Fun Old-Fashioned Family Pre-Christmas Events, 2

 Continuing through Xmas eve...

The only surviving photographic evidence of our traditional cheese
fondue, which figured as lunch this day

Afternoon cookie decoration

The best ones are P's; she apparently inherited the artistic gene,
whatever its source

I won the Participation Prize for my Pierrot

In the afternoon things return to normal

But they picked up for the inaugural showing of the
Sherouse Family Christmas slide show, for which Vicki
and I had spent hours collecting, editing, ordering, etc.;
copies available (1 gig; provide flash drive or other);
inquire within

On a walk around the Riggsbee Farm neighborhood...Vicki and I

have watched the movie every year since 1989, and we still look forward

to watching it with P, who then will be able to comprehend our many

references and allusions...we watched it again in 2023, the two of us,

and figured, yeah, maybe another year or two

The traditional Christmas eve meat/seafood fondue; participants
adorned with traditional silly cracker hats

Among our traditions is that of everyone
opening one present on Xmas eve...here is P:
2023 will be remembered as our Taylor Swift
Christmas

And moi, with my Duolingo Duo stuffie, commemorating
my (now 740-day) streak of internet French lessons: I now
have the linguistic skills of a 10-month-old native speaker... 
(note traditional Dude sweater)

And the table is set (Royal Doulton Canton) for Xmas
brunch the next day...

Fun Old-Fashioned Family Pre-Christmas Events, 1

Cary has a number of interesting Christmas-time traditions and celebrations. Last year I documented the very considerable downtown Cary Christmas decor. This year we visited the North Carolina Festival of Lanterns, held annually in Cary, a few pix from which appear below. Also documented in this and the next post are a number of other events in the run-up to the traditional fun old-fashioned Sherouse family Christmas, which we enjoyed yet again this year at Rebecca and Jeremy's house in Cary. 

The festivities began with Penelope's appearance in Young Sherlock;
theater and stagecraft are now her favorite extra-curricular activities

A Raleigh tradition is Christmas at the Angus Barn restaurant

Imagine room after room of such Christmas decor; the food, mostly
steak, was good too

P at her Jazz Dance expo

Christmas decor at our apartment (thanks, Marie)

On December 21st, P and I baked brownies, hoping to offer a Stonehenge
replica for the Solstice; though tasty, the brownies were architecturally
unsound, and I later characterized our creation as a replica of Stonehenge,
1940, after the Stukas had bombed...

Auntie Rachel arrived from DC and we all toured the North Carolina
Festival of Lanterns

It's an extensive and visually stunning take on the Chinese lantern festival,
a very old festival of light, a tradition in most religions...this of course is
a very 21st century version in materials and exterior illumination...

Still pretty stunning...brought to us by Tianyu Arts and Culture, Inc.

Excellent signage; and in English too, although most visitors,
including yours truly, are pretty completely ignorant of the
relevant Chinese characters, myth, legends, etc.

Absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, nor even Chinese New
Year...

Stage performances too

Rudolph? Bambi?

Santa? Gandalf?

Disney princesses? Rhinemaidens?

The Dragon Ship that later (in January) was sunk by a windstorm,
shutting the whole show down a few days prematurely; Divine Wind

One wonders whether they will do similar shows in Taiwan

Colonial Williamsburg, 2

Continuing our early December visit to Colonial Williamsburg...

Barrels of fun

Touring the Governor's Palace

A special treat for me was hearing this guy (Dean Shostak) playing
Ben Franklin's Armonica (and also glass bells and even a glass violin);
I'd first seen one of Franklin's Armonicas in far-away Colmar, but
had never heard one...

Touring another house...as owners of a roomful of Statton Oldtowne
cherry Queen Anne we really enjoyed seeing all the OBF (old brown
furniture)

Peyton Randolph House (owner of many plantations)

Huge old oak catching the autumnal sunset

Everyone loves a parade...I'm up in the warm courthouse, out of
the wind, loving the parade, while Ken is shooting and Vicki and Susan
are shivering on the bench

Much more back in the museum...

Nearly a whole wall of Peaceable Kingdoms

Tons of Americana, colonial and later

We love the Primitives

More good eats at Christina Campbell's Tavern; although some
said the chicken wasn't so good

Furniture making and re-making

Including an harpsichord

More education and enlightenment at the wheelwright's

Paper and printing downstairs

In session at the old courthouse

But wait, there's more

On the way back to Cary, we took a short-cut, the ferry across
the James River estuary; perhaps the world's only free ferry

Nonetheless reminding us of similar boat-rides in Norway and New Zealand,
even the ferry not taken in Turkey...