#Brandywine Christmas

[goingplacesfarandnear]

Cheeriest Driveable Destinations for Celebrating Winter Holidays

With tons of dazzling light displays, holiday markets, festive shows and seasonal attractions like the light show on City Hall, the holidays are a magical time in Philadelphia © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, www.goingplacesfarandnear.com Let the spirit of the holiday season enwrap you and carry you on a scintillating getaway to these cheeriest…

[gracehosborn]

Welp in light of receiving some Christmas gifts, I had to add to Mt. Research Overflow. Brandywine by Michael C. Harris to use in writing the lead up to, and the battle of, Brandywine, as well as Joseph Plumb Martin’s memoir for reference of the average solider’s conditions throughout the war, for Hamilton led and interacted with many lower ranking soldiers and their conditions during his own service. And that information is kinda important, considering this story of mine is written from Hamilton’s first person perspective and all. 😂 Somehow Volume I of this trilogy covers all of his upbringing and the entire American Revolution. You can imagine how long that’ll be when I finish.

When this research will end I have no idea but like seeing only half of the material here is a little crazy.

[illimitable-freedom]

oh boy, this is great timing because I just wrapped up an Amrev-focused trip to Philadelphia/Princeton/Trenton! If you want to meet other history minded people especially, Patriots Week (basically between Christmas and New Years) has a bunch of cool stuff going on. My apologies if anything on the below list has already been mentioned:

I'm going to include battlefields on this list, but that's not everyone's jam so I'll put them in italics.

Ten Crucial Days

This is a thing local historians came up with to describe the period from Dec 25 1776 - Jan 4 1777, the nadir of the war for the revolutionaries.

Crossing of the Delaware Reenactment. Highly recommended, but very popular! There are two crossing (attempts) every yer in December. There are two state parks here, one on the Pennsylvania side and one on the NJ side, so it's worth a visit even if you can't make a crossing. Washington Crossing Park (PA). Washington Crossing State Park (NJ) has a nice little museum of Ten Crucial Days and NJ in the revolution more generally. It also has a museum at the Johnson Ferry House although it wasn't open when we were there.

Old Barracks Museum in Trenton, NJ. Used during the French & Indian War to house British troops and then later used as a "hospital" during the Revolution by the Americans. Neat exhibits + a nice tour.

Trenton Battlefield. We did a guided tour during Patriots Week, it was great. The battle takes place in the city so the whole tour is along sidewalks. Trenton Historical Society has a nice guide if you're doing it on your own.

Princeton Battlefield. Small battlefield, plus a little museum inside the historic Clarke House. There is also a (very strange) battle monument in downtown Princeton.

Stony Brook/Quaker Meeting House near Princeton Battlefield.

Monmouth Battlefield. This isn't part of the Ten Crucial Days but it's only a ~30 minute drive away. Much larger than Princeton, be prepared to walk a lot and read some slightly confusing maps. Nice visitors' center/museum. I liked the display where you could pick up replica cannonballs to see how heavy they were.

Philadelphia

We did a few Philadelphia stops during our trip, but it could definitely be a trip on its own! If you go to Independence Hall and walk in any direction you'll probably find something. But here are the highlights:

Independence Hall National Park. Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Visitors Center, President's House Exhibit, etc.

Museum of the American Revolution. Mix of war and social history, see Washington's War Tent (for about 60 seconds before they put it back behind a curtain). Best to buy your tickets on the website in advance. Great museum.

Carpenter's Hall, meeting place of the first continental congress.

Graff Declaration House. I don't think I've ever been in Philly when it was actually open to the public, but you can read the sign on the outside.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko Nat'l Memorial. Open seasonally on Weekends. Just down the street from the Polish-American Historical Center

Washington Square & Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier

Hopefully this link doesn't die: https://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/the-historic-american-revolution-trail-of-greater-philadelphia/

National Constitution Center. not revolution-focused or even 18th-century focused, this museum covers the constitution and its interpretations throughout its life. However, the "Signers' Room", which has life-size bronzes of every person present at the signing of the Constitution, is pretty cool.

