Presidential cookies
Crying into my chilli chicken on Friday, going to the White House on Saturday
Peaks and troughs. Highs and lows. Ups and downs. I am boring myself saying this phrase but it really is the only way of encapsulating what it’s like moving to a new place where you don’t know anyone and you have no job. And if there was ever a week of highs and lows it truly was last week - crying over my dinner on a Friday then going to the White House on a Saturday.
I’ve done a lot of ‘frog eating’ since being here. For those of you not familiar, ‘eat the frog’ means doing the thing you least want to do, first in the day. That way, if you get nothing else done that day, you’ve still done the hardest thing. I’ve done a lot of making myself do the hard thing, and although this has led to lots of good things, I think you hit your limit of frog eating from time to time. Whether it’s joining a pickle-ball league, putting myself forward for jobs, or asking a new friend if they want to hang out. Most days, there is a frog to eat.
One thing I found especially hard, although it may seem trivial to you, was sorting a Christmas tree. There are surprisngly few here in DC, and without a car my options were either a 20 minute walk to the hardware store or 30 minutes to Whole Foods where they have some sad wrapped up trees for $70+.
So, remembering that some new friends had offered a lift to Costco, I asked if they would instead want to go get a tree. They kindly said yes, but then I didn’t hear from them for a few days, and I worried I’d over-asked. Considering I’d only met these people three times, asking them to drive me on a three hour round trip was a lot and I suddenly had that low-key stomach churny feeling of exposing myself too much.
Luckily, they were kind enough to oblige. We drove to get a tree from a cute little farm in Maryland where you could choose any size for $80 (which was comparatively, a good deal) - we even cut it down ourselves. A real authentic experience, followed by, of course, Costco. It was worth asking, and I got to spend more time with these new friends and get to know them better.
Moving to a new country is repeatedly putting yourself out there, eating the frog and being vulnerable. I’m so glad every time I do it, but it doesn’t mean it’s not hard and this week I think I’d hit my limit, and ended up crying over dinner, on what was supposed to be our date night. Life is not all Instagram highlights and I miss the ease of familiar friends and family to lean on at times like this.
A few people have said to me recently that they could never put themselves out as much as I have been doing. I am writing this to show you can. Don’t not do it because the process is cringey or scary - do it because 90% of the time it leads to good things.
As a real contrast, the next day, we were invited to the White House. We had planned to go to Alexandria (south of the river in Virginia) with new friends to see the holiday boat parade. We had met this person and her husband at an event, and turns out, she is very well connected because she’d been invited to see the Christmas decorations at the White House. She asked if we wouldn’t mind switching to that instead of our boat parade plans. It took us about two seconds to confirm that no, we wouldn’t mind going to the White House.
It was very cool. After several rounds of security (no bags allowed), we funnelled through to the East Wing of the White House, greeted by the United States Marine Band playing Christmas songs. We shuffled from room to room with other families, gawping at the vibrant maximalist decorations that Jill Biden has organised this year. I guess she figured she wanted to go hard before going home because there were enormous trees (83 of them apparently), flamboyant mantlepiece garlands, and things to marvel at from the ceiling in every curated room. Highlights were the ‘official’ tree that comes from champion growers in North Carolina, so tall they have to remove the chandelier in the middle of the room every year. I also loved the gingerbread house version of the White House, complete with moving ice skating children out the front. It was made of 25 sheets of gingerbread dough, 10 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 65 pounds of pastillage, 45 pounds of chocolate, 50 pounds of royal icing, 40 pounds of poured sugar and 10 pounds of gum paste. The security guard said he wouldn’t recommend eating it.
You can enter a lottery to volunteer to be one of the 300 people who help to decorate the rooms - so I will definitely sign up for that next year.
It was amazing, and yet another pinch-me moment where I couldn’t stop thinking how lucky I was. It was also intensely Christmassy and now I am very much in the festive mood.
In the back of our tour pamphlet was a recipe for the ‘President’s Chocolate Chip Cookies’, which I baked last night. The ingredients and quantities seemed pretty similar to the Joy of Cooking cookie recipe my family have always made, but the temperature you cook them at is very low which I think makes for a much chewier/more doughy texture. You also refrigerate them for two hours before cooking. My husband said if these are Biden’s cookies can he please stay in office so I’ll take that to mean they’re a hit.
I would never have met the person who invited us to the White House if I hadn’t gone up to her cold at a party and introduced myself. Frog eating is hard, but sometimes it leads to presidential cookie eating, so all in all, worth it.
H
I love it! 🐸
Hearty xx