Silent night, holy night,
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
With the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Merry Christmas
Author: Valerie
A Single Apple
It was a crisp, sunny morning, a few days before Christmas. We took off with friends for a drive in the country, to a small town destination. Our first stop was a Mennonite bakery where we bought some tasty treats. Our next stop was a restored train depot. We ordered breakfast and sat down at a table near the gift shop area. This space was between the room with the order counter and a larger room with bigger tables. Soon after we sat down, women started filing into the larger room, heading to a Christmas party. We surmised this, because each one carried a wrapped gift.
I have always enjoyed wrapped gifts. Gift bags are great…they are practical, reusable, bio- friendly and beautiful, and I use them a lot, but a perfectly wrapped gift in splendid paper all tied up with a ribbon is special!
Wrapped gifts were mostly what we saw as women paraded into the big room.
Then one woman came through with a gift bag. Gary called out in jest, “oh, you shouldn’t have”…and she immediately pulled out a shiny, red apple from her bag and set it in front of him and said “Merry Christmas”.
It was delightful. We thanked her, and appreciated her spontaneity.
One single apple conveyed a lot of Christmas Spirit.
Week Three in Virginia
Time went fast. During our third, and last, week in Arlington, Virginia we took care of Zoey and Ezra while their mom and dad went away for a week’s training for Tim’s new job.
On Sunday we went for a walk around the neighborhood. We walked a lot while in Arlington. There are coffee shops, restaurants and stores close by their apartment, school is about a half mile away, and the Metro stop is three blocks away. Once downtown DC, we walked everywhere…and we were happy to do so.
Sunday afternoon we watched the St. Olaf Christmas Festival online, while coloring postcards using colored pencils.
After walking the kids to school on Monday, Gary and I took the Metro downtown and toured the Ford’s Theatre, where President Lincoln was shot.
April 14, 1865.
Next we walked to the National Archives. Another impressive building with interesting and well-done exhibits.
We saw the original Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights.
We relaxed on Tuesday, and Gary and I went for another long walk.
Wednesday the kids had an early release day from school, so once again we hopped on the Metro and went downtown DC. This time we went to the Natural History Museum. (Did I mention all these museums are free?)
Gems and minerals was my favorite exhibit of those we went to. (I also liked the animals exhibit.) We saw the Hope Diamond, a 45.52 carats blue diamond, known for its flawless clarity, rare deep blue color, and “colorful” history. Sixteen white diamonds surround the blue diamond, with 46 white diamonds making up this stunning necklace. The stone was found in India in the 1600’s. It was originally about 112 carats, but through the years and different owners, it was cut down to 45.52 carats. It was gifted to the Smithsonian in 1958.
Our last ride on the Metro was on Friday. We went back to the National Mall.
As we walked along Constitution Avenue we tucked into an inconspicuous, historical, small stone house that we noticed along the way. We found it is was a Lockkeeper’s House built about 1832-1837. It served the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal. The lockkeeper was responsible for opening and closing the lock, and for collecting tolls. This house was moved about 50’ in 1915 due to the widening of the street, and moved again to its current location in 2017 and opened to the public in 2018.
We tucked into the Museum of American History for an hour. Once again, so many interesting exhibits! We only went to a couple of them.
Friday night the parents came home from their week’s training, and all was well.
Mostly packing and a walk on Saturday. The apartment complex where we stayed had a Christmas wrapping station set up in the lobby for the residents to use.
We had a few small gifts to give, so I took advantage of this station and wrapped them up.
That evening we all went out for a celebration dinner.
With hearts full, we flew back to Minnesota on Sunday. We were greeted with below zero temperatures! Brrrr….(But the friends who picked us up at the airport treated us to a warm, soup supper in their home before dropping us off at our house. It was a warm welcome indeed.)
Week Two in Virginia
*Forgive me if this comes to your email twice. I tried publishing this at 6:30 am but it hasn’t gone through so I recreated the post and am trying it again.*
Continuing a photo journal of our adventures from week two, visiting family, in Arlington, Virginia (showing one to three…photos a day).
Sunday, November 30, was the first Sunday of Advent, and it was a special one. We went to an advent service in the Washington National Cathedral.
Heavenly voice and Bible readings filled the spectacular cathedral, and made for a memorable event.
Gary and I decided to take an overnight trip up to Pennsylvania to visit Gary’s family. His hometown is only about three hours away from where we were staying in Virginia, so we got up early Monday morning and drove to Pennsylvania for an over night visit.
We stopped at his younger sister’s farm for a visit. Then, we drove to the farm where Gary grew up. The friendly Mennonite folks who live there invited us in for a chat. They are lovely people.
