« November 2011 | Main | January 2012 »
I think it's time for an Ollie update, don't you? He's been spending quite a lot of time in the house because it's so, so cold outside. LS Boy's been spoiling him by giving him lots of treats.
He's been really good about staying in his spot....sort of.
And I'm not talking this kind of bouquet.
Or even this one....fancy though it may be.
I'm talking bokeh...the photographic kind. Bokeh is actually taken from a Japanese word meaning "blur" and is the quality of the out of focus area of a picture, often the reflection that comes from a light source. I wanted to try to get some pictures of the tree with only the tree lights as the available light source. I also wanted to practice focusing a little in low light.
This is the ornament that came from my childhood tree when I got married. It's a brass cherub bell. I seem to be surrounded by cherubs lately.
I think this one turned out a little better. There were more lights around it but I was happy I could get some focused pictures in the low light. Really, really high ISO's, though.
In the past, we have made Buckeyes for Christmas, but this year I decided to try the very-similar Homemade Peanut Butter Cups. A little more chocolate than peanut butter, while the Buckeyes are a little more peanut butter than chocolate. I put The Girl in charge of the project, and while it was a little drippy, they turned out pretty well. She still likes the Buckeyes better, but finds these an acceptable substitute this year.
As is our usual tradition, we are spending a few post-Christmas days up at the cabin. After the scramble of the season, it does us good just to unplug a sit in the woods for a while. So as you read this, we are doing exactly that. Although this year is a little different. We haven't had enough snow to snowmobile in. All reports are that we're going to be able to drive it. I'll report back.
In the meantime, I have a few techno-posts for the time away. I'm not sure I'll have enough for every day this week, there will be this and that. I have a few miscellaneous holiday-related photos I haven't been able to get to, starting with this one:
The tray did get done in time, but wouldn't you know it, she came out with a new Christmas kit this year and I like it just as much. Now I'm in a quandry.
We had a really wonderful holiday.
There was good food.
And new jammie pants.
And dragging out of bed later than they thought they'd get up.
And stuff from Santa.
And silly presents from brothers. LS Boy printed off a picture of "The Situation" and taped a 4-pack of chocolate candies in place of his abs with a note saying "Check out these abs....they're delish."
The best part of the day, though, was getting to spend some time on the phone with PB. We were hoping to Skype with him, but the home where he was didn't have Skype, so we contended outselves with the phone conversation. We had him on the house phone and then had 3 cell phones with his brothers on them held up to the home phone so they could hear the conversation as well.
My house is pretty quiet this Christmas. The Marrieds have either gone to their in-laws or have joined the real world and can't get off work and travel this holiday. The Girl has dubbed it "The Worse Christmas EVER!" because there will be no grandbabies here, whereupon LS Boy says, "Thanks a LOT!"
Anyway, we have all remarked on the quiet around the house this year. And it's OK. I know I have to share. But I was taking some pictures of things on the tree, when I came upon this:
That's a wire that holds the tree to a nail in the wall. We wire our trees up when we have really big ones. We learned to do this through bitter experience. The first year we had a really big tree, we didn't have a stand that was big enough to hold it securely and after we all went to bed one night, the whole, decorated tree tipped over, breaking several precious ornaments. Hence the nail/wire support.
Anyway, back to the story. I found this ornament hanging on the wire. I'm sure one of the boys put it there as a joke, and it made me laugh. It made me laugh and think about my kids, and even though I'm a little lonesome for family this year, it's a warm kind of lonely that's not too bad, because I know they're all safe and in good places.
My DH, just like everyone in the world, has his own set of quirks. There are things about him that will never change and I've come to terms with that. He can, however, learn....and several years ago he learned that when he gave his wife flowers, his life was a lot easier. He can also extrapolate, and he figured out that if he contacted the florist at the first of the year and arranged to have flowers sent to his wife every so often, not only would his wife be happy, but he wouldn't have to remember to get the flowers himself on a regular basis. He also figured out that if he picked up the delivery schedule during hunting season, it saved him a lot of grief. He's not terribly fussy about what kind of flowers turn up in the arrangements, just that they get delivered.
As part of his yearly discussion with the florist, he schedules a centerpiece for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. Now, tell me, how many men who carry a gun and eat lots of wild game would think of that? So yesterday the doorbell rang. It was the little flower delivery man. He and I are pals because, well, I see him fairly regularly. He had the Christmas centerpiece.
LS Boy looked at it and smiled. It's a little different than others I've gotten. Never had those golden angels playing musical instruments before. DH got home and saw it. His assessment....."Wow...that's pretty.....fancy." Yep, we have rococo cherubs who are going to watch us eat Christmas dinner, and maybe provide us with imaginary dinner music, and I'm totally OK with that....because with every flower delivery comes this:
I love him, too.
But I do have this strange urge to gold-leaf the ceiling.
Our ward put on a little Christmas concert for a care center here in town last Sunday evening. The choir went over and sang its Christmas numbers and a few of us did other little ditties. We had one member who played "O Holy Night" on his accordian and that was a lot of fun. There was one little lady on the front row that sang along to everything. I had asked The Girl if she'd be interested in doing a duet with me. At first, she gave me an immediate "no" because she thought I meant singing, but when I asked about a piano duet, she was much more interested.
So for the past couple of weeks, she's been practicing really hard on this arrangement of "Sleigh Ride". It's one I played with my sister when we were both teenagers as well as with another lady in the ward. The Girl has never played a duet before, and until last night, we'd never made it all the way through without stopping to fix something. But we managed to get through it for this little program, and I was really proud of her stepping up to get it learned in time. Now, this isn't us playing....and we didn't do it this fast, but here's how it sounded...if you slow it down just a bit.
Fortunately or unfortunately, when you purchase one of these new-fangled brains to help keep your life on track, there are certain hazards that can befall you. I speak specifically of Words With Friends.
Words With Friends is basically a Scrabble app. You can play with others who own auxiliary brains or iphones and it is completely addictive. It's gotten a lot of press lately because of the recent Alec Baldwin saga. Yes, I could see myself on an airplane screaming at a flight attendant, "WAIT! I just need to find a triple letter spot for my 'Z'!"
