Merry Christmas with Chimes

Here are a few of my Activity Days girls.  We learned to play several Christmas songs with chimes this last month and then performed them during the ward Christmas program at their party.  These girls are full of so much excitement and chatter.  It's amazing how happy these girls are and I will miss working with them.

Gingerbread houses

This year Christmas is falling two days before we move all our belongings into storage...and so this is our Christmas tree.  Isn't it cute?  This is a tree that my Grandma H. gave me last year.  It has fiber-optics in it and changes color.  We put it up in our bedroom and love to look at the lights at night before going to sleep.

Sunday evening we went over to a friends' house.  She had her college sons home and decided to make keep tradition alive and make gingerbread houses (with graham crackers).  I haven't made a gingerbread house in such a long time...probably since I was a small child and I couldn't believe how excited I was to make one.  The above picture is mine.  I actually got the idea from one of the temples in Germany.  I can't remember which one, I just remember looking through the Ensign that focused on temples and seeing a similar design.

And this is SM's gingerbread house.  Notice the "grass" and the bushes on the side of the house.  Very cute!

He really did want to start eating it right away.  He did wait a couple of days.

And here I am with my house.  I am so proud!  (Notice that my house has some topiary bushes in the front...those are not green snowmen).

Dinner at Bethlehem

Sunday evening we were able to have dinner at our friends' house.  Each December they hold a dinner that they call their "Dinner in/at Bethlehem."  We were asked to dress appropriately in attire that reminded us of Bethlehem.  SM wasn't very excited about dressing up but he did and had a great evening.

Here's our hostess...doesn't she look cute with a bright pink towel?  Our hostess has become one of my favorite friends.  Isn't it nice to have friends?

Here's my friends' daughter eating some pita bread.  For our Dinner at Bethlehem, we ate lamb, pita, hummus, goat cheese, yogurt and figs.   We ate everything by candle light and had a fun time.

And here's the two of us.  SM was being silly...seriously, he only did this face when getting his picture taken.  For the rest of the evening he was very pleasant and enjoyed himself.

Games

SM loves games.  He has been collecting them for quite a few years.  Since we are packing getting ready to move, I took this picture of the games before SM put them in boxes.  Doesn't that look like a lot of fun?  Some of my favorite games aren't even in this photo.  Have you ever heard of Stone Age or Alhambra?  What about Endeavor or Ra?  How about Hoity Toity or Metro?  Those are some of the fun games that we try to play as much as possible. 

Old Town Alexandria

SM attended a conference in Old Town Alexandria (VA) over the weekend.  This was the hotel where they had the conference and where they gave us a room.  I think it's called the Morris House.  This place was pretty posh (is that a word?).  The butler also was the valet.  He brought our luggage to our room and parked the car.

Here are a couple pictures of our room.  The fireplace wasn't real but very beautiful.  On the left side of the picture you can see a door into the bathroom.  The coolest thing about this bathroom was that the toilet flushed so quietly.  It was really neat.

Saturday during the day while SM was in his conference, I went walking around Old Town Alexandria.  Without knowing it, I came across a parade.  I can't tell you exactly 'what' the parade was...but...there were a lot of men in kilts and lots of dogs.  I think it was a dog and Scottish parade.

Here's a picture the some of the dogs.  Different groups of dogs would walk in the parade.  It was lots of fun.  Some of the smaller dogs were wearing kilts and Santa outfits.

Have you ever heard Christmas carols being played by bagpipes?  It's kind of creepy and really cool all at the same time.  I did feel sorry for all the men in kilts because the temperature was pretty low and then there was a breezy.   Brrr!

We also had some Scottish royalty walk in the parade.

And we can't forget the different clans walking in the parade, showing off their family tartan.

I had to include this picture in the group.  For those of you completely lost...this is a picture of the Loch Ness Monster...otherwise known as Bessie.  Isn't that fun?!!

And here's the wharf of Old Town Alexandria.  The boats that were docked had Christmas lights and decorations all over them. 

Flannel Scraps

About a month ago I posted about making a quilt top out of flannel scraps that I had left-over from the baby blankets, receiving blankets and burp clothes that I enjoy making.  Well, I also mentioned that I was working on a back to go on the front that I had made out of the flannel scraps.  Well, here's what I ended up with...and since it definitely doesn't look like a back to a quilt, looks like I made two small quilt tops.  I do like that it was made out of scraps and that my scrap pile is now very small.  Hopefully in the upcoming months I'll be able to make them both into quilts.

Sauerkraut

Living near Amish country has made me want to try some new things.  My grandmother would make sauerkraut when I was a child and I would go over to her house and she'd share it with me.  I always loved the squeaky feel of the cabbage and the salty taste of the sauerkraut.  Well, as we've taken many visitors to Amish country, I found a store (Lehman's) that had crock's and a cabbage shredder and my dear husband bought them for me.

I went online and read about making sauerkraut and then tried it myself.  Two things I found out from my first try at sauerkraut...one, I am not very strong.  It was difficult for me to shred that whole head of cabbage.  The three blades on the cabbage shredder are very sharp and it is recommended that you use Kevlar gloves while handling the blades.  Now, I don't have Kevlar gloves and so I was trying to be very careful AND shred the cabbage, which I did do, but it was very tough.  The second thing I found out is that I used too much salt.  It is stressed that you need to keep all the cabbage in it's own juices so that things ferment and not mold, so I would add extra salt to make sure the cabbage would weep out extra juice.  Well, I got carried away.   But  I found that if I rinse my sauerkraut before eating it, it's not too salty to eat.  I've been able to eat it raw and in a cooked dish.  It's really yummy and I will be making sauerkraut in my future.

