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These days I don’t attend weekly meetings of my support group for people who are separated or divorced. Sometimes it’s because I’m too low on money to travel to the meeting. Other times it’s because there are times when I’m working a day job and I can’t always get off from work in time so I can make it to a meeting. (It doesn’t help that the Baltimore-DC area has awful rush hour traffic.) But there are also times when I feel that the topic of the meeting doesn’t really apply to me or I had long since dealt with that issue and I don’t need to revisit it. Maybe I’m just not as shaken up over being divorced as I used to be. (Although my ex-husband is still a total sociopathic asshole and I hope that he dies a horrible painful death but that’s another story. LOL!)
The last time I went to a meeting was back in November. I was in between jobs so I was able to leave a bit early so I could beat the rush hour traffic, buy some dinner at Wegmans supermarket, then eat it at the store’s Market Cafe before I headed off to the meeting. Wegmans was all decked out in Christmas stuff so I took a few pictures.
I saw a bunch of pine trees outside waiting for someone to buy them and decorate them as Christmas trees.
I saw some poinsettias on sale that had glitter sprayed on the flowers and leaves.
I saw some more poinsettias being used for form a special red Christmas tree.
Finally I purchased a bottle of Coke Zero, which had the famous Coca-Cola polar bears on the label. (The polar bears usually appear in the Coke ads during the winter holiday season.)
One early Thursday evening I decided to make a stop at Homestead Gardens on the way to attending my weekly support group meeting for people who are separated or divorced. They had their Christmas shop open and they decorated the grounds with all kinds of gorgeous lights. That store sold a variety of Christmas decorations along with plants like poinsettias. Here are the pictures I took.
Once again Homestead Gardens had its giant train layout where one can see toy trains travel past the various Department 56 ceramic buildings.
After I went to Homestead Gardens I went to Wegman’s where I purchased dinner to eat before I headed to my meeting. I also took some photos of interesting Christmas display, which I’ll write about in my next post.
In the wake of the recent presidential elections that resulted in Donald Trump becoming the next President of the United States, there have been concerns about his antics, especially regarding his tweets on Twitter, where he has managed to piss off China and declared that the U.S. will be creating more nuclear missiles and possibly using them. There are concerns about how suitable he really is to occupy the Oval Office.
The Electoral College was scheduled to meet on December 19. Usually they tend to rubber stamp the results of the elections. This time a movement known as the Hamilton Electors sprang up and they were urging the Electoral College to reject Trump in favor of a more moderate Republican like Mitt Romney or John McCain. On December 19 these Hamilton Electors had called for rallies to be held in every state capital in the U.S. urging the Electoral College to reject Trump in favor of someone more moderate and with more experience than Trump. (Donald Trump is the first president-elect in history with no prior military or political experience.)
Since I live in Maryland the rally was being held in Annapolis. I had thought about going there to make a stand against Trump. But then I remembered that Hillary Clinton had swept Maryland in the elections so Maryland’s Electoral College delegates had already pledged to vote for her instead of Trump or another Republican. On top of it, it was a cold day and I was less enthusiastic about freezing to make a public stand against Trump when my state’s delegates had already committed to Clinton. So I decided to skip the rally altogether and do something fun instead.
My decision turned out to be a good one for two reasons: 1) the Electoral College decided to award the presidency to Trump anyway despite the Hamilton Electors movement and 2) I went to a place that I hadn’t been to in two years and it was nice to go there again.
I went to Valley View Farms in Cockeysville. It’s a long commute from the DC area but it’s so worth it because it has one of the most awesome Christmas shops anywhere in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. Here are some photos I took to show how awesome it is.
And if you like these photos, check out photos I took of the same place in 2012, 2013, and 2014.
This holiday season I didn’t do as much walking around observing the various Christmas shops before Christmas mainly because I was distracted by the six-week Artomatic event that was held near the New Carrollton Metro station in Hyattsville, Maryland. By the time that show ended it was close to the Christmas season. So I wasn’t able to make it to the Christmas Shop in Behnke’s Nurseries until December 26 (a.k.a. Boxing Day). I basically checked out the post-Christmas Day sales and see if there was anything I was interested in buying at a lower clearance price. I also took a few pictures as well.
