Last Night of Hanukkah/Making it to NY

 We made it to Grandma and Pop-pop's house Sunday night, where Abby, and then Benji, immediately began the yearly ritual of rehoming her ornament higher on their tree.

We almost forgot it was the last night of Hanukkah, but remembered just in time to light the candles one last time:

Bethlehem Christmas Market

Although we had to scrap our original plans to overnight in DC, we left early enough on Sunday to stop and see the Christkindlmarkt in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The market was giant with lots of fun photo spots, although arguably the best part was the free state park site we walked through at the end of the day. It was super cold, but we were able to huddle near a fire pit to eat lunch and spend a lot of time at the indoor vendors rather than the outside ones:

Walking into the market: first look at the steel works -- didn't realize they were so huge!

Photo spot

For the first little bit we just wandered through the photo spots before we found the main part of the market

I love the juxtaposition of the tree against the steel works

After spending about an hour and a half shopping, we made our way out of the paid market and up the stairs to the State Park that preserves the steel works. I had no idea this was there, but Benji had been advocating to go see it:

View from the stairs

At the top - the park is a catwalk that takes you through the old steel works with informational signs all along the way

We accidentally hit it right at sunset and it was beautiful

Tram car bringing raw materials to the works

Reading about the steelmaking process, the labor movement, what Bethlehem steel built, was all fascinating, but we were freezing so at this point in the walk we exited back to our car

More UVA Pep Band

We ended up staying in town an extra night so Benji could play at the Men's game on December 20th:

We were in the upper deck, so got a different view of the band from above

On the jumbotron! This was the ESPN game of the week, so we got a lot more band than usual

Upper deck selfie

Semi-Annual Girls' Lunch

We were able to find one day when all three girls were in town to have a catch-up session. We met for lunch on the downtown mall and then wandered the market a bit:

Rebecca, Elisabeth, Lucy, Ophelia, Ruth, Abby

More Hanukkah at Home

We were home through the 7th night, so only had to light candles on the road once:

Night 6

Night 7

Graduation Robe

 Abby had him try her robe on to see if it fit:

Paper Snowflakes and Cocoa Night

December Bucket List item:

These ones are all Abby and Ruth

Benji, Ruth, Abby, Kevin