December 2016 - A Photographic Recap

A little look back at December 2016 - which seems to have been lost in the shuffle from one blog server to another. *sigh* December 2016 was good and here is the photographic evidence and a little anecdotal writing about it, ha-ha!

December Fog...Rolling across the meadows...

My favorite present every year - under the tree.

The first weekend of December 2016 - I joined my Mom and several of the women from her ladies group in Hershey, Pennsylvania. We had dinner on Friday night at an awesome brewery right up the hill/down the hill from our hotel - getting up and down the hill provided quite a bit of amusement as we all tried not to slide here and there. The food was delicious and the company was even more wonderful!

We did some Christmas shopping on Saturday at the outlets of Hershey and had delicious dinner at a restaurant recommended to us by locals. In between the shopping and the divine dining, we popped into the Hershey's Chocolate World and honestly - the smell alone is enough to take you down - but we managed to stay upright, do some shopping and take in the gorgeous "gingerbread" house made completely of chocolate!

We popped into the Hotel Hershey on Sunday morning to take in all the gorgeous Christmas decorations and then we headed home. We had lunch with the Hunt's and I was entertained by sweet Amelia throughout lunch, ha-ha!

During the week, my co-workers and I - also my friends - caught a showing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at the Alamo, complete with glow light crowns, ties and more. It was hilarious and so much fun. My Mom and I also attended the Christmas Ladies Tea at my church and it was wonderful!

The second weekend of December was wonderful - and also absolutely (and literally) freezing! We headed into DC for the weekend and attended a performance of Handel's Messiah at the Kennedy Center. I loved getting to see the views of DC from the roof of the Kennedy Center and the performance was so spectacular - my heart just soared with the music when the Hallelujah chorus was sung! 

We walked back to our hotel in the brisk 20 degree temperatures and woke on Saturday to ice covering everything! We scaled back our plans to drive over to Arlington to lay wreaths and had breakfast in the warmth of our hotel room before carefully making our way outside and to Arlington National Elementary. Everything was wreathed and ringed in ice but by lunch time, the sun came out and the ice began to melt away... we had a late lunch at Chuy's and headed home.

In between all the holiday celebrating and out and about... I was having a closet built and so that left my room in a bit of disarray. It would be finished by January and is still one of the favorite parts of my apartment.

The third weekend of December brought time spent with our "framily" members - that would be the people that are friends but have become family. All wonderful and a gift to spend time with. Gifts were exchanged, food was eaten and laughter was shared.

My sister came home and all too soon, Christmas morning arrived! We celebrated the day with the Christmas service at church and then came home to have a delicious lunch, exchange gifts and just enjoy time with one another. 

There was no sleeping in the day after Christmas - we made our way to DC in the early hours and caught the train into New York City. We spent two days taking in the sights and sounds of the city, catching a Broadway show, eating some delicious food, looking at the outrageous store windows and so much more. It was a wonderful way to close the Christmas season!

What a wonderful way to spend the month of December - with family, friends and precious reminders of the gift that is Christmas.