I didn’t take quite as many pictures as other years mainly because the battery died in my smartphone and I forgot to bring a recharger. I took more extensive photos of Behnke’s Christmas Shop in 2012, 2013, and 2014 so if you’re curious to see what it’s like, I suggest that you click on the links (which will each open in a new window).
December 9 was a pretty full day for me. I began my day by driving over to Germantown where I interviewed for a potential job where I can do the work remotely via Internet. Once the job interview ended, I decided to check out a few nearby roadside attractions that were listed on the Roadside America site mainly because I rarely drive all the way to Germantown and I figured that I might as well check out those attractions while I was in the area.
That evening I decided to go to a happy hour fundraiser on behalf of my support group for people who are separated or divorced.that was held at the Broadneck Grill in Edmonston. Basically the support group received portion of the food and drinks that were ordered. I got a chance to socialize with fellow members while taking advantage of the happy hour specials on certain meals and drinks.
I ended up drinking two margaritas when I should’ve stuck with just one margarita. My head started to feel a bit fuzzy after that second margarita. After I paid for my bill, I walked over to the Safeway that was located in the same shopping center as the Broadneck Grill and I purchased a 22-ounce bottle of Diet Pepsi. I felt a little bit better after drinking that soft drink but I really didn’t feel confident enough to make the half-an-hour drive home. But then I remembered passing Homestead Gardens on the way to the Broadneck Grill and it was located just a mile away from that restaurant. On top of it, their Christmas shop was opened so I decided to go there and browse the latest decorations while trying to recover from those two margaritas.
So I made the one-mile drive, walked around the store, and took a bunch of photos. The Christmas shop was just as lovely as ever and the toy train display was a marvel to behold. I stayed in the store until it closed at 9 p.m. By that point I felt well enough to make the drive home.
Here are the photos I took that night at Homestead Gardens. Enjoy!
Lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by tight finances with the rising cost of nearly everything. (I don’t really want to go into any details right now.) Lately whenever I feel stressed, I just go out somewhere. Luckily there is enough going on with the holiday season that I can go anywhere and check out some eye candy for either free or low price.
A few days ago I went to Behnke’s Nurseries to check out their Christmas store. Everything was so colorful that it cheered me up.
The strangest product that I saw for sale was this artificial snow that felt cold and wet just like the real thing except that it doesn’t melt indoors. When I felt it I found that, yes, it was cold and wet but it also had this strange texture about it that’s so unlike real snow. Needless to say, I had no problem with passing this one up.
There was a game area where children could play while their parents shopped. Except there were no kids around when I was there. I have to admit that the Christmas-themed games were very colorful.
There were a few nice angels that were carved from olive wood in the Holy Land.
I still have my Ginger Cottage incense burner that’s shaped like a cottage that I purchased from Behnke’s a couple of years ago. There were a few other buildings from the same company that I thought looked really nice.
Here’s are some Christmas ornaments that only a dentist can love.
Behnke’s even had a couple of Hanukkah ornaments for those who observe that holiday (which is still going on as of this writing).
The rest of the photos show a variety of Christmas ornaments and other decorations that were definitely very cheerful.
A few days ago I checked out the annual Christmas store at Behnke’s Nurseries in Beltsville, Maryland and I played around with my new Droid Ultra smartphone some more while I was there. Here are the pictures I took during my time there.
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.
Over the past few months my estranged husband was coming to the home, letting himself in, and taking boxes of stuff while I was attending my regular weekly support group meeting for people who are separated or divorced. He recently sent the boxes back that contained my stuff that had been co-mingled with his stuff. Among the returned boxes were the ones that contained our Christmas decorations and ornaments. Recently I’ve engaged in my own downsizing of my own holiday tradition. While we were together we amassed around five boxes of decorations and ornaments. Some of them were ones that we’ve owned since we were children or were ones that had been in our families for decades. Others were ones that were given to us as Christmas presents by others. Then there were the ones that were impulse buys on my part or the ones that various local businesses gave away. (I once had two small ornaments that CVS gave away to its customers for two years back in the 1990’s.)
For the past several years my husband and I struggled with putting up Christmas ornaments because we had more ornaments than tree space. Typically we decorated until the branches become overburdened with ornaments and we grew tired so we just put the extra ornaments away in storage. As I looked through the returned boxes I found that I only noticed three missing items that my husband probably took. One was a stocking with his name that my husband’s grandmother knitted for him when he was born. Another was a painted white wood reindeer ornament personalized with his name. (I don’t remember if his mother or my parents gave that one to him as a present.) The third was a bunch of these really pretty ceramic bells that once belonged to my husband’s mother and they made a delicate twinkling sound when shaken.
