Sunday, December 12, 2010

A Fun Weekend For All

My guys are in Jacksonville for the weekend, visiting family and attending a Jaguars game.  They enjoyed a drive down to St Augustine and have been instructed to take lots of pictures - I'll show them to you later in the week!

The girls and I had a fun weekend - with all of the cinnamon roll mayhem I haven't been able to shop for Christmas presents, but I made up for lost time on Friday and Saturday.  In between delivering cinnamon rolls, I shopped locally on Friday and then hit IKEA on Saturday (while the girls made gingerbread houses at my mother-in-laws). 

Today we visited my sister and her husband in Philadelphia for a little Christmas-themed fun.  We went to the Macy's light show, the Comcast building display, the Dickens Christmas Village, and the Christmas Village around Town Hall.  In between we indulged in lots of eating - and enjoyed unusually warm temperatures (55 degrees) with no rain.  What a perfect day!





Right after I took this picture in the Christmas Village, a worker said, "we prefer you don't take pictures in here" - I guess she could tell I was a woodworker on the side and was going to recreate this intricate creche display. 


But, the best part - the.best.part. was this.  My sister discovered that a vendor from yesterdays display at Reading Terminal market had stashed his leftover merchandise in the bushes.  Apparently, he was selling illegally and was shut down - so, instead of dragging all of the Christmas trees, swags, and wreaths back with him, he threw them in the bushes - where we nabbed them!  That's right, we scored big!  

 We grabbed two boxwood wreaths, a candy cane wreath, an arborvitae garland, and a cross wreath.  I'll keep you posted - I kept the one boxwood wreath and the large garland.  The wreaths I originally had on our front windows have not fared so well - we'll see if we can salvage them.  Oh, yeah, and those clove-studded oranges?  They're all moldy and green - but they blend in with the greens, so they're still on the mantel! 
I had been getting a little cynical about the Christmas spirit being dead because of American materialism, but this weekend was so fun with family together time and "bush-diving", my spirit is renewed! 

How has your Christmas season been so far this year?  Did you enjoy fun activities with your family or were you rushing around and shopping this weekend? 

9 comments:

  1. Kirsten: it sounds like the whole fam had a great weekend! The guys had a great time watching the Jags win & you scored big time in the bushes!!! I'm glad your Christmas spirit is revived! Here in Iowa, most everything had been cancelled for today-church services, programs & holiday events, due to our first winter storm. It's hard to tell how much snow we've had cuz the storm came with 40-60 mph winds!!! RJ was out with the tractor about 3 hrs moving snow from the yard so hopefully we can get out in the AM-temps are in the single digits today-supposed to get down to -10F tonite-wind chills -40! -I've done most of my shopping on line this year-I H.A.T.E. holiday crowds; plus, I don't have alot of shopping to do-I'm sure that will change next cmas season once the new grandbaby arrives!! Have a super week!!
    Aunt Jean

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  2. No rushing around for me- that's what 17 inches of snow will do! It was actually nice to have an excuse to stay inside- I got a lot of Christmas baking done and wrapped presents.

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  3. Oh it looks like you all had so much fun!

    Free wreaths.Yay! Score. I shopped and slobbed round all weekend. Go me !

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  4. Jean - I'm not sure it's ever been that cold here!!!! I bet it's beautiful, but it sounds dangerous. I'm so excited for next year for you, Russ, Josh, and Casta! :)

    Sara - I heard Minneapolis got blasted!! When do you head back home?

    Shay - good for you! I can't wait to hang the wreaths and garland today!!!

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  5. It does look and sound like you ad a great weekend. You did well finding those wreaths, yay!
    I love the second photo, absolutely gorgeous.
    On Sunday we had an early Christmas family get together, which was very nice and oddly relaxing.

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  6. "Kirsten's Cooking said...
    Shay - good for you! I can't wait to hang the wreaths and garland today!!!
    December 13, 2010 5:39 AM"

    Nice try, honey! Unfortunately for you, Jacksonville Airport has free wi-fi. I can't wait for you to hang the wreaths and garland today, either!

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  7. I tried to trick Rob and say that he had to hang the wreaths after he got home from JAX - my mom and I arranged everything today in the frigid weather :)

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  8. I'll head to IA on the 22nd. Hopefully there's no snow this time!

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  9. He he he darn that free wi-fi.

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