Christmas Village in Baltimore, November 25, 2017

So I ended up spending the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Baltimore. I originally intended to spend the entire time at the annual Christkindlesmarkt that was held at Zion Lutheran Church. But then I got stuck in a horrible northbound traffic jam. I reached the North Linthicum light rail stop and I had to wait a bit for the next light rail train. I transferred to a Metro subway train and I had a long wait. So I managed to make it to the Shot Tower Metro station and walked through the area. By the time I made it to the church I only had 45 minutes left to enjoy the sights and sounds of Christkindlesmarkt.

As I left the church I took a photo of this magnificent cloud formation that was over by Baltimore City Hall (which is literally located just a few steps away from Zion Lutheran Church).

As I was walking away from the church, I couldn’t help but take a picture of this sign for an apartment building that should be of interest for anyone who knows anything about Edgar Allan Poe.

As a consolation for not spending as much time at the Christkindlesmarkt event as I would have liked, I decided to hop on the next Charm City Circulator down to the Inner Harbor, where I went to an annual event that’s similar to the one at Zion Lutheran Church except that it’s bigger—Christmas Village in Baltimore.

It was the opening weekend for this event and it’s currently running on a daily basis until Christmas Eve. (This year is the fifth year that it’s operating.) I took a lot of pictures while I was there.

The next photo shows the Advent wreath. The electric candles were dark when I was there because Advent wouldn’t begin for another week.

The woman with the long golden curly hair and the gold clothes was the Christkind who came from Nurenberg, Germany to help with the opening ceremony of the Christmas Village in Baltimore.

There was live entertainment inside of the tent.

There was a variety of stuff available for sale.

I was there on the first day that the Christmas Village in Baltimore opened for the first time. Even though most of the lights were up, the Christmas tree was dark because the tree lighting ceremony was scheduled for the following night, which I wasn’t able to go to.

As I walked away from the Christmas Village in Baltimore towards Harborplace, I saw these signs pointing in the direction of the place I had just left.

I ate a bratwurst platter with sauerkraut for dinner while I was there. The only other purchase I made was a pack of lavender scented incense that I bought from the Käthe Wohlfahrt area of the tent, which sold a variety German handcrafted items ranging from tree ornaments to nutcrackers. (I don’t have any pictures from that area because it had a “No Photography” sign posted on the outside.)

So after I left the Christmas Village in Baltimore I headed over to Harborplace, which I’ll write about in my next post.

A Birthday Trip to Baltimore and Glen Burnie, December 15, 2016

 

 

 

 

Last year I planned on going to Baltimore to celebrate my birthday at Christmas Village in Baltimore. I had to scuttle those plans because my birthday fell on a Tuesday and it turns out that the place was closed on certain Tuesdays including my birthday. (I ended up going to Tyson’s Corner instead and I still had fun last year.)

This year my birthday fell on a Thursday so I decided to go to Baltimore, just like I planned last year. I was determined to go there despite the fact that the Polar Vortex had just arrived in my area so the temperatures plunged to below freezing. (I basically wore a heavy winter coat and a hat so I was able to brave the deep freeze.)

On the way to Baltimore I stopped off at a local Jo-Ann’s Fabrics & Crafts store to check out the recent sales. I found a bundled pair of slipper socks. The original price was $9.99, which would’ve been a decent price for two pairs of thick socks. But they were on sale for half-price, which meant that I paid $5 for the bundle (or $2.50 per pair).

I took the light rail into the city. I initially went by Harborplace where I saw this ice skating rink.

Since my last visit to Harborplace, I found that the store It’s Sugar had moved from one pavilion to another. (It is now located next to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium.)

I purchased a few things for myself on my birthday. Here is this cute gingerbread man cookie I bought.

I purchased this Pez dispenser featuring Badtz-Maru, one of Hello Kitty’s friends.

I bought myself this Guinness Luxury Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar. It was very delicious.

I took a few photos of other items in that store but I didn’t buy any of them.

After my visit to Harborplace I took a couple of photos of the Inner Harbor area at sunset.

I eventually made my way to the Christmas Village in Baltimore.

I’ve been there other years (see the photos I took in 2013, 2014, and 2015). Some of the same vendors were there this year while there were others whom I had never seen before. I also saw some empty booths but I had no idea if fewer vendors signed up or if it was because I came on a Thursday night and some of the missing vendors only worked on the weekends. I had been looking forward to eating some bratwurst with sauerkraut for dinner followed by a Belgian waffle topped with hot fudge and whipped cream for dessert. Unfortunately the waffle place wasn’t there this year, which was a big disappointment. The German food booth was still there so at least I was still able to eat the bratwurst and sauerbraten platter.

I purchased only one item. It was a pack of incense that I got from the large Käthe Wohlfahrt booth that was located at one end of the main tent. I’ve been lighting the incense each night since then so my home can smell like Christmas. (LOL!)

