snow-covered trees

winter welcomed itself with lots of winter weather this weekend.  we woke up to a blanket of snow on saturday morning, and then we got more snow again on sunday night.  although i hate the cold weather and despise driving in the snow and the ice, the trees around our house were so pretty with a fresh coating on them.  i snapped a few pictures of our snow-covered trees from our upstairs window on saturday morning before the sun melted the snow off the branches.

today we are supposed to get even more snow.  right now it is just flurrying, but a bunch of schools have already closed for the day since the local weatherman is predicting several inches of snow by lunch time today.

is it summer yet?

love, laurie

celebrating my mom's birthday with brunch and a local inn tour

on sunday, we got together with my parents to celebrate my mom's birthday.  we drove down to their house in the morning and we kicked off my mom's birthday celebration with brunch.  for brunch, ryan and i made fruit salad, baked french toast with coffee cake topping, and a fritatta loaded with ham, tomato, cheddar, and parmesan cheese.  after we ate, my mom opened her birthday present and we had dessert.  for dessert, we made a smaller version of this andes mint cake.

after brunch, we bundled up to stay warm, and we headed out to a local inn tour.  every year, the local business association where my parents live organizes a tour of the inns around my parents' house.  they give you a map of the participating inns, and you drive around to see as many inns as you like.  in total, we saw six inns and one railroad station (which is now a museum).

the inns were absolutely beautiful since they were decorated for the holidays.  as we went around to the different inns, it began snowing.  it was so pretty to see the fresh snow on the beautiful inns decorated for christmas.  we toured the inns, and sampled some of their great food too.

here are a few pictures from two of the inns that we visited.  the one even had a life-size gingerbread house!

we had such a great time celebrating my mom's birthday yesterday!

hope everyone had a great weekend too!

love, laurie

kicking off the holiday season

on wednesday, we went to the annual christmas tree lighting ceremony at work.  the tradition dates back to 1971, and we absolutely love going each year.

every year the tree is a douglas fur.  this year's tree is 20 feet tall, with approximately 3,200 led christmas lights.  it takes eight men and a whole lot of patience to set up the giant tree.

as the community gathers around the christmas tree, each student club on campus places a handmade ornament on the tree.  everyone joins together to sing christmas carols, and then the president of the university flips the switch to illuminate the tree.

afterwards, everyone celebrates with hot chocolate, eggnog, fruit cake, and christmas cookies.  it is such a nice way to kickoff the holiday season.

have a lovely weekend!

love, laurie

happy birthday, mom!

i am beyond blessed to have such an amazing mother!

happy birthday today to the world's greatest mom!

love, laurie

xoxo

oh, christmas tree.

on black friday, we kept ourselves far away from the crazy sales and the crowded stores.   instead, we stayed at home in our pajamas and we got in the christmas spirit by putting up our christmas tree.  i always love decorating our christmas tree each year.  it is so nice to unwrap each ornament and to take some time to remember the memories behind each one as we put them on the christmas tree.  christmas is such a special time, especially in our house, since we got engaged on christmas day.

we put our christmas tree in our living room and we decorated it with all of our favorite ornaments.  we also put up a miniature christmas tree in our bedroom too.  when we first started dating, i started a tradition of giving ryan a picture frame ornament each year, and we always decorate our miniature christmas tree with our picture frame ornaments.  (we're going to need a bigger tree for all of our picture frame ornaments pretty soon.)

of course, we had a furry little elf who "helped" us decorate both trees.  it is really amazing how much leko loves christmas trees.  luckily he is not as interested in climbing the tree in our living room as he was last year, but he still loves to chew on the branches and to play with the ornaments.  the poor tree.  we made sure that we secured the ornaments on both of our trees very tightly, wrapping the ornament hooks around the branches several times.  we thought that maybe the ornaments would stand a fighting chance this year, but we were wrong.  leko still managed to walk off with three ornaments from our tree in the living room, and last night he actually knocked the tree in our bedroom over.  it came crashing down to the floor with such a loud thump.  miraculously, none of our ornaments broke.  we're still working on teaching leko to be nice to the christmas trees.  it's a work in progress.  maybe we'll get there by new years.

i snapped a few pictures of ryan and leko while we were decorating the christmas tree in our living room.  i can hardly stand the cuteness of these two together . . . that picture of those two giving each other eskimo kisses is where it's at my friends.  i'm telling you, my heart just explodes from the cuteness overload every time i look at it.

love, laurie

bethlehem steel

we really enjoyed taking a trip to christkindlmarkt in bethlehem this weekend.  the market is held at the former bethlehem steel plant, which we had never been to before.  it was so neat to be there and to see the the old steel stacks towering over the old buildings left over from the operation of the steel plant.  walking around the grounds of the former steel plant was like taking a step into the past.  

the steel stacks are actually a series of five blast furnaces that were used in the iron making process.  instead of demolishing the historic mill, the site has been revitalized and transformed into an arts and entertainment district.  i just love when historic places are repurposed instead of forgotten.

you can learn more about the history of the bethlehem steel plant here

love, laurie

christkindlmarkt

on saturday we took a trip down to christkindlmarkt in bethlehem with our families.  christkindlmarkt is an annual pop-up holiday marketplace at the former bethlehem steel plant, featuring tons of handmade holiday crafts, food, and music.  we had never been to christkindlmarkt before, so we were excited to check it out.

our main reason for visiting christkindlmarket was to see ryan's dad sing holiday music with the wandering singers choral ensemble.   while we were there, we also walked around the market to look at the various vendors, check out the ice sculptures, and see an exhibit of gingerbread houses too.

love, laurie