Vulcan & Christmas is coming.........

Okay..........so you know Vulcan is the Roman god of the forge. Well........Birmingham was once known as the "Pittsburg of the South"..........rich ore deposits.......also coal deposits........yeah..... This huge statue--cast iron, no less--was made for the 1904 Worlds' Fair. It's really pretty cool. 56 feet tall and 120,000 pounds! He stands on a tower--I don't know how tall. But you can climb the 80something steps or ride the elevator. The trouble with the elevator is when you come to the top, the walkway over to the observation deck (and the deck as well) is not solid! You can look down through the "floor" and see the ground below!!!!! I don't deal well with things like that, but I forced myself, and so glad I did! Such a fun excursion!!! My pictures aren't really good, but you will get the idea. You know..........I just remembered that we did this after donating blood. I guess it's a good thing we didn't hike up the stairs.........we came down them though...........

 This was as good as I could get from down below...........he's HUGE!!!!

Here's a little perspective..........I know I'm not tall........but I don't even come to what can properly be called his calf!! Fun day! And I learned more about the steel industry in Birmingham.

Another fun little bit.........I had been looking for a Christmas tree ornament. And what I really wanted was one the shape of Alabama made out of Alabama steel............well!!!! Guess what Pres. and Sister Hanks gave all the missionaries!?!?!!??? Yup! that's right!

Oh!!! I also need to include the wonderful little tree we have in our apartment! The "Achievement Day Girls" in our home ward made it a sent it to us. I added a fun little string of lights and wa-la! We have our tree!!!! Thank you, Girls!!! It has been such a surprising blessing to be able to focus more on what Christmas really is rather than on the fluff............confession here..........I'm a little nervous about Christmas Eve, and I have been more homesick this past week than all before, but it really has been pretty stress-free, and that's a good thing..........

And here is the little tree I decorated for the office. This morning when we got there, the top half of the lights were out!!!! And you all know how I love playing with fickle lights! I even got the "resident electrician" (really! our housing coordinator is an electrician!) to try to figure it out. He didn't get any farther than I did!! So I took off that string of lights and put on a new string I bought yesterday! Isn't it festive? The new lights are LED so you can only see the blue ones..........I wish I had got 100 lights instead of 50...........that's just my regular lousy decorating skill............

Then..........we found out Donna is in the hospital, and we don't know how long, so we bought a little tree and now she has a Christmas tree in her hospital room............it's another indication of my questionable decorating skill.............but the lights are bright and it cheers up her room. Here I thought I wouldn't have to worry about a tree.........and now I've managed to decorate TWO of them!!!! I even put the lights on the office tree TWICE!!! Yikes!!!

 

Ooooooooo............poor tree..............I think it looked better in person.........