On hold

Christmas hasn't arrived at our home yet.

Presents are still under the tree.
Carols are unsung.
Roast is uncarved.
Heck, it's unroasted!

Mom works at the hospital and since she and Dad no longer have children at home she always takes all the holiday shifts and lets the others be at home with their families. That means they won't be here until January 4th, so Christmas and New Years will have to wait until they arrive.

This happens annually, you'd think I'd be used to it. But it still feels odd. Dad says that this is a good thing - we can buy our Christmas presents at the After Christmas sales and still be in time!

I try to tell people that we celebrate Orthodox Christmas, but no one gets it.

In keeping with my still-to-be-celebrated Christmas spirit, go here for some free music! (Don't worry, it's totally legit. It's through CNet.com.)
A Capella Christmas

The poor dogs finally got a full walk today. Before this they were having such a hard time getting through the snow and ice. The little guys would high center! (And most of our neighbors didn't bother to shovel their walks. grrrr...)
But with the blast of warm air we made it all the way around the block without their little paws freezing to the pavement. Yay!

While we were walking I saw a number of beautiful things - snow melting in strange shapes, thin layers of ice over leaves, weirdly melted tracks in the snow - but I knew I couldn't wait for the morning because it will have melted overnight. (Heck, it's 8:30 and it's still 48 degrees outside!)

As soon as we got home I grabbed the camera and ran back to where I'd seen all the good stuff. About 80 shots later I got home, so proud of myself for getting what I wanted before the light faded - and then found out that I didn't have a memory card in the camera!!

Much beating of head on wall ensued.

Well, not for long. I was determined to get SOMETHING, so I jammed the CF card in and got a few shots in my own yard. Ah well - sometimes you just have to take pictures with your mind and enjoy them that way.

In the meantime, here are a few for those of you not living through the big thaw.

My Beautiful Wickedness!!

Melting... Melting...
The thermometer reads 38 and everything is melting at an incredible rate!
Hurry up Christmas, or there won't be any white left!!

We got out this morning and shoveled the drive and the sidewalk before the snow turned to slush, and we're nicely sore now, inside and watching the snow drip off the trees.

There are 40 foot pines just above the dining room (aka The Computer Room - we never entertain) and every time one of the boughs drops its load of snow on the roof it sounds like we're in an aerial bombardment! It's driving the dogs nuts, but we're enjoying it (even if we do duck once and a while).

Ah - while we're at it - everyone else gets to post cute snow baby pictures. We'll here are our snow babies. (Totally spoiled of course.) They were able to walk on the ice layer for most of the time, but every once and a while they'd break through. They didn't like that too much. Mallory would stick his head in the resulting hole and sniff around to make sure it wasn't the work of evil prairie dogs.


Action Shot!!


I have no real desire to scrape the foot of snow off the top of my car and go driving. There are insane people out there! And we've got a two years supply of food and fuel here! haha! I laugh at the crowds and the slush!

(Yes, you can tell how old I am. When I as growing up it was a two years supply. Now it's down to something silly like six weeks.)

My sister just threw a bunch of meatballs and some yummy grape jelly in the crockpot. We've been told this is great to snack on, and we'll be doing the melted brie with apricots and walnuts later on - just because it was too luscious not to repeat.

We were planning on attending the candle light midnight service at the little Scottish Church out in Hillsboro, but instead I think we'll just turn out the lights, light a bunch of our own candles and read the Christmas story by the tree.

Merry Christmas to all of you!
May you be as warm and happy as we are.

Happy Hanukkah!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah!

I served my mission in New York and there I learned to love the Jewish people and their customs. It was there that I first celebrated Hanukkah.
At first I thought that this was just a nice way to give the Jewish kids some relief during this season - how would you like to be surrounded by all this Christmas stuff and be unable to participate? Yikes! But I quickly learned that I was wrong - the holidays may fall near one another, but each deserves its own place in our hearts.

Christ celebrated Hanukkah, the festival commemorating the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. It's a beautiful story, full of hope and faith.

If you've not heard it before here is the short version: The Syrian-Greeks had taken over Israel and had desecrated the temple in Jerusalem as a way of subjecating the Israelites. Finally an Israelite leader, Judas Maccabee, arose and was able to kick the Syrians out. The people rushed to the temple and began to clean and prepare it for worship.
One of the key elements of the original temple was a huge menorah (think of it as a candle holder) in the sanctuary. This menorah had seven arms and seven flames (not candles in those days, but oil lamps), and was kept burning at all times - an eternal flame. In the ransacked store rooms of the temple only one cruse of consecrated oil was found - just enough to light the menorah for one day. It took eight days to press and consecrate new oil! However, they lit the oil in faith and the tiny cruse lasted eight long days until new oil was prepared.