There may have been others he took as well but we had so many ornaments that I didn’t notice any others missing besides the three that I noticed. In any case, my husband left me with the lion’s share of the ornaments and decorations. I decided that I would take advantage of the current chaos in my personal life by downsizing my Christmas decorations. First, I went to Target where I purchased a four-foot artificial tree with tiny LED lights already installed for only $25. I was able to erect that tree on my living room coffee table in about 15 minutes or less. Then I went through the five boxes ornaments and made the hard decision of what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to unload. It took awhile but I managed to go down from five boxes of ornaments to one box. I donated the excess ornaments and decorations to the American Rescue Workers truck that comes around my neighborhood twice a month.
After I downsized my ornament collection, I felt much less burdened. My only regret is that my husband and I didn’t set down to do this years ago. Thanks to my decluttering efforts, I was able to decorate the home (mainly the living room coffee table) in under two hours. I have only a wooden Mickey Mouse dressed as Santa Claus hanging on the front door to signal to the general public that I’m celebrating Christmas this year. My family were never into doing extensive outdoor lights (aside from having a few electric candles in the windows) and my husband and I weren’t into doing such outdoor displays either so it was no big deal for me to have only one token outdoor decoration. At least my electrical bill in January will be lower than those in my neighborhood who insist on having extensive outdoor light displays. (LOL!)
After I purchased the tree I noticed that the purple spire tree topper that we had used in previous years looked out of scale and very top heavy on the new small tree. I decided to donate that spire and shop for a new tree topper. As a child my family had used stars and angels as tree toppers. My husband used to tell me that his family (especially on his mother’s side) had always used a spire to top the Christmas tree. I purchased the purple spire a few years ago because I thought it was pretty and I thought my husband would be pleased with it. My husband didn’t take that spire so it was up to me to get rid of it. I decided to get a small tree topper and I thought that an angel would be nice.
So I made the trek to Homestead Gardens, a family-owned nursery in Davidsonville, Maryland that has an incredibly fancy Christmas shop that even includes a model train layout. I took some photos to show how fancy this Christmas shop really is.
Naturally this shop had all kinds of ornaments available. These beer-themed ornaments are the kind of ones that I would’ve been tempted to buy for my husband as a surprise Christmas present had he not walked out on me three days after last Christmas.
I’ve always loved looking at Department 56 buildings. I’ve never purchased one for myself partly because they are a bit on the pricey side and partly because I don’t have the space in my home to do a really awesome miniature village layout. But I like looking at them on display in the stores.
The next two photos show these ornaments that I’ve never seen before. They are painted glass ornaments with actual doll-like hair.
Homestead Gardens had a wide array of these Christmas caroling dolls.
This next ornament is one that only a dentist will love.
This next photo shows the most elaborate nativity scene I’ve seen in recent years. It not only reconstructs the stable on the night that Jesus was born but also the greater town of Bethelehem, including local market stalls and villagers going about their personal businesses. Anyone with enough money can purchase this set and erect it in his/her own home.
As its name implies, Homestead Gardens is a nursery. I saw plenty of pointsettias and Christmas cacti in a variety of colors on sale.
Homestead Gardens had these cute ivy-covered topiary shaped like animals that were the size of houseplants.
This next photo shows a cabbage that was covered in paint and glitter. Even though it looked pretty, I still felt that it seemed wrong and unnatural.
The major high point of Homestead Gardens’ annual Christmas shop is this giant train layout featuring several Lionel model trains going past villages consisting of Department 56 buildings. One employee responsible for making sure that the model trains ran properly was dressed as a railroad engineer. This layout was so big that one photo really can’t caputre the entire thing. For real model train enthusiasts who want to their own train layouts, Homestead Gardens sells Lionel train sets and related accessories.
I saw this interesting light display in the cashiers area. (LOL!)
While I was heading out to my car, I saw this really interesting twilight scene that included some interesting cloud effects.
I saw this really cool sunset as I was driving along Route 50 on the way home.
I found the perfect tree topper at Homestead Gardens. It was an angel who has a very delicate doll-like face.
Here is what she looks like when lit.
This angel may be small but she is perfectly scaled in size with my new small Christmas tree.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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