Germantown and Siege of Philadelphia. I couldn't find a specific location for these but if you're into battlefields there is more info here.

American Philosophical Society. Revolution-adjacent, but I still thought it worth including.

Valley Forge (not really in Philadelphia, but very important)

Brandywine Battlefield. In Chadds Ford, PA

New York/New Jersey

New York City- Most of the old stuff has been torn down, but if you happen to be there, I recommend Fraunces Tavern. Just across the water in New Jersey is the Weehawken Dueling Grounds where Hamilton and Burr dueled.

Morristown National Park, where Washington's Army spent the winter of 1779-1780

New York Campaigns. Saratoga, Ticonderoga, West Point, etc. etc. Revolutionary War Trail Map (NY)

Boston (& Surroundings)

Lexington & Concord/Minute Man National Park

USS Constitution not built until 1797 but still cool.

Freedom Trail. They literally have a red line painted on the ground, you follow that line, it takes you to the most important sites.

Bunker Hill Monument (see freedom trail website)

The South (excluding Virginia)

Guilford Courthouse Battlefield

Battle of Cowpens

Moore's Creek Battlefield. Probably the best-done, best-explained battlefield I've ever been to.

Virginia (but not yet mentioned):

Ash-lawn Highland (James Monroe's House)

More Resources:

List of battles in the American Revolution from West Point, if you want to do a whole battle-centric road trip.

Revolutionary War Battle Map from American Battlefields Trust

My new goal in life is to travel to different cities for full on history tours. I wanna go to the places where all the shit went down. Right now I want to do full educational excursions in

Philly (Obviously)

Boston

New York

Richmond, Williamsburg, and Charlottesville

London

Paris

For locals and people who have been to these places, what is an absolute MUST for history nerds? I want to see and learn as much as possible, meet more people in the history community, and broaden my horizons.

Also, if there are cities I’m missing here significant to amrev, please tell me!

[sweetchristine]

[suitcasetales]

“This” Week

2009: Sanibel Island. 2010: Nashville. 2011: Chicago. 2012: Sedona and The Grand Canyon. 2014: Brandywine Valley and Longwood Gardens. New Mexico 2016.

We have a pretty good track record of traveling this particular week. We celebrate the anniversary of our relationship on Thanksgiving. This year was our 35th! For many of those years, we have gone to Williamsburg on Black Friday. This year was no exception but this year we also returned to our sporadic tradition [is it really a tradition if it is sporadic?] of taking a trip the week after Thanksgiving. It is the perfect time to for us to travel. Kids are back in school, adults are back at work, holiday decorations are up and holiday events kick off.

So here we are, on Pawley’s Island in South Carolina, getting to know — thanks to the pandemic — yet another “new beach town to us.” (Other pandemic destinations were Emerald Isle and Topsail Island, both in North Carolina.) We ventured further this trip, traveling 350 miles. Not until the Friday before Thanksgiving was I granted the week off from work so we were lucky to find a small, dog-friendly rental house. Our main view west faces Pawley’s Island Creek and we can walk to the public beach access in about a minute.

And why Pawley’s Island? Well, we can blame that on Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. On Facebook, LGBG has been soliciting votes in a USA Today Readers Choice poll on Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights. Our beloved LGBG has been solidly in third place. Longwood Gardens, which we visited in 2014 at Christmas, is second to Brookgreen Garden’s Nights of a Thousand Candles and guess what’s five miles away? Yup, you guessed it: Brookgreen Gardens. But that will come later in the week. Meanwhile, we have other things to discover, other places to explore and other delicious food to enjoy.