Later that evening, a lot of family members joined us for a dinner out, even though it was last minute.
We decided to drive back Tuesday morning, forgoing another farm visit to Gary’s other sister’s farm, simply because it was snowing and slick driving conditions. But we were grateful to be able to take this time to reconnect…our short stay was very enjoyable.
We were ready again on Thursday to take the Metro into the city. The Metro is such a great system. We stopped at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, honoring the 34th U.S. President, on our way to the United States Botanic Garden.
There was plenty to see indoors with special December exhibits: models of DC landmarks made from plant parts, and thousands of poinsettias were placed in groups all around the gardens.
Next, we walked to the White House to check out the new ballroom construction, but we couldn’t see a thing.
After school the kids helped us count the miscellaneous coins the family had accumulated over the year. The bank said the coins had to be counted and put in wrappers. It turned out to be a fun project…and profitable.
We went up to the rooftop to observe December’s full moon, Thursday December 4.
Lunch on Friday was in DuPont Circle. We met friends who were former neighbors in Northfield for many years. They moved to the DC area a few years ago.
We arranged to meet at a restaurant along the Metro line so both parties could just hop on the Metro. We had a great time. As we walked back to the Metro station we stopped at a pop-up Christmas Market which was fun to peruse. There was leftover dusting of snow on trees and roses… it felt “Christmassy.”
Zoey had Portuguese lessons again on Saturday. We went on another pleasurable walk with Ezra. Mid-afternoon we walked to a park near their apartment. The kids still enjoy play grounds. We stopped for an ice cream cone on the way home. It’s never too cold for ice cream.
Week One in Virginia
We left Northfield a week before Thanksgiving to go visit our son and his family in Arlington, Virginia. On our way to the airport I realized I still had my slippers on! Fortunately, we were close enough to home so we had time to turn around and get my shoes! (I won’t mention the full cup of coffee I spilled all over my backpack at the airport.)
I guess I was excited. We were going to spend time with our son and his family. They are moving to India. We were happy to have some quality time to create more memories before they leave… and it was fun to take the grandchildren on adventures while mom and dad stayed home to work and pack! 😉
This blog post will be a diary: a photo essay, with one, or maybe two, pictures per day to capture our first week. It was challenging to select the photos out of the hundreds I took!
Our first full day we dropped Zoey off for Portuguese lessons and Gary and I went for a long walk with Ezra. This is the day we made chocolate chip cookies which I blogged about a couple weeks ago.
We also “packed” Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes online. This is an outreach project by Samaritan’s Purse that delivers gift-filled shoeboxes to children in need worldwide.
For breakfast on Sunday morning our granddaughter, who especially likes to cook and bake, made waffles. Her brother made blueberry syrup.
Ezra had a play date scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Zoey and I made a mosaic candle holder from a craft kit.
On Monday, we walked the kids to school. We did so each morning, and we also picked them every afternoon. It’s a .8 mile round-trip walk.
On our first Monday while Tim & Andrea worked/packed, Gary and I took the Metro to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts. We walked down the Hall of Nations (flags from all countries) and the Hall of States (flags from all states). Minnesota’s new flag was on display. The Kennedy Center is a beautiful building, made of marble from Italy, with chandeliers from Sweden. We had a fantastic tour guide…all to ourselves.
Tuesday morning Gary and I went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. This is a somber, yet incredible, must-see museum.
Pictures of shoe piles and pictures of hair piles (from the victims) left a lasting impression. We also went through a special exhibit designed just for kids, which was very well done.
The kids Thanksgiving break started on Wednesday. We took the grandkids to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which is a Smithsonian Museum near Dulles airport (not to be confused with its companion museum, The National Air and Space Museum).
The Udvar-Hazy Center displays hundreds of air and space craft, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Concorde, and a Blackbird SR-71 (fastest manned jet).
The space shuttle Discovery was a sight to see. There were so many interesting aircraft in this museum. It was impressive, and a lot of fun.
Of course the kids were off school on Friday too, so Gary and I and the kids hopped on the Metro …
and took it to the National Gallery of Art.
I really liked this place.
One really needs multiple visits to do justice to this art museum (I could say that of all of the museums), but this first time for me in the National Art Gallery was a lot of fun. We each chose an animal, color, and object to look for in the art works.
On Saturday, we walked through the Farmer’s Market near the apartment, took a short drive along the Potomac River, the kids showed off their skills on their hover boards, and we all went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.
*****
Night falls over Washington DC…
Views of the capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Performing Arts building (the large building with white lights on left side of photo) to name a few…
December’s Full Moon
December’s full moon, also called the cold moon, over Washington D.C. from the rooftop of our son’s apartment building.
