Christmas in Williamsburg

The first week of December we visited Williamsburg. This is the second Christmas trip we have made to that historic town and we loved it. We love just walking the streets and feeling the history of the place. There is nothing like it! The decorations are beautiful, the people are friendly… It just can’t be topped. This year we took a tour sponsored by the garden club and got to see buildings that are not usually open. William did wonderful the first day.

The second day we were scheduled to see the “Grand Illumination”. Once a year at Christmas time they shoot fireworks in 3 different places in town. The fireworks light up the buildings and the sky. There are also small fires all along the sidewalks as well as lanterns. We hear it’s beautiful. We wanted William to be well rested and ready for the evening’s activities so we stayed in our hotel room and made sure he got his two naps and lots of food. We left around 3:30 and headed for the town. We don’t have any explanation for it but almost as soon as we hit the historic area William started crying. Not just little whimpers but loud cries of misery. Nothing would comfort him, and we tried pretty much everything. So after about 30 minutes we left. No Grand Illumination for us. It was McDonalds in the hotel room. And William, you may ask. He cooed and laughed and smiled the whole time he was up and then happily went off to sleep.

This is where the President of the Williamsburg Foundation lives.

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The Second Day

We have just arrived for the festivities of the Grand Illimination

A handbell performance on one of several outdoor stages

Our McDonalds Feast

Thanksgiving at the Ayscues

This year was the first year I hosted Thanksgiving. It was a wonerful time and I enjoyed every minute of it. All the Ayscues came and we rejoiced in God's goodness to us.

After the Feast

When Russ's family comes for holidays they, so far, have all spent the night. It's really fun to have a house full of people and just be able to hang out all together especially because we don't get to see Randy and Nance much at all. After Thanksgiving dinner we watched all 8mm family movies. The next morning we pretty much just watched the kids.

Steve & Rose

My cousin Steve and his family stopped by our house on their way to my Aunt's house for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to see them! We had chili for lunch and Grandma's butter cake for dessert. Kathline and Hope discovered the attic. They were so excited. They were in our finished room above the garage and there is a half door up there that leads to the attic. They opened it and began exploring. I love that they did that. One of my dreams as a child was always to stumble upon an attic with lots of neat things to look through. I don't think our attic has many neat things but apparently they did, as I overheard them tell their mortified mother who was seeking to reprimand them for their overly zealous curiosity, "there are lots of really cool things up there".

Fall Pics

I know its almost the new year. I know this because I've been busy with Thanskgiving and Christmas things, hence no blogging. However, despite the fact that I should be posting snowy pics with people dressed in green and red I'm going to post leafy pics with people dressed in orange and brown. I'll get to the green and red, sometime.

Emerald Isle in November

William and I along with two teenage girls from the Reformed Baptist Church went to see our friend Doni who recently moved to Emerald Isle. It was a fun couple of days. William loved watching the ocean. He was fascinated by the sound and site of the waves.

William is not yet a year but he really gets around. Russ and I were talking about it the other day and these are all the things he will have done before he turns one; fly on a plane 5 times, visit the beach 3 times, visit Williamsburg 2 times, see the mountains of Virginia and of course see St. Louis.

Doni took him out to feed the birds one morning. He wanted to keep all the bread for himself.

Breaking News!!!

It snowed today in Red Oak, North Carolina. Big, fluffy, white flakes of snow fell for almost an hour and covered the ground.

In other news William went to the doctor today and he weighed in at 14.9 pounds with a length of 26 and 3/4 inches. Grow baby grow!

BJ's little brother

A new dog showed up on our door step about 3 weeks ago. He really is the sweetest pup. We call him Patches. As you can see he's mostly lab. Problem is we already have two dogs and we can't keep him. He is about 8 months old and we are desperatley trying to find him a home. Any takers?

Reformation Day

This year we began a Reformation Day tradition. I'm sure we'll exapand the day as William gets older but for now our Reformation Day tradition is having pumpkin stew for dinner, so called because you bake and serve the stew in a pumpkin, and apple fritters for dessert. I imagine when William gets old enough to feed himself we will not only have a pumpkin tureen but little pumpkin bowls as well. Unfortunatley I didn't get many pictures.

The State Fair

One of our annual traditions is to go to the NC State Fair. Russ loves the fair and has gone every year for a long time. Last year we went, but I still had morning sickness and it was not nearly as fun as this year. We got there at about 9:00 in the morning and the wind was pretty strong with a cold bite to it. As soon as you enter the fair grounds your nostrils are inundated with wonderful smells of roasted corn, French fries, funnels cakes and the list goes on. The best remedy for a cold wind is some ham biscuits and coffee. Russ knows all the best booths for food so off we went. Unfortunately William can’t appreciate ham biscuits yet so after we had those we found a place for him to enjoy some milk. After that it was time for a hamburger from the famous Charcoal Hearth. They make the best and we go there every year. After the hamburgers you have to have Al’s fries. They are homemade and really amazingly good. In case you haven’t caught on by now, a big part of the fair is the food. But that’s not the only part.

There are lots and lots of exhibits. We saw all kinds of garden vegetables, huge pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes…Then there are the animals, bulls, calves, goats, pigs…There is the village of yesteryear. The craft exhibits are amazing, quilts, needle work, cake decorating…There are beautiful flowers and outside garden plots. We could have spent two days there but we left at about 6:00 p.m., our little fellow did quite well as you can see but we didn’t want to push it.

But wait I forgot to mention the NC State ice cream, roasted corn, fried vegetables, cinnabun, sausage sandwich and cotton candy. William had to content himself with a blue blanket.