National Christmas Tree and Stuart

Tonight Mike and I drove into the city to see the National Christmas Tree,which is located in front of the White House. They have music entertainment every night and tonight we listened to an opera group. The singing was great but it pained me to watch them because it was so windy and cold and they had no coats, gloves, scarves, or anything. One of the singers just looked miserable. I could only sit in the bleachers so long and then we headed back to the Yule-log to get warmed up. :) Here is a picture of the tree with the Washington Monument in the background. It was very neat!
We also had some excitement with Stuart tonight. About two weeks ago, Mike bought one of those pet pedicure things(You stick their nail in and the spinning file trims their nail...I'm sure you've seen it on TV before). Well, Stu is scared to death anything that makes a buzzing noise. We tried clippers quite a while ago when we were in Nebraska and Stuart fought and fought and I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore so we returned the clippers.(I felt like such a bad mom) Then since we've lived in Maryland, we have one of those back-massager things and when Mike turned it on, Stuart bolted up the stairs and wouldn't come down until I picked him up and carried him downstairs. Then we get this pedicure tool and he is scared of it as well so wanted to see if we could ease him into it. We started with just holding him next to the tool(in the 'off' position), then moved to holding him next to the tool with it on but not actually putting his nail in it. So tonight we thought we'd try actually trimming his nails, and it worked!! He was less than pleased with us while I held him and Mike trimmed his nails but he got a treat out of the deal so I think it was worth it for him.
Here's a recent picture of Stu...this is in the office right next to my chair. This is his typical location where he camps out during the weekdays while I'm working. He's so funny!