Happy Thanksgiving
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to the Most High.
It is good to proclaim His unfailing love in the morning,
His faithfulness in the evening...
Psalm 92:1-2
Oops…
We are spending a few weeks with our grandchildren in Virginia. One of the activities we like to do together is bake. We found the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies in the cupboards so we decided to make a batch.
It’s a team effort…the three of us… our oldest granddaughter, her brother and myself. We don aprons, wash our hands, and always take turns measuring the different ingredients, adding them to the mixer, stirring them all together and rolling the cookie dough into balls to drop on the cookie sheet.
Into the oven they went…one cookie sheet at a time. We checked them after nine minutes, the lowest time of the suggested 9-11 minute time check. As we opened the oven door, all three of us were there to inspect. And what we saw was not what we expected. Hmmm…
They don’t look like they normally do…what did we do wrong?
Let’s go over the ingredient list...
Sugar – check
Flour – check
Baking soda – check
Salt – check
Butter – check
Wait...oops...the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter. Oh, Oh...we only added one stick of butter when it called for one cup, which is two sticks.
Darn! I’m sorry kiddos, I told us the wrong amount of butter to use.
“It’s OK grandma…they’ll probably still taste good.” (They’re so sweet!)
And, surprisingly the cookies were tasty! We finished baking all the cookie dough and ate them all up over the next two days. In fact, I may use only one stick of butter the next time I use this recipe…they were that good!
It reminded me of a Thomas Edison quote: “I have not failed. I have successfully discovered twelve hundred ideas that don’t work”
…only this mistake worked!
“The Sherlock Carol”
Charles Dicken’s “The Christmas Carol”, is one of my favorite stories. Over the years I have gone to many different live performances, watched a video annually, and collected books with this title. A fun fact: ““The Christmas Carol” has never been out of print since its first publication in 1843.”
“The Christmas Carol” is truly a transformation story. Sometimes I need a reminder to be of good cheer and be generous with my time and money.
I have seen the traditional play many times. I have seen the play which incorporates the gospel message in the production “The Gospel According to Scrooge” (although the original already has a good news message). And now I’ve seen the play with twists and turns in “The Sherlock Carol”, a melding of two Christmas stories…”The Christmas Carol” written by Charles Dickens and “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s billed as a “fun holiday mystery” as the play blends aspects of both stories together in surprising ways. “A merry & mysterious mash-up” for sure! The writer was so creative and clever to combine these two stories. It is well written.
Commonweal Theatre is in the small town of Lanesoboro, Minnesota. The theatre is starting its 37th year of providing the community with amazing productions on stage. And they are all professional actors (this is not community theatre…although I think community theatre is wonderful too!)
“The Sherlock Carol’s” main characters are, of course, Mr. Scrooge and Sherlock Holmes. The remaining four actors (total of six actors in the play) are acting out the remaining 22 characters in the show! And they do an excellent job accomplishing that feat. It is witty, and funny, and very entertaining.
Theatre capacity was filled on this third performance, with many more performances scheduled through December. The stage was full of props, yet it jumps from different locations by “shifting the lights and adjusting a single piece of furniture”. Another feat accomplished well.
Although Lanesboro is a rather long drive from Northfield, stopping for breakfast on the way down and for a lite supper on the way home and seeing an excellent play in-between, made for a delightful day.
It’s “elementary (my dear Watson)” to highly recommend this uplifting production of “The Sherlock Carol”.
“God Bless us everyone.”
The Northern Lights
It’s not often one gets to see the northern lights, especially in town, and in southern Minnesota, but the last two nights there were wonderful displays right outside our front door. A neighbor sent a photo in a text alerting me to check out the spectacular show on Tuesday evening.
I have seen the northern lights a couple times in my life. Once with the naked eye from a parking lot at our church. That was many years ago – at that time I did not have an ever-ready camera (cell phone) to look at them through the lens that illuminates them. I remember faintly seeing green streaks in the northern sky.
However, in May 2024, having heard on the news the northern lights may be visible, I drove a mile out-of-town to watch for them. There were several of us folks who had driven away from the city lights to look for them. There was excitement in the air as we did witness a spectacular light show.
In May 2024 the colors were purple and green, with some yellow and red.
Tuesday night the colors were dramatic reds and greens…(maybe because Christmas is coming? HA)
We didn’t see as much activity on Wednesday night…at least the times when we checked, but we did catch on fabulous green streak with purple hues.
What an awesome, glorious, “free event”, put on by the Father of Lights.
Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17