We have had no problem getting Cokie to walk on the beach here. Well, almost no problem. There was the morning we had to take the truck to the public beach access about 30 feet down the road in order to get her past the workmen at the end of the driveway. Oh Cokie. But the beach here is very wide with hard, easy to walk on sand. The ocean has been lake-like this week, too, so no loud crashing waves to scare her. She cries when she sees other dogs on the horizon and wants to meet them. Lastly, we never have to second-guess ourselves about where to turn up as Cokie’s internal homing pigeon gene never fails.

Starfish!

Monday we spent the afternoon in the lovely historic district of Georgetown. Just 14 miles south, it is the third oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston and Beaufort. With a quick stop at the Visitors Center, we picked up a lunch recommendation, a walking tour brochure and museum tips. A few hours and a delicious lunch along the waterfront later, we had visited two museums (South Carolina Maritime Museum and The Gullah Museum), enjoyed a docent-led tour of the Kaminski House Museum and bought two goats.

Goats? Yes, goats. Fund-raising goats. And goats raising money for a festival? Even better! The sale of these goats benefits the Wooden Boat Show, 32 years old this year. The Maritime Museum read: “If you look across the river, you’ll see an island named Goat Island. There are no goats on the island but we like to think they once roamed around over there. Every year we host a Wooden Boat Show and our sponsor group is known as the Goat Island Yacht Club. There’s no actual yacht club, just a group of supportive people who help keep us going. The goats have become our unofficial mascot and we love them.”

On Tuesday, we went six miles north to Huntington Beach State Park. Shortly after the entrance, we saw birders along the road, watching a cluster of white pelicans in Mullet Pond. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop in the middle of the road and later when we went back to view them safely, they had moved further away. Although we often see brown pelicans along the mid-Atlantic coast, neither of us could recall ever seeing the white ones so that was cool.

Lots of beautiful live oaks in this Park.

We hiked on a nice maritime forest trail with Cokie and then visited the Nature Center. A long boardwalk behind it granted us close-up views of a great blue heron, a great egret and a roseate spoonbill; the latter two stayed in the shadow of the boardwalk. It must have been a good fishing spot with all three species there together.

Our day in the Park concluded with another docent-led tour of a historic home. Atalaya, a National Historic Landmark, was the winter home of Archer (a scholar and philanthropist who inherited his wealth from family who owned several railroads) and sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington. The house was built in 1931 and is in pretty poor condition. The Huntingtons donated a huge chunk of land — 9000 acres — to the State: the side along the Atlantic which is now home to the State Park and the Brookgreen Gardens side across Highway 17.

Amassed by the purchase of four rice plantations and designed by Anna, it contains “the largest and most comprehensive collection of American figurative sculpture in the country,” many of which she made in her studio in Atalaya. Brookgreen is a beautiful place with flowers, trees, Spanish moss, sculptures, fountains, poetry and in December, “Nights of a Thousand Candles.”

Learning more about this couple made sense and led us us full circle back to the very reason we came here during our customary week of adventure.

[mybookof-you]

Mayling Mack Holm, A Forest Christmas

vi@ Pinterest and Brandywine River Museum of Art on FB

The daughter of Chinese father and an American mother, Holm was born in Manila, the Philippines, in 1940. During World War II, she went with her mother and sister to her mother’s hometown of Greencastle, Indiana. Her family was reunited in Canton, China, where she grew up and her father served in the Chinese military. In 1949, the family fled to Hong Kong when the Chinese mainland was overtaken by Mao Tse Tung. ⁣

After graduating from high school, Holm came back to the U.S. and studied at Indiana University and DePauw University—where her mother taught. Leaving college to raise her own family of three children, Holm returned to school at Goddard College, graduating at age 35. As with many women artists over the centuries, Holm balanced raising a family with her work as an artist.⁣

As a self-taught artist, Holm did not begin making art until she was in her mid-30s when her children were young. She referred to her art as “doodles,” the result of “nervous energy.” Those doodles culminated in a contract with Harper & Row to write and illustrate her own children’s book. “A Forest Christmas,” a children’s holiday story, was published in 1978 and met with great success. It was her first and only published work, taking her two years to complete. ⁣

