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!