A Bustling December

With Thanksgiving over, the holiday season kicked off the following weekend with Colonial Williamsburg’s Grand Illumination. Apparently, the Grand Illumination is a big deal in town, with CW lighting all of their Christmas lights, lots of Christmas carols and activities all evening, and a giant fireworks show. Never having been, a group of us went and shuffled through the throngs of people and evangelicals until we found a spot by the Governor’s Palace to watch one of three identical fireworks displays (the other two were over two other parts of CW). The fireworks were excellent, but I didn’t really feel the grandeur of the Grand Illumination. Nevertheless, we wandered a bit, found some hot cider, and made our way through town to head to Mark’s house for football and food. It was a fun evening and continued my attempts to get myself into the Christmas mood without the cold weather or the snow. (photo: Grand Illumination fireworks.)

The following Friday, the Foundation had its staff holiday party at the Hospitality House in Williamsburg. I’d heard many a story about past holiday parties and expected a ridiculous but fun party with all sorts of Jamestown staff. After the debate about what to wear (Just how fancy to dress? Would I be the only female in pants? Ah, the agony…), Sally, Jamie, and I headed downtown. It was fun to see staff that I hadn’t seen in a while, especially in a non-work setting, as well as to meet a lot of the Outreach staff that I’d be working with starting in January (I’d interviewed and accepted a position as a full-time Outreach Education Instructor in the Outreach department with the foundation). The party turned out to be quite fun and we did a fair amount of dancing (no, not the embarrassing Christmas party kind). After it was all over, we went to Jeff’s house to hang out for a while with many of the Outreach staff, among others. Some people were acting a bit ridiculous, but the evening was a ton of fun and I was a bit tired the next day. (photos: Scott showing off his mad fashion at the staff party; Ashley and me; Todd and the Hulicks; Sally, Sam, and Jaimie; and people getting their dance on.)





(photos: Callie, Sally, and Jamie the rock star; and Jeff doing what he does.)


Sally and I had also been doing quite a bit of holiday-related things. I’d been trying to get in the Christmas mood for a while, without overwhelming success. Sally and I found a Charlie Brown-esque faux-tree, watched a fair amount of holiday movies, listened to all the Christmas music, etc., but without the snow, it was hard to get in the mindset. She’d been questing for the perfect Christmas cookie and made quite a few batches to both eat at our house as well as to take to her staff at Yorktown. I’d been doing some shopping, but one day we both rode our bikes to Jamestown Settlement, and then again to Historic Jamestowne, for some shopping and nearly collapsed after our cold and windy 10-mile ride. At work, there were also the college student interpreters that were back and agreed to play some pranks on coworkers, causing more than a few hijinks (one of which resulted in me being kidnapped by the English and carried off to their fort). I also had a brief visit to Michigan for a couple of days, during which I got to see a TON of snow! However, I had a lot on my plate in the run up to Christmas and was very relieved when it came time to go home for Christmas and have a week off. (photos: Our very geometric Christmas tree; Jack as Snidley Whiplash at our last Honor Guard gig; me very excited to be in Michigan in the snow; in front of the Straits; and my mom in front of the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse.)





(photos: Eating a pasty!; reason I love Northern Michigan #52: giant beef jerky; delicious cheese curds; downtown Detroit from the air; and Mike and Christine's Star Wars/Star Trek holiday garland at their Christmas party.)