On my way back to the light rail stop, I saw this homeless person laying down under a thin blanket outside the Baltimore Convention Center. Usually I wouldn’t pay this person much notice other than the fact that the Polar Vortex had arrived and the temperatures were forecasted to dip under 20 degrees Fahrenheit over night. (The following morning my AccuWeather app on my smartphone registered 18 degrees Fahrenheit.) I felt that this person should really be indoors but I didn’t know where to turn since I live 30 miles south of Baltimore.

I took the above picture and frantically did Google searches on my smartphone for homeless organizations in Baltimore. I texted the photo to a couple of organizations while indicating where the person was located. For added measure I texted the photo to the Baltimore Police Department. I even uploaded this photo on my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts using people to forward this to anyone who could help bring this person in from the cold. I don’t know if my efforts helped or not other than the fact that for the next few days I did a Google search for any recent homeless deaths in Baltimore outside the Baltimore Convention Center only to turn up empty-handed. I guess this person somehow survived the Polar Vortex but I’ll never know for sure.

Once I reached the North Linthicum Light Rail Station (where my car was parked) I drove over to Glen Burnie. Last year I found out about this overdecorated house on Delmar Avenue and I saw it for the first time on Christmas Eve. This year I decided to check it out again and, yes, it is still just as heavily decorated as it was last year.

The only difference I could tell between this year and last year is the next-door neighbor’s lighted sign that said “DITTO” with an arrow pointed to the other house. (That neighbor’s house didn’t have any outdoor lights at all other than that “DITTO” sign.)

By the way the house on Delmar Avenue has its own Facebook page that you can view to get the latest news and photos about that house.

Last year I shot a bunch of still photos of that house. This year I decided to shoot a video so you can get a sense of the flashing lights (including an animated laser display that’s shown on the garage door) and the constant Christmas music.

I headed home after visiting that house so that was it for celebrating my birthday in Baltimore and Glen Burnie.

Behnke’s Nurseries, Beltsville, Maryland (December 14, 2012) and Riverdale Holiday Market, Riverdale Park, Maryland (December 15, 2012)

This past Saturday was my birthday and it would be my first one since my husband abruptly walked out on me with no warning on December 28, 2011. My husband has largely avoided talking to me since then and I received no acknowledgement from him about my birthday this year, which is a stark contrast to my birthday last year (when my husband gave me both a new iPod Touch and a new iPad and he took me to this wonderful French restaurant for dinner). So I decided to spend this past weekend just going out in an effort to enjoy my birthday and forget about my husband.

Late Friday afternoon I decided to visit the Christmas shop at Behnke’s Nurseries in Beltsville, Maryland. This is the nursery that’s located closest to my home. Compared to Homestead Gardens and Valley View Farms, the Behnke’s Christmas shop is small but there were still some interesting decorations like the moose in the photo below.

The next two photos are of pointsettias in unusual colors and covered in glitter. No, they are not natural. The colors and glitter were painted on the leaves. I’m not sure how I feel about these plants. On the one hand, they are definitely unnatural. On the other hand, they do look pretty.

Behnke’s had a bunch of miniature plants on sale in a variety of decorative pots. One could choose plants like tiny pointsettias and miniature orchids. I thought they were cute.

I purchased one thing at Behnke’s. I previouly saw this during my visit to Valley View Farms but I didn’t buy it on that trip because I was about to purchase two hedgehog ornaments and a small nativity and I didn’t think I had enough money to purchase anything else. It’s a smoker shaped like a gingerbread house that comes with a supply of gingerbread-scented incense. I thought it was cute. I was also attracted to the fact that, for once, it’s not imported from China. This cottage is one of a series of cottages made by a U.S. based company called Ginger Cottages. (The link has lots of eye candy.) What was even sweeter was that the smoker originally had a $29.95 price tag but I got it on sale for $21.

The next day was my birthday and I decided to make a brief appearance at the Riverdale Holiday Market because two of my friends were selling their crafts at that festival. (I had the opportunity to sell my stuff there this year but I didn’t because this market is usually held outdoors in December, a time of the year when the weather in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area can be pretty iffy at best and I just didn’t want to sign up only to have it be extremely cold or snowing on that day.) The weather also happened to be nice and sunny with temperatures in the low 60’s so I decided to go there. As I walked over to the market, I saw this University of Maryland Physics Department van that had an illustration that made me think of the cover of an early 1970’s Pink Floyd album.

I visited my friends’ booths and I managed to purchase a couple of things. One was a Thank You card that was made by Archelaus, whose cards features the kind of designs that one doesn’t usually find on a Hallmark card. The other was this really cute and small nativity scene that was made in Peru. It’s really unique and the photos below show why I was enchanted with this.

It provides a nice companion piece to this other nativity scene made from wood in China I purchased recently at Valley View Farms.

Both nativity scenes are now displayed on the coffee table under my four-foot tall tree in the living room.