Love from Baltimore and Little Italy

A few days before Christmas we went down to the Harbor to visit the
"German" market. It was miserably cold and rainy, and quite a few stalls had packed up and left... so sad... but we heard a four guy band called "go FOLK yourself" and I thought, well, good for young people to be accomplished musicians and keeping the art of folk music around.
This is a view, through the gondolas to the National Aquarium lighted up like a drive in movie screen! And the ubiquitous hard rock cafe. 
I found a lovely little Russian doll for the tree though and since we paid for two hours parking we walked on around the harbor.

Thought this was a fun Christmas display! And we bought some sauce to spice up the holidays. Baltimore is ALL about the crab, and we went into a tourist shop looking for the perfect tacky crab item for a blog giveaway in the new year...

no not I'm crabby in the morning pj's

I had a wonderful time chatting with the proprietor about just the most tacky thing in his shop. Not only was he not offended, he helped me decide on just the right item. He did suggest a wiggly plastic fridge magnet crab but you'll have to check back later for the one I chose, hee hee.
When we discussed the blog, he said he watches the pbs knitting today show each morning while he has coffee. Nope, he doesn't knit. Wonderment...

Then we drove over to our favorite little hole in the wall Italian restaurant in Little Italy Baltimore, Amiccis. It was warm and cozy and we shared a shrimp bowl as well as two entrees. Here is my husband wondering when the shrimp bowl will appear....

Walking back to the car, we saw lots of lighted brownstones, very quirky as the area is. Very moody with the mist and cold. I loved this one near the Bocci Ball court, with the vintage santa light strung up across the sidewalk.
And this one with the entire bear scene in a window well...

can you click on it to see the wee little bears having a Christmas feast? Someone lovingly set this up for me to enjoy! Thanks!

I like how the bench is decorated along with the window. If you have it, you might as well decorate it.
And last but definitely not least another flamingo light display. On our Christmas Eve drive around looking at lights, we spied this mommy with her flock...

 I am a Florida transplant, and don't expect to see this kind of fun in the Mid-Atlantic so as we approached this yard, done up like a Chevy Chase movie, and then spied a palm tree with at least a dozen flamingos who could blame me for pulling over and traipsing through their yard??