For Hanukkah we use a menorah with 9 arms. Eight candles or oil lamps for the eight days of the feast, and one lamp known as the shammas - this is the light that is used to light all the others.

What do I learn from Hannukah?
I learn of the great faith of a people who loved God and wanted to worship him.
But more, I am reminded of my savior. Christ is my shammas. He gives me of His light and His own is never diminished in the giving. He stays bright and steadfast at all times, drawing me to that which is pure and holy.

The next time you see a Hanukkah menorah look for the shammas - it is always set a little apart from the other lights - either higher in the center or on one side - and think of what the faith of the Israelites can teach us, and of our loving brother and Savior, the Light of the World.

During the eight days of the feast families gather every night to light the candles and celebrate. Gifts of money (gelt) may be given and many people give money to charity during this time. But mostly it's about food and family! (Yes some people now decorate Hanukkah bushes in blue and silver or white, but we won't go there. heh.)

Since the point of the story is the oil, you'll find LOTS of dishes the incorporate oil in Hanukkah celebrations - the more the merrier! Latkes (fried potato pancakes) and sufganiot (fried donuts filled with jam or cream cheese) are staples.
Here's a wonderful store house of recipes that can get you started.

May these next nights be filled with light for you and your family as we remember the faith and strength of good people everywhere, and the Light of the World, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Missed Opportunities

Do you ever feel that you have a huge list of things you wish you'd done? My list is now large enough to be bound so I can begin work on Volume Two.

When they forecast snow last week I immediately began setting up my photo sites. I found some nice burgundy roses still in bloom, and a good spray of dark orange rosehips, a bush with bird berries, a stand of cedars - all the things I knew I'd want to capture in the snow. The only thing I was missing was a good holly tree. There used to be one right across the street from us, but it was cut down this summer (booo!!) and so now I'm holly-less. Ah well, at least I had some other good subjects.

Then the snow hit, and dang it, I had NO desire to go outside. Too cold and wet and slubbery (I know that's a word somewhere.) So I missed all those pictures. *sobs* It was my choice, but you know what happens to those who hesitate. Yup, they are photo-less.

I did get out to take a few shots the next day when the sun came back. I love the sun on the snow, and even more, I love the shadows!



While driving to work Thursday the snow was falling in huge clumps of fluffy flakes with a little dusting of glitter stuff in between, and oh joy! the sun was out at the same time! The whole sky was sparkling! I almost cried - the snow settling on the stickery dried thorn blossom skeletons with the sun turning everything crisp and sparkly - it was the prefect picture. Sadly, my campus is camera restricted (all the top secret mojo we do) so I had nothing with me except my dunderheaded cell phone which takes awful pictures.

Sadness set in.

On Friday I was headed out to Cedar Hills and I happened to go by one of those stone and metallic ball fountains at a business center. Someone had forgotten to turn the water off and it was frozen in wonderful icy sheets! Still - no camera with me.

So, this morning, I looked out at the sifting snow, listened to the dearth of people on the road and said, "WHAT THE HECK! I'm not going to let this be another of those 'I wish I had' moments!"

I had a wonderful time poking around. Took about 80 shots and the only thing that could have made it better would have been some nice golden sunlight to throw everything into contrast and make those delicious shadows.




Tonight I had to drag out the tripod and try for some Christmas light shots. Most of our ground lights are already buried and are shining through. So much fun! I didn't wish for a white Christmas, but I was given the present anyway!


I hope you are warm and cozy, where ever you are, and enjoying the view out your window.

Terrifying Snow Monkeys

"Were there monkeys? Some terrifying Snow Monkeys?" *

OK, it doesn't work quite as well as the original, but it still makes me smile.

Spent all day keeping a multi billion dollar fab running from the warmth of my home, wearing my purple flowered PJs ** and sherpa slippers and sipping cocoa. Does it get any better than this?

I think it does, cause as soon as I cut free from the server I ran down to make some cards using my new Changito Monkey stamps. Now, I'm not the one you'd ever peg as "cutsey". Don't like little apple cheeked dolls with no mouths and button eyes. Shudder. But these guys... dang, they make me laugh!

So, here's the card! ***

Outside:


Then, inside:


It's raining here now, but should be snowing again tomorrow.
Happy snow to all of you!





* All you Firefly fans out there will just have to forgive me. I couldn't help myself!
** Sadly I don't have sexy footsies like Nancy. Nor her cute bod to go with them! ;)
*** Yes, I know, I bought a nice softbox. But I was too lazy to put it up, so you get to see my cluttered craft table in the background.

Let there be lots and lots of lights!

When I was little there was a huge juniper bush in front of our house. At Christmas we'd string those big glass colored lights through it and soon the snow would melt around the bulbs and we'd get a good coating of ice that would eventually cover the bush. After a few days the lights would seem to glow from within a giant snow globe! It's a great memory.

