Greetings from New Jersey! This entry comes to you from the Stones' house, where we are spending the Christmas holiday. Here are some snapshots of our vacation so far...
The Stone "children" can't contain themselves as we get ready to run down the stairs on Christmas morning. (It's posed...we promise...seriously...)
Mom and Dad look pretty well rested, now that no one's presents require assembly.
The Christmas carnage. Jemima is keeping watch alertly.
The day after Christmas we took a trip to
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to visit the birthplace and grave of
H.D. Alison is writing her master's thesis on H.D., so this counts as "research."
It's a tradition to leave seashells on her grave stone, but we forgot them (and didn't want to drive back to New Jersey for them!).
Brandon caught this cool shot of a hawk at the cemetery.
In Bethlehem, we visited the
Central Moravian Church and saw their putz. The
putz (pronounced like the word "puts") is a Moravian Christmas tradition --they make a big model of all the parts of the Christmas story using real moss and rocks, and they tell the Christmas story with lights shining on each of the parts. (Another Moravian tradition:
many-pointed Christmas stars). Most of the figures are wooden carvings from Germany, but as we looked up close, we saw that the kids from the church had put in a few of their own decorations--there was a little plastic lion among the sheep, for one thing!
The angels from the putz--they were pretty cute!
We gave Eric a shirt for Christmas that matches one Brandon already had. The shirt has a picture of a frog fighting a turtle and has this text: "NATURE FIGHT! Turtle vs. Frog!, Caiman vs. Croc!, Rock vs. Wood!, Worm vs. Worm! Time: Right Now, Where: Outside, Directions: Go Outside". Everybody got a pretty big kick out of it; here are Brandon and Eric acting out the
nature fight.
Last night, Brandon, Neil, and Alison took a trip down to New Brunswick to visit the historic Rutgers University
Grease Trucks. Brandon and Neil had Fat Darrells, a sandwich that includes french fries, chicken strips, mozzarella sticks, and marinara sauce. The sandwich was voted #1 sandwich in America. Among our testing group, reviews were mixed, but we enjoyed sampling New Jersey culture at its "finest."
The Stone "children" can't contain themselves as we get ready to run down the stairs on Christmas morning. (It's posed...we promise...seriously...)
Mom and Dad look pretty well rested, now that no one's presents require assembly.
The Christmas carnage. Jemima is keeping watch alertly.
The day after Christmas we took a trip to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to visit the birthplace and grave of H.D. Alison is writing her master's thesis on H.D., so this counts as "research."
It's a tradition to leave seashells on her grave stone, but we forgot them (and didn't want to drive back to New Jersey for them!).
Brandon caught this cool shot of a hawk at the cemetery.
In Bethlehem, we visited the Central Moravian Church and saw their putz. The putz (pronounced like the word "puts") is a Moravian Christmas tradition --they make a big model of all the parts of the Christmas story using real moss and rocks, and they tell the Christmas story with lights shining on each of the parts. (Another Moravian tradition: many-pointed Christmas stars). Most of the figures are wooden carvings from Germany, but as we looked up close, we saw that the kids from the church had put in a few of their own decorations--there was a little plastic lion among the sheep, for one thing!
The angels from the putz--they were pretty cute!
We gave Eric a shirt for Christmas that matches one Brandon already had. The shirt has a picture of a frog fighting a turtle and has this text: "NATURE FIGHT! Turtle vs. Frog!, Caiman vs. Croc!, Rock vs. Wood!, Worm vs. Worm! Time: Right Now, Where: Outside, Directions: Go Outside". Everybody got a pretty big kick out of it; here are Brandon and Eric acting out the nature fight.
Last night, Brandon, Neil, and Alison took a trip down to New Brunswick to visit the historic Rutgers University Grease Trucks. Brandon and Neil had Fat Darrells, a sandwich that includes french fries, chicken strips, mozzarella sticks, and marinara sauce. The sandwich was voted #1 sandwich in America. Among our testing group, reviews were mixed, but we enjoyed sampling New Jersey culture at its "finest."
1 comment:
And to think Grandma missed out on all this stuff and had to hang out in Sunny Arizona. Why did I never see this post? Probably because I was not doing to much blog reading during our Christmas trip...
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