Holm worked in the unusual medium of ballpoint pen, a very time-consuming process, with each drawing taking two to three weeks ⁣to complete—even though she did not make sketches or preliminary drawings. She collected antique miniature furniture which she used to create her detailed drawings of the homes of the humanized woodland creatures in the story. Some of her drawings were shown in 1978 in Tokyo at an exhibition of children’s illustration. This work shown here will soon be on view at the Brandywine when it reopens in June 2021. ⁣

📷: Mayling Mack Holm (b. ca. 1940), At the Rat Household, 1976, illustration for A Forest Christmas by Mayling Mack Holm, ballpoint pen on paper, 8 x 6 3/4 in. Gift of Lawrence and Barbara Seeborg, 2021. © Mayling Mack Holm⁣

[heirloomseedsolutions]

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[mercurygray]

Thirsty Thursday

A little something different for this week’s Thirsty Thursday. Featuring some familiar officers who are about to be very, very drunk.

“Nix," Dick said, eyeing the table of bottles and the waiting punch bowl, and feeling he was somehow going to regret this. "What is this?"

"Army Punch!" Nixon said proudly.  "We're going to have a Toast."

"Punch is usually lemons, brandy, and tea, Lew," Harry supplied. "Mostly brandy. My aunt makes it at Christmas-time  -- stuff will knock you on your ass. This is - " he surveyed the table, "-none of those things."

"Ahh, but that is your garden variety punch, and this is an Army Punch - specific to the unit for which it is made, and specifically for the purpose of making the unit toast! Now, gather round, you heathens, there’s an art to this."

He waited until they were all listening, and, with all the panache of a practiced showman, began. "This unit was first fielded in 1942, in Georgia, and it was there that several hundred men transformed themselves into paratroopers. In honor of the Peach State, we begin our punch with peach schnapps." He selected a bottle - one of the many on the table - and passed it to Harry. "Light Horse, please."

Harry shrugged and tipped it into the bowl, letting the entire bottle slowly chug out.

"Tested and tried by field exercises and under-strength commanders, we were sent to England to wait for orders, and gather our courage. To commemorate the good times had at the Blue Boar, and the strength of our English allies, a London Gin. Ron, if you would." In went a bottle of Gordon's, the mixture bubbling up promisingly.

"On June the sixth, we jumped into France, and the war. For the hedges, fields and orchards of Normandy,  in which so many of our brothers and sisters fought and died - calvados, a strong drink for strong soldiers." Lewis poured this one, an unmarked bottle that had probably been smuggled out of France in a pack that wasn't his.

"Trusted and ready, we undertook our second jump as liberators and friends of the Dutch, ready to free them from the Nazi yoke. For the dikes and bridges of Holland, Genever, the national liquor, distilled from junipers. Lip? " Lipton took the bottle, a tall strange thing with an antique looking label that smelled strongly of forests, and in it went.

"We then went to the Ardennes, remaining on the line in conditions that would have terrified lesser men. For the Bois Jacques, and the bitter cold, we add ice. Frosty, if you could do the honors? " Dick put a few heaping shovelfuls from the ice bucket into the bowl, which Lew stirred experimentally with the ladle before continuing.

"Our accomplishments are long, but our final objective is here at hand - and so, finally, for Germany, and to complete our Punch, we add Asbach Uralt, the famous brandywine of Unterberg. And with that - "

"It's not done," Joan interrupted, shaking her head. Heads turned as she went to the sideboard, and came back with another bottle, unwiring the top of the champagne and easing the cork off the bottle with surprising flair, the bottle only foaming a little.  "Before we serve it and raise our glasses in toast, we here add champagne, for the sweetness of victory - and to the health of the unit's officers and men." She raised the bottle, looked around the room and emptied it, meeting Lewis' eye with a smile. "This is not my first Punch. If you're going to do it, do it right."

