Christmas Season in Baltimore

We were able to enjoy a few of the Baltimore-specific Christmas events this year. First we took Aiden down to see the lighting of the Washington Monument in Baltimore's Mt Vernon neighborhood (this one predates all others including the one in DC). For the last 40 years, the city kicks off the Christmas season with a lighting of the monument during an elaborate ceremony. It was really nice with live music and fireworks and of course a special appearance by our newly indicted mayor.



The following weekend we headed up to the Maryvale preparatory school for "Santa in the castle". There is a real castle on the grounds that was built in the early 1900's. It is a replica of Warwick Castle in England and has been featured in at least one motion picture (Clint Eastwood's Absolute Power). A lady I work with at the hospital is close friends with the headmistress, so we were treated to a private tour of the entire castle. Ever since Grandpa & Grandma Orr gave him a toy castle for his first birthday, Aiden has been kind of obsessed with castles so he was pretty excited. He had a good time on the tour but really didn't seem so sure about Santa (as you can see from the pictures).

The Blizzard of December '09

We know we've got some catching up to do in terms of blog posts (a lot has been going on since Halloween!) but we couldn't wait to get these pics of our blizzard up. Friends and family in Illinois may not be overly impressed with 19 inches of snow, but this is going down as the #1 December snowstorm for Baltimore and in the top 10 snowstorms for this area on record ever. Meanwhile, a few hours south in Norfolk, VA my folks were reporting 47 degrees and rain during our blizzard. Welcome to southeast coastal weather!