Christmas Crafts

For a few years I have been wanting a new way to display the holiday cards we receive and an advent calender, but I could not find anything that I liked. So this year I decided to just make them myself. I got the idea for the advent calendar from Good Housekeeping magazine, each little bag has a game, or stickers or a treat inside. And during the last days before Christmas the bags also hold a scripture reference referring to the birth of the Savior, with Luke 2 in the bag for Christmas Eve. I got the idea for the card display wreath from my friend Jessica. Although she actually made a garland for her home and she got the idea from her sister-in-law Jen. So that idea has been passed around and now I am passing it to you. Don't be too jealous of my mad crafting skills!

"Bub...Bub Dylan." "Ohh..Bob."

Here's a little story for you. Well first let me say that if you can identify which movie I am quoting in the title of this post then we are destined to be best friends! Anyway back to my story. One day I was standing in my kitchen , washing the dishes and listening to NPR on the radio. When I heard the announcer announce (hee, hee) that you could enter to win tickets to a Bob Dylan concert on their web site. And I thought, I'm gonna do it! So I did and I won the tickets! Amazing, I know, but true!
Jack and I went to a Bob Dylan concert for our first wedding anniversary, many moons ago. And it was fun to go to one again, especially since it was free.
Besides seeing Bob Dylan and his band, here are a few of the other sights you might see at one of his concerts...
A man with an oxygen tank rocking out.
Earnest young rockers, who look a little confused, because Bob does not play his songs at his concerts like he did when he recorded them.
One lone guy waving his lighter during a slow song.
$30 Environmentally friendly Bob Dylan grocery bags (same quality as the ones you buy for under a dollar at shoppers).
Foolish people actually buying the $30 shopping bags.
And aging hippies as far as the eye can see.

Mmm...Turkey!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and what am I thankful for this year? Hmm, I guess I am thankful that I don't have to cook a turkey again for a whole year. Actually, I don't mind cooking the turkey, I just hate pulling all of the leftover meat off the bones after the dinner is over. It's gross! Oh well, someone has to do it, and I guess that someone is me. Anyway we had a pleasant turkey day with just the three of us. Which is just how Jack likes it (because he doesn't like to share). And as is our yearly tradition, I will now be making stuffing one more time because my mom's recipe is so good, Jack is not satisfied only having it for just one meal. And I don't mind making it a second time because it really is super good and worth the effort! So I suppose the title of this post should have been; Mmm...Stuffing!

All Hallow's Eve

We had a great Halloween this year, with lots of parties, candy and chances to wear costumes. Jack was a party-pooper and didn't dress up this year. I only dressed up once for the Trunk or Treat at our church. But Truman got to wear his costume three times and loved every minute of it! Jack has been showing Truman all of his favorite 1930's scary movies. So Truman wanted to be Dracula or the invisible man (he likes to be scary for Halloween). We didn't think anyone would get who he was if he dressed up like the invisible man so we went with Dracula and he looked great!

Trick or Treating

Truman's class all dressed up!

Jack & Topol: A Night of Theatre

As a general rule Jack despises musicals. He says it is because his sister forced him to watch Grease a billion times when he was a kid. But I just think he is hard-hearted. It is unfortunate for him that he married a woman who loves, loves, loves musicals. My sister, cousin and I spent nearly every Saturday, growing up, watching hour upon hour of musicals at my grandma Isaak's house. There is, however, one musical that Jack enjoys watching...The Fiddler on the Roof! I don't know if it is because it is set in Russia or what, but I know part of the reason he likes it is because the lead in the movie, Topol, is so good. So when I heard that Topol would be doing a farewell tour of Fiddler and that they would be in Baltimore, I knew we HAD to go. So I bought tickets and surprised Jack. It was great to see the show. It actually took a minute after Topol started his dialogue for my mind to wrap around the fact that it was really him and not a recording. Any way as you can tell by the longest post ever, I really enjoyed it!

These pictures are blurry because I couldn't use a flash and I had to take

the one of Topol on the sly.

Hippodrome Theater

October Weekend

Okay, okay, okay! I know it is November already but just pretend it is still October and enjoy these pictures from a couple of Rowe family outings from a few weeks ago.

Fort Washington

So if you ever have a free day with nothing to do, might we suggest a drive down to Fort Washington. It is across the river from Mt. Vernon. Of course you will enjoy the visit more if you have a son and husband who are really into warfare! But even if you don't it is still a really interesting historical site. It was fun to walk all around the fort exploring.

Truman found a snake skin!

Butler's Orchard

So every fall they have a fun pumpkin festival at a local farm. With slides, hayrides, a corn maze, a pumpkin cannon and a whole host of other fun activities. We however got there too late to enjoy any of this and had to settle for picking pumpkins in the pumpkin patch! But it was still fun and we got to spend a ridiculous amount of money on some pumpkins!

At Random

Here are a bunch of pictures of stuff we have been doing in the last couple of weeks!

Look at these guys, they are quite the daredevils!

Truman loves being a goalie and he is pretty good at it. He stopped 3 goals during his turn!

Truman watching the fish at the Natural History Museum.

Nummy, Nummy Lunchy-Munchy with the Willis family at Pot Bellies! HA!

We went to the National Book Festival, which is this great event on The National Mall, where you can meet authors and also hear them give talks. We however did not want to spend hours in line so I just tried to take this picture of Shannon Hale from the side lines. It is pretty blurry, but she looks nice, right?

As you can see it was super rainy that day but there were still tons of people and we had a lot of fun! I think next year I will go sans Jack and Truman and hopefully, sans rain!