way, I got a behind-the-scenes tour from the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons (who just came out of the closet!)

There were lots of cool aircraft, plus some pretty nice sightseeing in our time off.



After reflecting on these experiences, I am resolving to make 2011 a year of traveling. I want to get out more and see the world, and take in all the adventures I can along the way.

Mrs. K's Tollhouse

For the last twenty years, we've made a tradition of going to Mrs. K's Tollhouse restaurant during the week leading up to Christmas. The Carlsons and the Stoopmans make the trek up to Silver Spring, Md. to this historic tollhouse, which was converted into a full-time restaurant in 1930.

Mrs. K's always had the best Christmas decorations: thousands of ornaments hung from the ceiling of every dining room, gingerbread towns, Santa and his sleigh on the roof, the whole 9 yards.

Add to that delicious foods like butternut squash ravioli, butter patties (I'm looking at you Kaye!) and peppermint ice cream.

Lately though, the decorations have become more and more sparse, and the food less festive. Peppermint ice cream is nowhere to be found on the menu!

The Carlson family

The Stoopman family 

After twenty-odd years of Mrs. K's I think both families are finally ready to make a new tradition. And so the hunt begins for a new Christmas-y dinner: The Gaylord Hotel? L'Auberge Chez Francoise?  Any recommendations out there for something nice and festive for next year?

How I got over my fear of the elderly

Last weekend I found time to thaw my icy heart for a few hours to go caroling at a nursing home in DC with friends from The Washington Chorus. This was a particularly big deal, since I've had a complex about going to nursing homes dating back to high school, when I couldn't understand the old people who we'd volunteered to play BINGO with. Tough, tough times in high school.

A dozen of us got together beforehand to practice for the big gig.

We had at least two people on each voice part, but no music in front us - only the lyrics. Spiced cider loosened us up and got us motivated to go caroling.

Everybody got in the Christmas spirit - Santa hats and reindeer antlers were passed around until we mustered enough courage to go to the nursing home.

When we arrived, the residents were eating dinner in front of the TV. The sound was turned down, and we became the evening entertainment, hopefully to their pleasure. We got a lot of blank stares, and some women covering their ears when we sang, but I'd like to think that some of them enjoyed the Christmas cheer.

We performed on all three floors of the nursing homes, and after singing in the lobbies, we went a-wassail-ling through the halls to get the residents who were bedridden.

Our adorable group after caroling. We're a pretty wholesome bunch of twenty-somethings.

My 10 favorite things from 2010

Writing this post was eye-opening for me. My 10 favorite things from 2010 may as well be my 10 favorite techno-photography gadgets.  Almost single one of my favorite things this year has been technology-based. No all-natural, homespun, organic here. This is (almost) entirely pure, hard plastic or binary. But I've used and loved them all this year.

Without further adieu, here they are: Patrick Carlson's top 10 favorite things from 2010

10. Yves Saint Laurant L'homme
I've been militantly anti-cologne since childhood. It seemed cheap and immature. A French friend introduced me to a cologne that totally changed my perception of colognes. Mature, masculine and attractive, it makes me feel fresh in even the dankest (sorry!) circumstances.

L'homme - Yves Saint Laurent


9. Nikkor 18-200mm
The 18-200mm Nikkor lens is a vast improvement on the lens that comes with the D90 kit. It does it all, a veritable superzoom. On top of that, it has vibration reduction that automatically corrects any shake when you're hand-holding the camera.

Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S ED VR II Lens


8. Verizon Fios

For revolutionizing the way I watch TV shows. By not forcing me to watch TV at the time my shows air, I can choose when (and where in the house) I want to catch up on last week's episodes. Plus the HD makes such a difference over plain old low-definition.

7.  External hard drive
I've created almost a terabyte of image files so far this year, and an external hard drive became the obvious solution after my laptops meager memory reserve became exhausted. I also use my external hard drive for peace-of-mind, backing up everything on my laptop once a week.

 Western Digital 2 TB External Hard Drive


6. Dropbox
I didn't know how much I needed this free service until Ian from Steak and Legs brought it to my attention. I can store files that I want to work on both at home and at work, and access my files from any internet-connected device. It is also great for collaboration, as you can share online folders between multiple users.

Get Dropbox for free!


5. Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
Creates dreamy bokeh with a crisp, shallow depth-of-field even in low-light situations.

 Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Lens


4. TweetDeck 
TweetDeck brings some semblance of order to the chaotic twitterverse.You can manage multiple social media profiles and track multiple search terms to keep current on multiple conversations happening in real-time.

3. Kindle
The Kindle is hands-down the best tool I didn't know I needed. It was a total surprise birthday present, and I use it every day. Weighing in at a feather-lite 8.7 ounces, gone are the days of struggling to find the least-awkward way to prop up that heavy book you're reading. It holds thousands of books, storing your place in each one. Plus there are many, may free classics available for download.

 Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi


2. Droid 2
How I lived without this baby is beyond me. I used to use a regular flip phone, and communicated mainly through text messages. Now the internet is at my fingertips, and I use dozens of apps that connect me with my friends, interests and the outside world.

1. Nikon D90 kit
Now being phased out by the D7000, my Nikon D90 has been a constant companion since early spring 2010. The D90 prompted me to re-animate this blog, The Carlson Chronicles, which had previously been my notes from study abroad in Singapore in 2007.

 Nikon D90 with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G Lens

My view from work

Sometimes I just have to pinch myself.

This has gotta be one of the coolest views you can have and still be a cube-farmer.

Scenes from Haiti

As you know, my mom recently returned from a mission to Medor, Haiti. She was there for the umpteenth time, this time helping with Cholera prevention and helping set up Remote Area Medical to further serve the tiny mountain village. Dateline NBC was there with Ann Curry to do a special which will air on or around January 8, the anniversary of last year's earthquake.

Here are some pictures my mom took from the trip, which I've edited especially for you:

On the roadside leaving Port-au-Prince, you can top off your tank with these petrol bottles:

The NBC crew films the trucks crossing the washed-out road

Typical rush-hour traffic, enjoying his sugar cane:

Sitting on the roadside

Just some casual mountainside-pediatrics. This reminds me exactly of my Falls Church Kaiser Permanente.

Women of the mountain:

(Bonus point if you can identify Ann Curry. Wait, never mind that was way too easy. You didn't earn that bonus point.)

Porters carried NBC supplies up to Medor

Cute Haitian girl!

Another!

Due to unrest in Port-au-Prince, the team was flown out of Medor with a helicopter.

After walking up the mountain, being strapped into a helicopter is like a trip to Club Med.

And for the dramatic escape from Haiti, a good Samaritan with a 6-seater Cessna flew the team to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic.

What I did this week

This week was my company's year-end review and forecast, the biggest communications event we do all year, and it really put me through the paces. We filled the grand ballroom of the Renaissance Mayflower downtown with nearly 400 journalists and aerospace executives.

I had three main responsibilities:

The webpage:

Cute, right!? Mad props to Brandon Vaughan for the slick buttons on the right.

Social Media:
Over 100,000 social impressions over the event, with publications like Reuters, Aviation Week and Flight International talking about the Year-Ender on twitter.

And lastly,
The National Anthem:
Thankfully, I wasn't singing it. Rather, I downloaded an mp3 of a military band performing it, and delivered it to the A/V technician at the event. Unfortunately, said technician decided to play the anthem before the colors were even presented, resulting in a collective side-eye from the audience. Even though I'm not at fault, it irks me that something as silly as playing the National Anthem can be such a big responsibility, and so easy to mess up.

First Snowfall!

We had our first real snowfall of 2010 today, and about two inches have accumulated here in Arlington. Absolutely nothing compared to last year's snowmageddon/snowpocalypse, but just enough to give an air of danger to the drive home!

The view from the office was beautiful. You should be able to see the Kennedy Center and Washington Monument here, but the weather completely blanketed the District.

Like all responsible citizens during a snowfall, Anne and I decided to take the car out for a spin and grab some lunch amidst the flurries.

Despite the snow, there was very un-christmasey news today. THERE WILL BE NO CHRISTMAS AT THE CARLSONS!

That's right, due to "business" we won't even bother putting up a Christmas tree this year, much less the outdoor lights or other holiday nick-knacks. Sure putting up decorations are annoying, but isn't that part of the process of preparing Christmas?

We might as well order delivery Chinese on Christmas, and drink 40s while watching Bollywood.

What I hope Santa Brings Me

Is a 25-year-old still allowed to have a Christmas list? Is it immature and desperate to hope to get some awesome presents!? Or sit on Santa's lap? OK, maybe the last thing is a bit overboard, but my Christmas list is better than ever this year. Here's what I'm hoping to find under the Christmas tree:



Nikon Coffee Mug

Granted, I don't drink coffee, but this is the coolest mug I've ever laid eyes on. Must. Have. One.


Philips Norelco 7810 Men's Cutting System

To shave without shaving cream and disposable razors! Surely that's a sign you've made it to adulthood, right?


Why Photographs Work

George Barr dissects 52 images from the top photographers in the world, and explains what makes them work.


Amazon gift card

Lately, I've been doing all my shopping on Amazon.com. They sell everything and you can usually manage to get free shipping. Plus, with my new Kindle, I'm downloading all my reading material from the Amazon Kindle store.



Nikon 85mm f/1.4G AF-S Nikkor Lens

This one is the real doozey, with a price tag that almost definitely Santa can't afford. This short telephoto lens has a reputation for image quality and for the smoothness of it’s blurred out of focus. It is ideal for portraits, and the wide opening gives it a very shallow depth of field.