Lewis, surprised, gestured to the bowl indicating that she was free to take over if she so desired, which she did, taking the ladle and stirring carefully.  "As we mix this," she said, with all the solemnity of an ancient priestess, "we remember the actions and battles that have made us who we are, and as we drink it, we remember the names of the men who are no longer with us to partake. We say their names now, in silence, and drink in their memory."

She paused, and bowed her head as if at prayer, and around the table the others did the same, going over the silent litany of the dead. 

Prayers and invocations complete, Joan ladled out a cup, the liquid now dark and vicious-looking, and offered it, not to Lewis, but to Dick. "Senior-most officer drinks first -- no exceptions."

Dick eyed the punch glass dubiously, and raised it to his lips, watching Joan over the rim of the glass as he took one long sip  - and almost immediately sputtered. "God, that's strong."

"As it should be," Joan said with a smile. "Gentleman, your glasses, please." They lined up and let her fill each one, each one looking at the mixture with a mix of excitement and fear.

"This is going to make your Aunt's punch look like a cakewalk," Buck murmured with a grin, but Harry only raised his eyebrows and indicated that Joan could fill his glass up just a little more.

-

The tradition here is actually more in line with a Cavalry Punch, although it’s also sometimes called Grog instead. I have drunk something similar to the mixture described here - and yes, it will knock you on your butt.

The names given here are from the officer’s Drinking Club, whose sign is still prominenently displayed in the Blue Boar pub to this day.

[witchycakez]

I figured it out!! Hooray!! Though it doesn't look all that good...mmm...meh I wont mess with it anymore it's fine...I'm not deleting the old one through #traditionalart #color #pencilart #cute #lineart #pencilcbolor #oc #mycharacters #kawaii #monster #digitalart #love #baby #homestuck #friend #originalcharacter #originalcharacters #anime #merrysolstice #merrychristmas #happynewyear #happyhanukkah #happykwanzaa #christmas #endsocs (at Brandywine, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6nqGbPg3Co/?igshid=1mibdnomd3gmv

[goingplacesfarandnear]

Favorite Places to Go Where the Holiday Spirit Glows Brightest

Favorite Places to Go Where the Holiday Spirit Glows Brightest

Christmas carolers at Longwood Gardens in the Brandywine Region © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

by Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

The best thing about Christmas is that the festivities that brighten and warm all the days of the holiday season go on from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. And the best part is you don’t have to wait for Christmas week –…

[combeferres-mothematics]

I posted 238 times in 2021

22 posts created (9%)

216 posts reblogged (91%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 9.8 posts.

I added 13 tags in 2021

#amrev - 3 posts

#american revolution - 2 posts

#travelingwithkids - 1 posts

#wtf - 1 posts

#he would do that though - 1 posts

#but i cant't draw to save my life :( - 1 posts

#can you guess the letters i know? - 1 posts

#still leanic to type - 1 posts

#but trying to kill a child wtf. - 1 posts

#if anyone was kicked out of cracker barrel i honestly would've guessed hamilton - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 80 characters

#if you haven't already guessed my favorite historical figure is thomas jefferson

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

So, I’ve been feeling a little off latly, and I thougt if was just stress, but my fiance broght up the fact that I haven’t had my period lately. Soo, I may be pregnant and I don’t know what to think. I go to the doctor on Monday, so I’ll ask about it then I guess....

2 notes • Posted 2021-11-14 06:52:02 GMT

#4

INTRODUCTION

Hello, my name is Abigail, but pretty much everyone just calls me Abby (Unless you’re my twin brother, then you call me Kiwi...) 

MY FAMILY:

I have two older half brothers, 

a twin brother,

 and eight younger brothers,

 and a little unknown arriving January 2022, (Will update when they’re born).

 And three neices and two nephews.

Oh. And My Fiance,  Ben. we’re planning to get married next February if everything goes according to plan (We were originally plaaning to get married this December, but then Mom got pregnant.)