One thing I've learned recently is that LED lights, as pretty as they are, don't put out enough heat to melt snow, so there's no likelihood of recreating my childhood Christmases, even if Oregon weather would cooperate (which it is, at least this week!).

That's OK. There are still lots of pretty lights around. But some lights are more exciting than others, and when you mix lights and electronics, I reach Geek Nirvana!



You may have seen animated light shows before, but if you haven't seen this one you're missing out. I sent this URL to my family, and my sister (being the good researcher she is) looked up their web site. Turns out this is an incredibly talented family, and you may have seen some of their work. One brother made the stained glass windows for 10 LDS temples! There are several brothers - Richard does this light show (and is a web designer), Tom creates the stained glass windows, and Treavor is a blown glass artist and Will is a photographer. Their father, Floyd, was a photographer for National Geographic. What talent!

After you watch the light show, head over to their website and read their story. In 2007 they raised over $10,000 for the Make A Wish foundation from people viewing the light show. Also, be sure to check out the stained glass studio. There are pictures from the temples (this window is from the San Antonio, Texas Temple) and even a stained glass Christmas tree!

Brrrr...uuuuummmmm

Yes, it's cold out there.
So warm up with a little subtle British humor. (OK, maybe not so subtle.)

I love "Top Gear". It's a British television show dedicated to all things automotive. Here they do a road test of the new Ford Fiesta that had me laughing out loud! Apparently someone criticized one of their reviews, so they're out to do a very thorough job this time. Stay with it to the end. It just gets better and better!


Top Gear - Ford Fiesta

Enjoy!
And... stay warm. Brrrrrrrr

Odd and Ends

This weekend has been really odd. I'm all wired up about something, but I can't figure out what it is. I hate that feeling. It makes me wander around the house, cleaning and fixing anything I can get my hands on, just to try to make it stop. So, if you don't mind, I'll wrap up some loose ends here and maybe that will help.

Pirates of the Great Salt Lake

The "Pirates of the Great Salt Lake" movie turned out to be - well, not quite a dud, but certainly nothing I'd ever watch again. To be honest, I found the premise disturbing. Oh, I laughed at it in the trailers, but to actually watch the story unfold - creepy. Not to mention the killings. Didn't expect that one at all!

So... blah.
If you want to watch it I suggest getting it from Netflix instead of paying $5 to Blockbuster like I did. Bad move on my part.

I really wish a good movie would come out sometime. Too much too wish for? I hope not. :(

The Tree

The tree has been up for a few days but we couldn't figure out what do put on the top.

For the past several years we've used our little "Bumbles" doll from the claymation Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon. Remember how he puts the star on top of the tree? We'll he does that for us. However that didn't seem to be a big enough star this year.

Usually we have two trees: an elegant one with crystal icicles or golden angels or burgundy fruit - the Festival of Trees type tree - and a more rustic tree with wooden cranberry bead garlands and German straw ornaments or nutcrackers. It's this second tree the hosts Bumbles.

This year, because we have TOO much furniture in our living room, we went with just one tree (directly in front of the fireplace *sigh*). It's a more elegant tree so Bumbles didn't get the top billing. We couldn't stand to hurt his feelings, so he's still there (that's him, the cute white furry guy, climbing this year's tree) but we reserved the top for a truly magnificent star. Except that we couldn't find one!

We have six boxes of Christmas ornaments and can you believe we couldn't find one good tree topper? Finally we settled on a nice scroll carved and whitewashed wooden star and we're finally done. Ta Da!!

I think I'll have to ask my mother to quilt a fireplace cover showing logs aglow. Then I won't feel guilty about not using the fireplace.

Cards

Cards, cards, cards. It's December 13th and I've only managed to send cards out to my family. I don't think I'll ever get all of these cards made. Might have to cut my losses, send out store bought cards and start right now to make next years cards instead.

Here is a shot of one of the two styles I've been making. I thought the stained glass look turned out well, but I'm using my oncamera flash (grrrr! I hate those things!) so you can't tell.

(That's the one thing I have on my Christmas list - a nice flash - but it's the one thing I know I won't get. :( I'd be happy with an old, used 420EX! Ah well. I'll start saving up for it.)

In the meantime I bought a little softbox so hopefully my shots will look a bit more professional from now on.

hmmm....what else?
Ward Christmas Party

We were late. My fault, I've been felling punky and napped most of the afternoon, so I wasn't ready. We were only 30 minutes late (ok, maybe 40) but the program was already over! Who ever heard of a Mormon program of any kind, especially one with musical numbers, ending on time? hehe
Hats off to Naomi for being an amazing director.

I'm just sorry I missed it all. I was looking forward to the carols and seeing the baby Jesus. Worse yet, I wandered around afterward, saying Hi to people and looking at the nativity scenes, but I couldn't congratulate anyone on their performances, because I hadn't seen them and didn't know who did what! :(

Well, that's it. Rambled enough. Hopefully this will have cleared out the cobwebs in my brain and I can settle down and enjoy the snow tomorrow.

