Tag Archives: 2020

December 14, 2020 · 7:56 am

Five Things for Today: December 14, 2020

1. The National Gallery of Art’s Virtual Artful Conversations for December begin today. During these “Color your Feelings” themed sessions, participants will create colorful works of art along with museum staff guiding the workshops. Have on hand a pencil, tempera or acrylic paints, paintbrush, and a cup of water and paper towel for rinsing your paintbrush. As an alternative to paints, they recommend colored pencils or crayons on paper. And working with paint, they recommend painting on cardboard. Recommended for ages 7-12 and an adult companion. Sessions take place today and December 16 & 17 at 4pm, and December 20 at 10am & 1pm. Free registration is required.

2. Lots of ideas for Christmas crafts with kids, perfect for a rainy day.

3. Early Christmas present: If you order today, you can get some of these sleds in time for the snow that’s supposed to come on Wednesday. (And you can start scoping out sledding hills — the recent post about Activities During the Covid Winter includes a link on where to find some good ones if you want to go beyond your neighborhood sledding spot.)

4. A Cookbook Gift Guide from Bon Appetit.

5. Ugly holiday sweaters for 2020.

Five Things for Today: December 10, 2020

The National Menorah Lighting from a Chanukah past

1. Chanukah begins tonight! If you’re looking for a community celebration (socially distanced, of course), the National Menorah Lighting is at 4pm on the Ellipse — tickets are free, but you must register for them. The Wharf is also hosting a Lighting of the Menorah all eight nights — join at District Square at 5pm. It’s free to attend, and you can just show up. And for more ways to celebrate, both virtual and IRL, see the KFDC holiday guide.

2. Montgomery Parks’ nature centers are offering unique and fun opportunities to enjoy the season safely and outdoors this winter. Visit their website to browse programs and get more info.

3. Heads up! The Geminid meteor shower sounds really cool, and it’s expected to peak overnight December 13-14, but you might be able to start seeing it over Friday night, December 11-12. The catch: The best time to view it is 2am.

4. In case you haven’t seen the best look ever making the Internet rounds yet… The original and the holiday music version. 😏

5. A classic for tonight’s holiday. And if you’re celebrating… drink your gin and tonica and have a happy, happy, happy, happy Chanukah!

Five Things for Today: December 9, 2020

Seen on a recent neighborhood walk 🦖🤔

1. The National Building Museum is celebrating its 40th birthday this week with all kinds of free online programming! That includes Trivia Night this evening at 7pm, behind-the-scenes virtual tours of the museum’s collections and the building, and a celebratory video about its illustrious history. And, FYI, the Museum Shop has a fantastic inventory of items perfect for holiday gifting.

2. Today, the Capitol Riverfront BID kicks off 12 Days of CapRiv, an exciting lineup of festive activities to safely celebrate the holidays in fun and socially-distant ways. Holiday ornaments, family photo pop-ups, drive-in movies, pet portraits, and more special offerings are happening over the next couple of weeks. See the full schedule of activities and details here.

3. This Friday, December 11, the Smithsonian is hosting a daylong virtual program, “24 hours in a Time of Change,” and invites the public to share their stories about this time. You can submit stories here, and there are prompts to help guide you. Select responses will be shared during the program.

4. Rolling Stone’s list of the best TV shows of 2020. (Several on there that I really enjoyed: Better Things, My Brilliant Friend, Pen15, The Great, and I May Destroy You.)

5. 2020: The Year in Pictures.