She designed a life she loved: Thanksgiving Week. . ..

Our Monday excursion this week was to Annapolis.. What a quaint, delightful town. All around the water and the home of the US Naval Academy. We drove up with the Larson's and it is only about an hour from where we live. We walked along the streets filled with cute shops. We toured St. Anne's Parish which was originally built in 1696. It was the only church in Annapolis before the Revolution and was well attended and soon had plans to be remodeled and enlarged to accommodate the growing population of the church. Due to the Revolution the church remodel was put on hold.. but was later finished. It is beautiful and the interior has many stained glass windows & 2 of the windows are by Tiffany glass works. Such a beautiful church..
We asked the locals where to have lunch and they said go to Buddy's Crabs & Ribs.. we were not disappointed. The food was delicious.. I was not told to bring my drivers license so we couldn't get into the US Naval Academy.. Next time.. It was a beautiful day and I loved it and want to go back again.

The Tiffany Window

Lunch at Buddy's

The basket of crabs

Quaint city street

Beautiful homes

The Waterfront

Tuesday was filled with visits to some of our favorite sisters. Six in total.. Each one was a special visit and so meaningful. That evening we were invited to Ann & Craig Schmoldtz home for dinner to meet her sister Susan and her family in from Mississippi. Her other sister Ilene and her husband Terry were also there. It was a great dinner and a fun evening getting to know Susan. Both Ann and Ilene are in the College Park Ward. So it was a full day and so rewarding.

Wednesday we spent the entire day at the Family History Center.. We both kept busy on our projects. I started looking at the families of my aunts and uncles and found quite a few of their brothers and sisters. I really do love working on my genealogy and I am learning more each week.

Some of the new sisters

On Thursday we visited one of the apartment of the young sister missionaries for their quarterly apartment inspection. They are so cute and all was well with them and the apartment. We then picked up Sister Larson from the visitors center and went to our regular Thursday visit with Barbara. She was excited that we brought Sister Larson with us today. She is such a joy to visit each week.

For dinner we were invited to join 3 other senior couples for Thanksgiving dinner. I made my cranberry relish and it was a hit. The apartment that hosted the dinner were the Watson's from Boise, Idaho. So it was fun to talk about the Boise valley. The other couples were the Anderson's from California and the Larson's from the Tri-Cities in Washington. They had invited two other gentlemen also. We had a feast and since we each contributed to the dinner it wasn't a lot of work for any one person and it was wonderful.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday we concentrated on visiting the sisters, since starting next week we will be at the visitors center every day until Jan. 2nd. So in total we called on 23.. Had some wonderful visits with old friends and met some new sisters. We visited with Naomi who just had a beautiful baby girl, named Olivia. We were treated to a couple of marvelous piano songs by Linda. My heart was so touched with the beautiful music she played, it took my breath away with her talent. I just love the sisters that we visit and they are each so special in their own way.

Baby Olivia with our relief society president Rose

Linda playing beautiful music

Friday afternoon we attended the baptism of 8 year old Ebenezer. Such a special family, his two older brothers were so proud of their little brother. His father Daniel is such a wonderful dad and such an inspiration for the boys.

The Asfaw family with Elder Williams & Elder Bott

Saturday evening we picked up Margaret and her son William and took them to the VC to the production of "The Night Before".. It was a musical centered on the night before and the night Jesus was born. The auditorium was packed and everyone enjoyed it so much.

We have our tree up and the Sieg's (another senior missionary couple0 brought us each a poinsettia so we are all decorated for Christmas.