Here's the cabbage before I covered it with a dish and a weight so that it could ferment for a week.  Yum!

Thankgiving 2010

SM and I joined two other families for Thanksgiving this year.  SM volunteered to make an English apple pie...which means to him an apple pie without the pie filling sauce or in his words, apple pie without "pie snot."  We tried a new pie crust recipe (one that  his sister recommended) and we loved it.

I went to a pie making class this fall and the lady teaching the class said that she always piled her apples really high because they bake down and she loves lots of apples in her pie.  So, we tried to do the same.  Here's the pie before we put the crust over the top.  We used twelve LARGE Granny Smith apples in the pie.  My biggest worry was how long to bake the pie.  So, I used my nose.  When a baking dish is almost done, the aroma from the oven seems to intensify and so I used this as my method, though, as we were taking the pie to Thanksgiving, I was still worried that it wasn't cooked all the way...but luckily, it was.  You could serve this pie with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, but SM and I prefer just pouring cream over your own piece of pie.

And here's the table of Thanksgiving food.  Doesn't that look amazing?!  The apple pie is also on the table, just in the middle of all the food.  I think it was put there just to look nice because we had to wait a while after eating our meal before anyone had room for pie.

Trip to Virginia and Baltimore

SM had a conference at George Mason University last weekend and so I tagged along.  This is the nice hotel room they put us in for the one night of the conference.  I had to get a picture of the room because it was so nice and wasn't what I expected when I found out we were staying on campus.  This place is called The Mason Inn and is right on campus.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Here are a few artsy pictures I took while we were in Baltimore at Fort McHenry.  I really like them and wanted to share them with you all.

And that's all folks!

The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore

Our friends Todd and Kathy also took us to the American Visionary Art Museum, also known as a museum for self-taught artists or people who like to try their hand at art but don't do it for their careers.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum so all these photos are from outside the museum.  In the museum we saw the art display titled What Makes Us Smile.  And then we saw all kinds of "art."  There was a room full of paintings that had been completed on pizza boxes and were full of large dogs with small people, painted with poster paint.  In another room we saw cartoons drawn by an artist that is a quadriplegic.  Another room contained a bench with whoopee cushions all over the seat part of the bench, so that if you sat down on the bench, flagellant noise was heard.

We also visited another room that was more bizarre with more of a Halloween theme and humor thrown into the art.  I saw a small clay and metal theme part where all the people at the carnival were scary Halloween characters.  There were quilted wall hangings that told about dogs that were heroic or naughty dogs or super-power people.  It was weird and amazing at the same time.  Outside the building we saw this giant egg and then the bird and the nest and had to get a picture of them.

This giant poodle named Fifi is from the Kinetic Sculpture Race that happens each Spring in Baltimore.  When I went online to learn more about the race the website said this about the race.  The Kinetic Sculpture Race is "human powered works of art designed to travel on land, through mud and over deep harbor waters, constructed out of used bicycles, gears, and parts, created by a lunatic genius who tinkers around in the garage or backyard."  We saw several kinetic sculptures and pictures from the race.  It looked wild and crazy and very muddy.  I guess that means it's also a lot of fun.

Someone had a lot of fun with drift wood.

And I found a new friend.

The bus behind us was also a participant in the Kinetic Sculpture Race and now is an outside attraction to the museum.  Notice the shiny building behind the bus...that is the museum.

And here is the giant whirligig that spins around outside the museum.  I enjoyed myself at the museum and also at lunch on the wharf after our tour of the museum.  Thanks to Kathy and Todd for showing us some of the attractions of Baltimore.

Fort McHenry in Baltimore

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to be in Baltimore with some friends from Virginia.  We stopped at several places and Fort McHenry was one of those places.  Before going to Fort McHenry, I had no idea what had happened there...or at least, I had forgotten all I had learned about Fort McHenry from my early school years.

Here is a model of Fort McHenry in 1812.  The flag in the middle of the fort measured 42 by 30 feet and was so large that the British fleet would be able to see it AND after the Battle of Baltimore and certain man by the name of Francis Scott Key would also be able to see it from the deck of a U.S. truce ship.

The weather was beautiful and we were able to enjoy our friends and the fort.  Here's SM with Todd and Kathy...and a very nice tree in the background.

Inside the fort, SM and I checked out the bunkers where the gun powder was stored, along with cannon balls, guns, and other war machinery.  We also toured the fort and saw where the soldiers slept and where prisoners were kept.

Oh look, a new prisoner...I'm pretty sure he hasn't been there since 1812, even though the desperation in his eyes makes it seem like he's been there that long.

Here we are on the outside wall.  Note the cannons behind us, these cannons were not the same kind of cannons from the Battle of Baltimore.   Fort McHenry was modernized and an active fort for many years after 1812.

After the long bombardment from the British, on the morning of Sept. 14, 1812, Francis Scott Key described how he felt when he saw McHenry's flag still waving.  "Through the clouds of the war the stars of the banner still shone in my view, and I saw the discomfitted host of its assailants driven back in ignominy to their ships.  Then, in the hour of deliverance, and joyful triumph, my heart spoke; and 'Does not such a country and such defenders of their country deserve a song?' was its question."  The Star-Spangled Banner became the national anthem of the United States in 1931.

I think this is the same prisoner I helped escape from the Fort's jail.  Apparently they caught him again.

Look at that great flag flying high in the sky.

I like this photo because it shows how large the cannonballs were that bombarded the Fort during the Battle of Baltimore.