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Friday, December 28, 2012

Post-Christmas

Christmas Day has come and gone.  The two weeks leading up to the big day came with challenges that I will spare you the details.  The best of the celebrations began on Sunday at Cynthia and family's annual "Christmas Eve Squared" party.  Friends that are more like family now all gather and bring food to share and celebrate the coming birthday.  Cynthia and Bob did a fabulous job decorating their lovely home for the holidays (she needs to post pictures).  We talked and laughed and told stories.  I so very much enjoyed myself and felt genuinely happy - which is the best gift. 

Christmas Eve I attended the later worship service at my church with my daughters and various family members.  We were treated to a brass quartet pre-service concert of classic Christmas tunes.  I love singing all the hymns of Christmas.  My congregation is filled with really good singers and since we are Lutheran, we sing a lot.  The choir sang beautifully.  For our final two hymns we "go dark" and all hold a lit candle to light our way and our music while we sing.  I loved all of it.

Christmas Day we went to my sister Janet and her husband Jim's house.  Sixteen of us gathered there.  We each brought a part of the meal and our gifts to give each other.  What a wonderful time we all enjoyed!

I hope you all had a wonderful celebration of family and friends this year too!

Peace On Earth,  Good Will to All! 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

It is 12-12-12 !!!

This is certainly a busy time of year for everyone.  It is also the time of year when I begin to think about the things I want to do better next year.  One of them is keeping up with this blog.  TwoLuLa has been a wonderful outlet for Cynthia and I to think about the creativity in our lives and post progress.  Yet here it sits, unattended. 

I have survived my big craft show.  Sold adequately but nothing to quit my day job over. One show a year does not a business make either.   I know I have much more work to make a business like this succeed, so I am not giving up yet.

Last weekend, my hubby and I and my sister Janet and her hubby went to Cape May for the weekend.  We toured the Victorian homes for their holiday tour.  Such a fabulous weekend!


The Thursday we arrived was sunny.  So we walked the block to the beach and by the time we got there it was cloudy and drizzly.  The sky remained this color for the remainder of the weekend.

In case you are wondering, the beaches south of Atlantic City did not sustain the severe damage the the rest of the beaches from A.C. up did.  The beaches that are the ones my daughters frequent are devastated.  Streets are sand covered.  Boardwalks are gone.  Ordinary people lost their homes (not the second homes you think about, but their primary residences.)  Beaches are eroded.  Much reconstructing is needed and it will never be the same. 

While Cape May did have some flooding, for the most part, it looked untouched.


Doilies purchased at an antiques mart.

We frequented this small shopping district and it's beautiful stores.  I even did some Christmas shopping.
By far the favorite was walking past the fudge store and the ladies giving free samples.











These are a few of the beautiful Victorian homes that make this beach resort so fabulous.  Did you know that Cape May is the United States first beach resort town?


We stayed at the Carroll Villa Hotel.  It is an old Victorian hotel.
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Walking for the Holiday lights tour took us in and past many beautiful old homes.  Below are just a few we passed.










 On our last day we drove to Sunset Beach and the weather did not cooperate.  Still, my sister and I braved the chilly weather to walk to the water's edge and collect memories from the sand.  This is the beach known for its "Cape May Diamonds" which are stones tumbled by the surf to be clear as diamonds.  We did find a few as well as some beautifully colored stones.  I am thinking about crocheting around some of these stones and turning them into necklaces. 
That out in the water on Sunset Beach is a sunken concrete ship.  Yes, it did float at one time.




So we collected our "Cape May Diamonds" until the temperatures got to us and rain drops influenced us back into the car.  All in all we had a fabulous weekend and plan to return again next year.  Or perhaps pick a new destination to experience.


Peace,
Carol