Yesterday we had a day of the sort we should have more often in D.C. but don't, because most of the time we sort of forget to leave the house or our neighborhood.

We started downtown for some Christmas shopping and stumbled across a Christmas Market of arts and crafts. None of which we were interested in buying, but it beat going to Macy's.
Then we abandoned shopping for the afternoon, instead wandering to the National Gallery of Art. We checked out an exhibition of photographic snapshots before heading over to a free screening of a Romanian film. We had originally thought about sticking around for a classical performace by the Leipzig String Quartet but when we left the auditorium after the movie, the line outside for the quartet stretched through the lobby and the museum's shop, clear from the east wing to the west wing. Thankfully, we'd already decided to give the quartet a miss, since I don't think we'd have made it in. Instead, we headed to Chinatown for some cheap dumplings and another go at Christmas shopping.

It's the sort of day I plan in my head fairly often, but rarely execute. It beat hanging out in the suburban strip malls and big-box stores trying to run down a few last presents.