And five kitties! Aaron Purr, Alexander Hamilcat, John Clawrens, Hercules Purrigin, and Gilbert du Meowteir, Meowquis de Pawfayette.

MY HOBBIES

I like learning about anything history related, but exspecially American Revolution.

Archeology.

Writing.

Reading.

Anything science related.

AND CATS!

MY FANDOMS

Amrev. (Just found out this existed recently and am super excited!

Liberty’s Kids.

and I think thats all so far...

SOME FACTS ABOUT ME

I am autistic.

I was named after Abigail Adams.

I was born on the 11th of September in 2001. (9/11)

My very first memory is going to Colonial Williamsburg when I was five.

I can’t cook. Like, at all. If I’m cooking something usually ends up on fire...

My favorite battle is the battle of Brandywine.

My Favorite historical figure (as of now.) is Thomas Jefferson.

I have recently started writing fanfiction. I am on Archive of Our Own right now but may expand later. I currently have only one WIP my account is Jeffersonfan if anyone wants to check me out.

See the full post

3 notes • Posted 2021-11-02 04:31:01 GMT

#3

250th anniversary of the American Revolution

Is anyone else super excited for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution that’s coming up in a couple of years? Well, the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre was last year, so I guess it has kinda already started if you think about it. but the Revolution part officially starts April 19th, 2025!  

3 notes • Posted 2021-11-02 03:29:13 GMT

#2

Okay Kiwi, Fic prompt! This will be in modern times, you can figure out how they got there. So Washington's aides, they all decide to recreate the croosing of the Delaware in George's pool for christmas, and they freeze big blocks of ice, get those huge inflatable rafts, etc, but they don't tell George what they're doing and they accidentally wake him up, and when he comes out to see what the hell they're doing he scares them so much that at least one falls in the water and has to be rescued.

Oh, this is good! I'll start working on it now!

4 notes • Posted 2021-11-07 03:36:16 GMT

#1

So, I was given permition to share this with y’all, this dicord is alive and you’re welcome to chek us out!

@pub-lius @lams-tallmadge @coldinmyproffesions @floatyteabag @harrison-the-dilf-friend 

And anyone else I don’t know to tag, I may have frgotten someone on accident, and I don’t know a lot of people here yet, so tag anyone else you think might like to join!

5 notes • Posted 2021-11-14 06:26:24 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[iafayettes]

If you’ve run out of Christmas present ideas, just know that there’s an oddly specific collection plate of Lafayette rallying troops at Brandywine whilst wounded that’s selling for around $20 on Amazon… if that’s your type of thing

[davestone13-blog]

Why the Puritans cracked down on celebrating Christmas

Why the Puritans cracked down on celebrating Christmas

‘Going To Church,’ N.C. Wyeth (1941).Archival photograph, Brandywine River Museum library, Edward J. S. Seal Collection. Peter C. Mancall, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences When winter cold settles in across the U.S., the alleged “War on Christmas” heats up. In recent years, department store greeters and Starbucks cups have sparked furor by wishing customers “happy holidays.”…

[witchycakez]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Okay so I promised myself to post something today but after unwrapping presents I...went straight back to bed...and stayed asleep until 3:40...soooo LINE ART IT IS hey I just said I'd post something not that it'd be done I will finish it all tomorrow though that is a promise ;3 Also I'd like to remind you all that my commissions are open through until March so DM me if your interested anyway Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Solstice, and a very Happy New Year!! #traditionalart #color #pencilart #cute #lineart #pencilcolor #oc #mycharacters #kawaii #traditionalart #digitalart #love #baby #homestuck #friend #anime #happyholidays #merrychristmas #happyhanukkah #merrysolstice #winter #holidays #happynewyear #gifts #worldpeace #joytotheworld #endsocs (at Brandywine, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6hZw5eBUoK/?igshid=ifidf7ljavm

[secretlybeingashli]

Merry Christmas to you🎄 (at Brandywine, Maryland)