Christmas in Williamsburg

This past weekend, Tom and I went on a quick trip to visit my cousin Julia who is a senior at William & Mary, while also seeing Grand Illumination at Colonial Williamsburg. If you haven't heard of it or been there, Colonial Williamsburg is this mile-long stretch of historic land and buildings preserved from the time right before the American Revolution. You check out the blacksmith making nails, see medicines and freaky surgical tools in the apothecary, buy handmade goods like fresh wreaths, see how government (legislature, courts, governor's palace, even church) worked back then.

We had a great time, though we will remember how cold and windy it was. Brrrr! Upon returning to our car to get warm and take a little break, Tom broke his driver's seat in the car so that it was frozen in the totally-laid-flat position. Hilarious, especially since we had 3 hours to drive back to Raleigh. We ended up using his duffel bag to lean against and split up the drive time 50/50 so neither of us came home with a serious backache.

In the evening, we listened to Fifes & Drums (oh, by the way, I bought Tom a fife so next time you see him, ask him how flute practice is coming) and choral music. Finally there was a grand fireworks show from three different locations.

What's really crazy is that upon looking for photos on Flickr, I happened upon someone who took a picture of us from behind:


Sorry my hair looks so messy, but I was using everything I could (my coat, my pashmina and even my messy hair) to stay warm. lol And there is Tom wearing a spring jacket... craziness.

Anyway, the only thing I can't figure out, is if there is a major lighting of the buildings that we missed? That's why I was looking for photos online. We were so cold and wanted to avoid the gettin-outta-here traffic that we left a tiny bit early.

Well, Williamsburg was charming and festive and now we're back home again. Sigh. There's no place like home.

Thanksgiving weekend = Christmas decorating

Okay so Tom is really, really sick! I thought getting out in the fresh air after 2 days cooped up at home would make him feel better, but he came back from work even more tired. Poor guy. At least Pastor is keeping him company as he dozes on the couch.

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our first real Christmas tree! We have an artificial tree sitting in the garage but decided to go for a real one this year. I'm so glad we did, too, because it smells amazing (although Blue Spruce fragrance oil from The Body Shop smells equally amazing and is much smaller, lol), and anyway it's so symmetrical and happy. They wrapped it so well with netting that we brought it home in the backseat of the car, although it was sticking about a foot and half out the window. We had the hazard lights on the whole time, it was hilarious.






So, now we are officially ready for the Advent/Christmas season. Putting a tree up made me eager to have some kind of holiday get-together... we shall see.

Here we are!

This is Jenny, and Tom and I are sitting here on this Saturday night just watching TV. One of our favorite shows, Kitchen Nightmares, just ended. Tom came down with some kind of snotty sickness today, so we've just been laying low on this Thanksgiving weekend!

We decided to start a blog for friends and family to stay up to date. Those of you on Facebook probably already stay pretty connected, but this will make it easier for those who aren't.

Well, that's all for now. lol