End of the Year Recap

This blog has been neglected since we returned from our Europe spring trip!  Time for a recap:  Right before going on vacation we closed on a house in Maryland and moved in so we've been pretty occupied by that.  Generally we've been homebodies except for the occasional excursion.  Our Instagram followers have probably had a better idea of what Hans and I have been up to so here's a little bit of photo catch-up:

Our little home

On a whim I bough a mini pack of concert tickets to see the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra four times this spring.  They did not disappoint!  During the summer we went to DC to see a hilarious play that has been translated from the original French prose and modernized: Le Misanthrope reenvisioned as School for Lies.

In the fall I went to see the Mariinsky Ballet production of La Bayadere with a pal who is also super into ballet.  OMG the cast was amazing!  It was the first classical ballet I'd ever seen.  Last year's Swan Lake by the American Ballet Theater was wonderful also, however the Russians are truly dominant in their execution and control.  No wobbly arms or fidgeting in the wings from these dancers!

Let's back up a bit:  In June we picked a hell of a lot of strawberries...

and then made hella good preserves (and pie) with them.

In October we went up to Ithaca, NY for a long weekend.  The Corning Museum of Glass had a temporary Tiffany Glass exhibition that I wanted to see.  What I wasn't expecting was the really pretty glass pumpkins they had for sale in their gift shop!  I came home with two :)

We also came home with lots and lots of excellent wine.

This summer I also built some furniture for the new house.  It started with a bookshelf to fit in an awkward corner by the stairs.  I also made a small side table for the living room.

Hans' mom visited during Halloween.  We had fun exploring Baltimore and checking out some of the outdoor spaces in Annapolis, including some that Hans and I hadn't been to yet.

Shortly after Hans' mom went back to Wisconsin my parents came for a visit through Thanksgiving.  My dad and I went up to Philadelphia for a day and the rest of the time we just enjoyed each other's company at the house.

Between house guests Hans and I finally made time to check out the Renwick Museum in DC, which is one of my new favorites.  At the time their special exhibition was miniature crime scenes that were built by a real criminologist in the 1940s and have been (and still are) use to train police and detectives in crime scene processing.  They were tiny, detailed, and creepy (some of my favorite things).  The artworks in the rest of the museum were really cool too.  There was a backlit "quilt" made from film that was sewn together with nylon thread, among other things.

.

Christmas was a cozy affair at the house and New Year's Eve is going to be the same.

Here's to another trip around the sun!