We ARE having snow tomorrow.
I command it.

Oh Christmas tree

Five years ago, if you'd told me that I'd own a fake tree, and like it, I would not have laughed in your face. I would have simply hauled off and slugged you. =) Fake trees are so NOT a part of my family's traditions. The smell of the fresh tree, the softness of the spruce needles, the sticky sap all over your fingers - I love it all!

However, I do not love re-cutting the bottom of the trunk over and over until it stands up straight, and I always forget to water the thing, and it makes me terribly sad (and not a little frightened) when the needles fall out. So, eventually I went to the dark side, and now I love my fake tree!

One new tradition that we've had to come up with is "fluffing". Yes, we all say it. The tree comes out of the box and immediately we're commanding each other to "fluff that side!".

Tonight we fluffed!
And lighted!
And ribboned!
And decked!

Now the inside of the house is nearly as festive as the outside, and I'm sooo much more calm. Seems I'm always on tenterhooks until the tree is up.

One of my problems is that I'm not really good at decorating the tree. I love the process - rediscovering favorite ornaments, munching on popcorn that I'm supposed to be stringing for garland, remembering past holidays. But arriving at the finished product can be a bit of a mystery to me.

I don't like gaudy trees, so I tend to be a bit spartan with the ornaments and sometimes it looks rather stark. I've tried all kinds of things to become a better decorator. I've even written algorithms to help me understand how many ornaments to use for different sized trees and placement schemes... not exactly artistic endeavors.

Ah well - the nice thing about a Christmas tree is that you almost can't do it wrong. (Thank heavens!!)

Here are a few fun things we like to do on the web this time of year.
The first is my old favorite - Make-A-Flake Snowflake Creator (Originally sponsored by an underwear company. Can't remember which one. Hanes?)
http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com

And this is a new and improved Snowflake program which we just ran across. It gives immediate gratification! See the results as you cut! :D
http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays

Elf Yourself (by OfficeMax) is always a hoot, especially since the whole family can get in on the act. Last year they even had a Scrooge Yourself. I'll have to look for that one again.
http://www.elfyourself.com


Macy's has some fun things this year, including turning yourself into Santa with their Be Claus program.
http://www.macysbelieve.com

Suspense!!

Today was supposed to be the DVD release of the much anticipated (at least by me) "Pirates of the Great Salt Lake" movie! But will it really happen?

They were supposed to release this movie on the ever-hallowed September 19th, "Talk Like A Pirate Day", but somehow that got the axe. (Or the plank. What's a good "bad" pirate slang idiom for getting the rug pulled out from under you? ... maybe keel hauling...)

Then they set the release date for today, December 9th, but neither Amazon or Walmart websites have it for sale. Boohooo!!!

I've been looking forward to this one: mindless, clean fun (but hopefully not as mindless as "Napolean Dynamite" I'm from Idaho and I took that one rather personally). However, I'm a bit leary also. The reviews are all good, the trailer is funny, but then the reviews and the trailer were good for last year's "Stalking Santa" and that was such a dud that I turned it off after 20 minutes and wished I had that time back in my life.

Judge for yourself watch the trailer below! And if you find a copy of this thing, run a flag up the pole for me.

Flames

Last night the sky caught fire near my house. What an awesome sight!

I've always said that if I built my dream house, the first thing I'd do when evaluating the property would be to insure there was year round access to sunsets. I love them.

Here's what I was able to capture last night (it looks even better at full size).


Sorry about the phone lines and poles. I yelled at them to move but they were too busy watching the sky to listen to me.

I think, when I get to Heaven, I'll apply for a job with the Sunset Department. This whole Ministering Angel thing has to have SOME benefits, doesn't it?

If Sunsets are full up, I'm definitely applying for the Lava Group.
Yup. That would be fun. I understand there will be a good number of other virgins to hang around with.

;-)

(Heheh... Holly never reads my posts, so I can get away with saying things like that! Don't tell her!)

Backgrounds and the first bit of Christmas cheer

Yes, it's true. I've been ignoring the Thanksgiving dishes (hey, we only had it yesterday!) and playing with Photoshop instead. Usually I'm tweaking my photos, but this time I thought I'd try my hand at blog backgrounds.

What do you think?
It's rather stark, but I like it. =)

My dad and I just finished putting up the outdoor Christmas lights! I'm so glad to see them glowing out there in the dark and rain.

The tree comes next!
Oi. That means I have to brave the boxes in the garage.
Maybe I'll fortify myself with a turkey and cranberry sandwich first.

PS. I really did the dishes yesterday. I may be a bachelorette, but I'm not THAT bad!