Christmas is the Warmest Time of the Year

Now that it's almost Valentine's day, I thought I'd better blog about some of our Christmas activities.  

We were fortunate enough to take two different trips to see the lights at the DC temple, once with a neighbor couple and once with one of Kent's coworkers and his wife.  

 The lights seemed especially lovely and colorful this year.

 You can tell by our coats that one visit was a colder evening than the other!

 I love the shot below, with the side of the visitor's center with the church's name of the side, and the spires of the temple showing in the background.

 Kent was inspired by the spectacular temple lights to do some colorful lights on our trees, bushes and fences at home, as you can see in the following pictures.  He put up more lights on the other side of our yard as the month went by, but unfortunately we didn't get pictures of those.

 Kent bought more colorful lights and plans to get even fancier next Christmas.

This shot from the outside looking in, shows the German lichtbogen I put in the window every Christmas.

The ladies in my Bible study group went on a daytrip to see Mount Vernon at Christmas.  I love to visit Mount Vernon, and it's especially fun at Christmas time.

Speaking of the Washingtons, we also took a candlelight tour of the home of Mary Ball Washington,  George Washington's mother.  Her home was in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

  I've been to Fredericksburg many times and have seen most of the historical sites there, but had never been to Mary Washington's home.

On a different and MUCH warmer day, Kent and I went on a volksmarch through downtown Fredericksburg.  As you can see, we didn't even need coats that day!  The home you can see pictured below behind Kent and me is called Kenmore, and it belonged to George Washington's sister, Betty Lewis and her husband.  (Yet another Washington connection.)

 Here's a shot of downtown Fredericksburg; such a picturesque little town.

 Our volksmarch led us past the Confederate Cemetery.

I invited the ladies from my Bible study group to come over to my house for a "Christmas in Germany" party. Not everyone was able to come, but it was fun to wear my dirndl and show my power point slide show about the German Christmas markets.

I'd bought German sausages and cookies at Aldi, the German grocery store in our town, and also made German potato pancakes like they serve at the Christmas markets.

 I think this year's Christmas tree was one of the prettiest we've ever had, and we just bought it at Home Depot for $30.  The shape was perfect, rather tall and not too wide, and it held up amazingly well, losing hardly any needles.  We put it in front of the window in the dining room, which was a new location for it.

 As it is every year, it was sad when it was time to take it down and put it away.