It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! Guess who’s is who’s. 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Category: Family
The reason for the season.
We went for another sail yesterday. It was a beautiful, mild day. I took this shot as we were leaving our marina’s cove. It’s a giant cross out in the middle of nowhere on Graveyard Point. It’s at least 15′ tall and made out of steel beams that appeared out of the blue one day a year or two ago. No small feat for whoever put it up overnight. The guys at the marina like to refer to it as the “immaculate erection.” heh heh.
Anyway, it’s hard for me to sail past it without thinking of Him. I thought it was appropriate to post this pic today, on Christmas Eve. A reminder of what it’s supposed to be about.
Have a Merry Christmas with the ones you love!!
Christmas Eve-eve!
I was up early this morning padding around the house. We usually leave the little white Christmas lights on at night. I have always loved to stare at the glow of Christmas lights at night.
I remember doing that when I was a kid. We always had an artificial tree. The same one that we took with us every time we moved. With the big glass bulb colored lights. You know… the kind that would burn your finger if you touched them after having been lit for an hour or so. It’s amazing more homes didn’t burn down back then.
I remember sitting watching the tree lights that decorated my little trees over the years in my dorm or apartment. Somehow I remember those trees being extra pretty during my “on my own” college years.
This morning as I walked down the hall I stopped to admire this year’s glow. So pretty. I just had to snap a shot, too.
Still here!
Rumors of the end of the world have been greatly exaggerated. We headed out today with a boatfull of friends, Al, Tina, AJ and Ireni. Lori went out as well with Doray, Laura and Ann. A good time was had by all. AJ took the helm and took us up and down the lake in mighty strong breezes. He’s a natural.
We are blessed with great and fun friends. What a great day spent with them!
Down at the Armadillo.
‘Tis the season for the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar!! This is the 37th year of the Bazaar. If you go, you can find local artists showing and selling their wares (over 150 artists this year), live music on a stage in the center of the hall, and food/drinks to fortify you as you make the rounds. If you are anywhere near Austin between now and Christmas Eve, check it out.
While I was there tonight, Marcia Ball and Kimmie Rhodes shared the stage from 8-10pm – great music! Here’s the obligatory shot from the floor…
A wee sailboat.
One of the most well-padded packages I’ve ever received arrived today, containing a lovely gift from friends Teri & Jim… a hand-made sailboat ornament. L.O.V.E. I.T.! 🙂
Here’s to friends, family and fun. Embrace them all, every day!
Fused glass ornaments.
While I was in Seattle a week or so ago, I took a glass fusing class with my sister. We made 5 glass ornaments. I had to leave them there to be fired in the kiln, and then they’d mail them to me. Today they arrived.
Here’s the “after”:
And here’s the “before”:
The copper metal hangars and accents oxidized and turned red in the kiln. The way we made them was to use 2 pieces of glass cut approximately the same – one piece of glass serves as a base, and then the decoration is placed by putting pieces of glass and metal on top of the base, with a little glue, if necessary. And then the 2nd piece of glass is put on top, sandwiching the decoration in between. During the firing, all the glass pieces fuse together. The result is a single piece of very smooth glass with the decorations baked inside.
I had a lot of fun in the class. I’d like to try it again.
And….voila!
I felt like playing around a bit, so I created an animated gif to capture the transformation of this year’s Christmas tree from bare to decorated to twinkling.
To make the animated GIF, I used the web-based tool Picasion.com. Note: before I created the gif, I reduced the size of the original images down to the size I wanted (i used the width of my wordpress theme as the target image width). Then I created the gif w/ Picasion.
We’ll leave the light on for you…
C’mon over!
Twinkle, twinkle.
Julie took her last final of Fall semester today – and is headed home for the holidays tomorrow. Tonight we went to Painting with a Twist to create a work of art. This is my version. Not bad. A little festive. Probably worth hanging on the wall for a week or two (?) 🙂
My peeps.
Today Noreen and I went to a glass fusing class in Tacoma. We each made 5 glass Christmas ornaments. I have to wait another week or two to see how they turned out… until they are fired, and they’ll mail them to me. But we had a lot of fun.
Afterwards, all my sisters and my brother met to spend some quality time together and yuk it up a bit. I had a really nice time. I have lived away from home for over 30 years, and though we get together every now and then, it never seems like enough. I’m glad we spent today together.
We ate lunch in a bar / restaurant loaded with Seahawks paraphenalia. They play tomorrow, but I’ll miss it – since i’m flying while they’re playing. I hope they make the post-season, so I have a chance to watch them on TV from Austin. Go Hawks!
Soccer chicks.
After work today, Noreen and I met up with Francine to watch one of her soccer games — they can play year round in a really nice indoor facility. Fran’s been playing soccer since she was a wee lass. 30+ years later, she’s still playing, and turning her kids onto it as well. Pass it on…
Tis the season.
When I was growing up, my mom would make Chex party mix every year around Christmas time. I spent many a New Year’s Eve playing board games with my family – and there was always a big bowl of party mix on the table.
Though I rarely make it, it’s something I identify with the holidays. Today mom and I made a batch.
Here’s the recipe that’s made the rounds in our family:
Party Mix
1 small box (~14 oz) each: Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Cheerios
1 bag pretzel sticks
2 lbs mixed nuts
1 1/2 lbs butter, melted
3-4 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
Garlic salt
Mix ingredients in big brown paper grocery bag. Melt butter on low heat on stovetop and stir in worchestershire sauce. Place dry ingredients in shallow pans. Pour melted mixture evenly over dry ingredients.
Bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Sprinkle with garlic salt between stirrings, to taste.
Accidental bokeh.
Mom and I set up her tree today. It looks nice. I took several photos of it, hoping for one to post here. On this one, the autofocus was a bit whacky. And it turned out blurry. But I like the bokeh effect of the lights. So… this one is the winner.
For inquiring minds: here’s a definition of bokeh on wikipedia
Sheila365 