McHugh's in Motion

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Gingerbread houses galore

Christmas fun in Omaha. Gingerbread houses made from corn flakes to shredded wheat cereal. Tempting to eat, but don't you dare. It was best to see with friends.

Brookside church in Omaha turns their building into the bustling city of Bethlehem, each December. Everyone visiting is counted, Roman guards walk the "streets" demanding taxes, the market is busy with people selling spices, food, making coins, slingshots, basket weaving and bread. The bread lady is our favorite to visit. Elliot & Hunter got their hands covered with flour and rolled out the dough.
Chickens, ducks, sheep and donkeys were in the manger around Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.

Field trip to the Orpheum Theatre

We started off our Christmas season with seeing the Imperial Nutcracker. For the past three years we've enjoyed this tradition. The performance was lovely. The costumes and set design were reminiscent of the Russian era in which Tchaikovsky wrote the ballet. Beautiful ballet and music, a treat to the senses. Elliot was a little disappointed because the nutcracker used a feather, for a sword, to fight the mouse king. He prefers the loud cannon boom and real swords.

Squaw Creek snow geese migration

Heading home from KC we stopped at Squaw Creek to view the snow geese migration. An awesome 250,000+ geese filled the icy water and chilled air. The noise coming from the volume of birds was grand. As we watched them change directions "on a dime" in the air we wondered why the sudden move. It's fun to think of conversations the birds could be having. We were there at the peak of the migratory season for snow geese. It was a breath taking sight.