Bolton Hill for the Holidays

Anyone who knows Baltimore knows that it is all about its neighborhoods. (This is probably true of most bigger cities, but I only know Baltimore so that is what I am drawing on.)

The fabulous little neighborhood we live in is Bolton Hill. We love it here for many reasons, but I'll just share a few. For one, it is conveniently close to MICA where Jon is attending school. Also, we are equally close to church. In addition, it's convenient with a Rite-Aid, a Sav-a-Lot and a hardware store just a block away. We're close, but not too close to Downtown, Penn Station and only 20 minutes to the airport. We are two miles from the zoo and the Aquarium and just a bit more to the Science Center. And for Baltimore standards :), we feel pretty safe here. But finally, the real reason for this post... it is simply charming. Take a look...

Bolton Hill has the prettiest little streets of rowhouses. Nearly all the homes in Bolton Hill and Baltimore for that matter, are rowhouses - which is why they all pretty much have the same configuration: 2 long, narrow windows and a door.









Okay, I know it is serious overkill with the pictures today, but you'll recognize when I really am excited about something by the number of pics I post - hence the two dozen+ photos today.
Quite a few home-owners went all out, decorating all three levels of their rowhouses. I love it!

In Italy I began a new love affair with doors. Not any old doors, doors with personality, beauty and individuality. Before Italy I had never seen so many said doors and I must have taken 100 pictures of them last summer.  Baltimore has captured my heart in the same way. I love the stoops here, the way they all say something different to me.  





And finally the windows and their beautiful boxes... When we arrived in August, the windowboxes of Bolton Hill were overflowing with the most stunning displays of nasturtiums, impatiens, ivy, petunias, dahlias, zinnias, passionflower, bougainvillea and the favorite sweet potato vine.  I didn't think the boxes could get any lovelier until the Garden Club had their annual fundraiser. 

I only snapped a few pictures as it was getting late and I was losing the light, but you can see how striking they are.  For any of you copycats out there, myself included, let me tell you some of the plants used. Magnolia was a favorite, as were bays and laurels. Yews, box and juniper were popular too. I loved the wreaths and garlands with fruit on them - apples, pears, nuts too.

Who am I kidding, even without Christmas decorations, I love the architecture of Bolton Hill. I wander the streets with the kids and Jack in tow with a big smile on my face for the beauty of this place. Simply charming, beautiful, unique and for 18 months more, I get to be a part of it. 

Ingrid, have you discovered your secret blessing for the day? I have! :)

Gingerbread Heaven and New Traditions

We love the nativity around here. We have half a dozen of them to display for Christmas. This year we had a new addition. It's a little different in that everything about it is edible. Not too shabby huh?

In years past, we have made gingerbread houses to start the holidays off. This usually happens around Thanksgiving, but this year we were a bit slow. We ended up decorating the gingerbread on Christmas Day. 

I am all about traditions during the holiday season and decided I wanted to start a new tradition this year. Instead of making only a gingerbread house, I made a gingerbread nativity too. I did it all freehand this year and I think it turned out great. 

Jon did most of the decorating of the nativity and all the decor on the house. This is definitely a tradition we will keep.

Polar Express 4D

So let's backtrack to last week...

The Aquarium in Baltimore has been showing the Polar Express in 4D since mid-November. After Jon finished classes, we decided we had to go. All I can say is   WOW!! It was fabulous! If you have never been to a 4D show, let me tell you, it is an experience. They are short, to be sure, but jam packed for the 15 minutes you get. Everybody liked something different. Esther kept talking about (for days afterwards) the hot chocolate scene where you could smell the cocoa.  Jon liked that too and the pine smell as well. Et and I both really liked the roller coaster scene and we all like the swirling snowflakes in the air.  It was a total blast! 

For those of you who don't know about 4D, it is incredible. You get everything a 3D show offers, plus smells, movement (in, under and behind your chair), things in the air (bubbles, snow, wind) and water spraying you occasionally (like when the train is skidding across the ice and when it clears the ice on the other side). 

It was fun for everyone and definitely something we would do again.  It really brought the movie to life.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!

We love Christmas! What a blessed time of year this is. There is so much to be grateful for and so much that brings joy.

This is our biggest Christmas tree to date, standing at just over 11' tall and more than 5' wide!

(I had to post two pics so you could see Sis in front, to have a reference point. She looks superimposed to me and she is too adorable to be real.)

Elder K and the kids reading C&H, drinking root beer in the morning and playing with my iPhone.

We were blessed this Christmas to have the missionaries over for the day, Elders K and B. We love these Elders! Sadly, Elder B was sick with a bad fever for most of the day. We were also blessed to have two other families join us for Christmas dinner. For this being our first Christmas away from family, we sure felt blessed and experienced so much peace.

Elder B and Et reading Calvin and Hobbes. Et got the Complete  Collection. It was a big hit!
Esther with her jewelry box. Jon had a friend make special boxes for the kids. Et's was a secret compartmented puzzle box. He got really fast at opening it.
Book 1 of the Series. I think this was almost better than a Lego set to him... almost.
Esther had been wanting a camera for awhile. She must have been on the nice list.
He is growing up so fast and becoming so witty, so much fun and so tall. I love to see him with the missionaries. He'll be there before we can imagine! He's really such a terrific kid!
Esther is becoming so beautiful and is getting sweeter everyday. She loved her bear from Jon's parents and named her Shirley Temple.
Jack was content to chase wrapping paper and tear it to shreds. He got a new rope to chew on.

Mega-wattage on 34th Street

We had heard about Baltimore's own "Miracle on 34th Street". It's in the papers, to-do books and people on campus told Jon we had to go... You see, around Christmas it is something special. This little street of rowhouses really comes to life during the holidays.
Hundreds of thousands of lights set this street ablaze the entire holiday season. Serious mega-wattage going on here.
Street vendors come out to sell unwanted things at unheard-of prices (hot dogs, glow sticks, pony rides - you get the gist).

Some of the residents even invite people into their homes to look at art and drink cocoa.
One resident dressed as Santa every night and passed out goodies to anyone who came by.
We had to go down the street twice to get these pictures. We actually waited longer to get on the street than it took to drive down it. Oddly enough, it was really fun - not the waiting necessarily, but the whole experience.
If there is a competition between the residence, (which I'm sure there is)this guy's got my vote. It was insane how bright it was. Have you ever seen the movie, Christmas with the Kranks? That street has nothing on this one.
If you're ever in Baltimore during the holidays, I highly recommend this detour. We'll see you there next year.