Christmas Eve in Annapolis

            Our second day in Maryland was actually Christmas Eve. My husband always makes his traditional egg bake so this year was no different. He cooked while we all played and watched on adoringly as she removed all the food and books from their shelves. My other major concern about taking this trip was that I knew their house would not be baby proofed-and why would it be-they don't have kids!? My little one is literally into everything, it doesn't matter what or where so I was hesitant to visit them knowing how difficult it is to visit other's homes for just an hour or two. In fact we are currently taking a bit of a respite from visiting non baby proofed homes because I feel like all we're doing is 'yelling'  'don't touch that'....and by 'we' I do not mean myself I am referring to her relatives so I don't think it's a nice visit and don't see the point when people can easily come over to our home and she can run around and play as normal, there's nothing really that she is 'not allowed' to get into. So I was especially impressed that Bob, who doesn't have children went to great strains to not only baby proof the house, but he did it perfectly! I told him he should start a baby proofing company-HE THOUGHT OF EVERYTHING! It always amazes me when we visit our relatives-people who have had children AND grandchildren- the significant amount of dangerous and delicate items they leave within her reach when we visit.  (And yes, I do think that if you are going to insist on us coming over rather than visiting our home, then you should do some babyproofing.)
            This is parachute string he used to close everything up-Bob informed me that "YOU JUST CANNOT FIND PARACHUTE STRING IN THE STORES LIKE YOU USED TO". Bob is one of my most favorite people to quote-he is dead serious when he says things like this and I just find them hysterical!

After breakfast and after a little more playing we headed out for Annapolis which is a town I just adore! It is so clean, so quaint, and so lovely. We walked around for a bit or rather we chased we chased our little girl while she chased after all the puppies she saw. I wanted to do a little shopping but that turned out to be too difficult to keep her out of things- although I did find an amazing little store called Abby Bay that makes these very unique wooden maps, I encourage you to look at the website I think these maps would make the best gifts!
 

 For lunch I really wanted to eat at Ram's Head Tavern reason being, the time I went to Annapolis with my girlfriends over Easter and I had met a very charming sailor from New Orleans, he took me to this restaurant on Easter morning for breakfast. I found it so enchanting that I was celebrating Easter with this person I had met just hours before in the street after we all left the bar. I remembered how much I liked the restaurant and made it my goal to dine at the obscure, little restaurant in Annapolis Maryland on each major holiday so I have now been there on Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve! The restaurant itself is so captivating, the floors are brick, there are several rooms- it seems to go on forever, the decor is unique but in an elegantly comical way and the food is incredible, I had the crab melt and it was the best meal I have had since I went to Hawaii in 2009.

Rams Head Tavern

LOVE my baby hugs

Carnation in one hand, pickle in the other, what more could a girl want

Bob and my traditional serious pose

After Rams Head I just had to go to Acme, a place where I spent one of the most memorable nights of my life so as a thank you I always make sure to patron this bar. Considering it was Christmas Eve I did not expect it to be so lively but people were drinking heavily, the music was loud and I got to watch a fascinating gentleman fondle himself multiple times-it was everything I could have hoped for and more. My daughter also made a friend, a sweet little girl sitting right behind us, it was so cute to watch the two interact. 

We headed home while I tried to decide if I was going to go to the Christmas Eve service at my favorite church the Patuxent United Methodist Church-this is the gospel church I went to a few years ago and loved-I will write a post just about this experience. I didn't want to leave my little girly as I knew I'd be gone a few hours and wouldn't be able to get her to sleep on Christmas Eve but I'm not often in Maryland and didn't want to pass on the opportunity. The service did not last as long as I had expected, I was prepared for it to last 3 hours like it did last time but much to my dismay it was only 1 hour although I had arrive an hour early because I was misinformed. I was very disappointed when I arrived home to find that she was already asleep. But I was so glad I went to that service, and I know it seems strange but I really enjoy going to church alone, especially now since I feel frazzled and busy most of the time- it's so nice to just be able to sit and take it all in.