CELEBRATING LARRY'S BIRTHDAY -- FINALLY!

After a week of bad weather (on Larry's actual birthday of January 3rd), and a weekend I had to work, we finally made it to Lancaster County to celebrate my youngest brother Larry's birthday.  We met up at Miller's Smorgasbord for lunch.  We tried to decide between a la carte or the buffet and all four of us went for the buffet.  The food was good (as usual!).

Here is Joe.  No, he is not drinking a beer.  Well, sort of.  It's a Pennsylvania Dutch birch beer.

This is my brother Larry, the birthday boy.  The glare you see on these pictures is from the sun pouring in the big picture windows behind our table.

And here is my sister-in-love, Kim.  She's just as sweet as she is pretty.

We were there about 2 hours or a little bit more.  We ate and talked and ate and talked and ATE.  I was glad I did not overeat though.  I had a cup of wonderful potato soup.  I just can't pass that up.  Then I had a fried chicken leg, mixed vegetables and potato stuffing.  I gave in and got a second plate with two chicken wings, a tablespoon of dill potato salad and a serving of sliced melons.  Oh my were those melons good!  Kim and I agreed though that I make a better potato salad.  That's why mine is "world famous"!  Ha, ha.  At least in my world.

Here's the view outside one of the windows in the restaurant.  Isn't that a beautiful sight to eat by?  We could see a road and were watching the Amish buggies go by.

After we ate we stopped in the gift shop.  I got a little Amish cookbook with some really great recipes in that I have to try.  I also got a new tote bag, some popcorn to take to work, and some sticky buns for Joe and me.

Then we went outside and while Joe sat in the car, Larry and I went to take pictures.  We were taking the same shots so it will be interesting to see how we were alike and how we were different.  Be sure to check out his view of things at his blog:  Exploration Photography.  In the meantime, this is my view of the farms around the restaurant.

I love how you can see where the crops were and how they lead to the farmhouse in the background.

This is probably my favorite picture of what I took today.

I love this tree also.  Without leaves you can really see how the branches all interact with each other.

I was watching these horses through the windows the whole time I was eating.

Another great tree.

These rows of harvested crops just fascinated me.  Knowing they were plowed by hand with horses dragging the plow made them all the more special.

When we were finished taking the pictures, we went our ways.  Larry and Kim were heading home and Joe and I were heading for Rockvale Mall.  We went to Hagar and I bought Joe a couple pair of dress pants.  I had been wracking my brain what to get him for Valentine's Day and he said he wanted me to get him these.  So it's an early gift.  He can use them too because he is still losing weight and his others are getting too big on him.

Then we headed over to Christmas Tree Hill to get some advent wreath candles.  We had used ours for two years and they were pretty well burned down.  I will pack them away with the wreath so I can find them next year.

We were getting into the car to come home when I looked up at the sky and saw this X.  How strange!  I had to get a picture of it.

Our last stop was to get gas.  If I wanted to get home, that was a must!  We always go to this same station.  I love how they have a statue of a horse and buggy right there next to the gas pumps.  In the summer you will see kids over there petting the horse.

We then headed on home.  I was glad to get where it was a little bit warmer.  It was 22*F. in Lancaster and 35*F. in Philly.  You wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference, but it did!  It was FREEZING out there!!!!

I have not been very diligent getting my 8:30 a.m. photo.  I have missed several days.  But I did get it this morning.

As an added bonus, I also got the crescent moon!

So until later....

Kathy