I have another card to post for the Embellish challenge (strange since the color combo is so not me), but none of the photos I took tonight are very good, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. It’s snowing here; my favorite kind of snow, white and fluffy. I took this shot of the tree on our patio with my point and shoot. The flash went off and caught all the snowflakes in the air. Probably not a very good photo technically, but I like the effect.
Once again, I seem to be ahead of the game. Many years ago, I was often done with Christmas shopping and wrapping by December 1st. Considering I worked full-time and had two busy kids at home, it was kind of amazing. But it enabled me to slow down in December and enjoy the holidays. Then over time, things slipped back to “normal.” But this year I made a list and have been checking things off at a pretty good clip. It helps to be retired!
All in all, I’m ready for December. We live in an old house (circa 1930), and it’s just perfect at Christmas. The last few nights, I’ve taken my laptop downstairs and worked in the living room so I can enjoy the tree and the rest of the decorations. After a wonderful November of sunny skies and pretty warm temperatures, it’s been too dark and dreary the last couple of days to get good photos, but they’re coming.
Last year, one of our porch trees was stolen. We had to buy two replacements so they would match and put the one left on our patio table. This weekend I found a bigger tree, decorated with berries, pinecones, and white lights for 50% off at Michaels. I can see it from our kitchen as well as the dining room, and I just love it. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen in December so I’ll probably get more enjoyment from it than anyone else!
For over twenty years we’ve gone out the weekend after Thanksgiving to cut down our Christmas tree. We always scope out the weather report and try to go on the better of the three days. This year it looked like Friday was the best day. Early in the morning the sun was shining, and it looked very promising. By the time we left, it was cloudy but no rain was expected for another two hours or so according to Weather.com. No such luck. By the time we arrived at Wilbert’s, it was raining, cold, and windy.
Wilbert’s was a new tree farm for us, and we were encouraged by the huge size of it. There are six stations where you can pay and quite a nice map of the property. Another nice feature is the cart they provide for carrying the tree in from the field.
The bad news was the trees were short (we need at least a 7 foot tree) and many of them were simply ugly. Lots of them were totally brown on the bottom. We trudged through two huge fields before we finally gave up–cold, wet, and discouraged.
There was no way I wanted to go home without a tree. We weren’t too far from an old standby, Schoff’s Tree Farm. Two years ago, the selection there was slim, and after 15 years or so, Tracy decided we needed to find a new place. But we decided to try again, and we really lucked out. First of all, the weather cleared.
Secondly, Schoff’s had just opened a new field of trees and within minutes, we had found a tree the right size and shape.
While Tracy and Matt were tying the tree on the car . . .
I looked around for some photo ops, and found a couple right in front of the van.
On the way home, we stopped at Grossman’s Nursery so I could pick up some poinsettias. I loved the door handles here as well.
I’ve spent most of the day getting the house decorated. It took a couple of trips to the store to find some candles and a tray for the coffee table display. Tracy is putting the lights on the tree tonight. By tomorrow the house should be ready for Christmas. Now to wrapping gifts and getting Christmas cards out.
We’ll soon be off to my sister-in-law’s for Thanksgiving dinner. Tracy and I were at the gym early this morning in order to work off a few calories before we hit the table. I’m the pie lady for this event. My BIL was gifted an apple pie for today, so this year I only needed to make two: chocolate pecan and pumpkin.
Have a wonderful holiday!
Shimelle’s prompt today for Blogging for Scrapbookers prompted a bit of exploring for me. I was frankly surprised to see that I’ve been blogging since June 2005 and have written almost 500 posts. Amazing. Shimelle asked us to look back to a year ago and see what we were blogging about. It’s a great idea and the first prompt I came to in the November 2008 archives was Thanksgiving. I had made a list of things for which I am grateful and not a one of them has changed in a year. I am one lucky lady and several tragic events of the past few weeks have just made me more aware than ever of all my blessings.
After family, friends have always been at the top of my list of blessings. We’ve spent the last two nights with good friends, eating delicious food, sharing stories, and reminiscing. Tonight’s dinner was the first of biweekly dinners and bridge with good friends. Thirty some years ago we started playing bridge and having dinner every Wednesday night. In addition to the bridge game, Eileen and I made an informal agreement that we would never serve the same meal, so our repetoires of recipes really increased. We had a lot of fun, ate really well, and maybe the bridge game improved. After Matt was born, I couldn’t keep up with a full-time job and two kids so the weekly dinners disappeared. We continued to play bridge in a duplicate group, however, which is now in its 37th year. Last month we decided to reinstate the Wednesday night dinners, but every other week. So nice to come back to an old pattern now that all our kids are grown.
Tonight’s dessert was a new recipe for me, found on the Mommy Coddle blog last week. Absolutely delicious!
I served it with vanilla ice cream, a bit of homemade caramel sauce, and candied pecans.
The last few years it has snowed before we’ve gotten the leaves to the street for pickup. Matt brought home the power blower last night and Tracy finished blowing in the dark. This morning he dragged the huge pile from the backyard to the street. It is an amazing pile.
Here’s the sad part. There are still leaves on the trees.
Quite a few, in fact.
Two projects on my “to do” list have been accomplished. The first you can see readily as I have created and posted a new banner on my blog—without any help! I have really avoided this task for weeks because I was afraid I would mess up the blog and not be able to recover it. The second project still needs a little work, I think. I created a watermark for my photos which you can almost see on the second photo below. It’s pretty hard to read, so I need to adjust it a bit.
The adult ed class on external flashes was quite good. I now understand all the buttons on the flash and what they do. I haven’t had much time to play with it, but here are two photos. The first is with the on camera flash. You can see the glare on the mantle and the light is quite harsh. The second is with the external flash and is much more pleasing to my eye. I’m planning to get some more practice with people (we did a bit in class last night) before Thanksgiving, and hope that the family photos that night are better than usual.
Today’s prompt for the blogging course was about setting goals. It was a timely topic. One of my goals for the last year and a half is to learn how to use the external flash Tracy gave me for Christmas two years ago. I’ve tried it a few times, but it all seemed overwhelming, and even with a book, I haven’t put the necessary time into learning how to use it. With the holidays approaching, it would be very nice to have a good flash to use. So weeks ago I signed up for an adult ed class at a local school called “Abstract Flash and Lighting.” It takes place tonight, so maybe by tomorrow I’ll have some idea where to start.
Another goal I’ve had on my list is to learn how to round corners so I can switch the photos in my blog banner without relying on my son-in-law and his Photoshop skills. Just this morning Cathy Zielske posted a video using Photoshop Elements 8 demonstrating how to do this. No more excuses. I can figure this out! Hopefully, by the end of the week, there will be a new blog banner. (I also have to figure out how to change it!) Last night I managed to reorganize and clean up the side bar of the blog and add a Shelfari widget to the left column. It’s too bad it takes a class to get me moving!!!
It was a gorgeous day here in western New York—warm and sunny. After church we drove up to the boat yard to check on the sailboat. I knew our boat was a bit small when we take it out on Lake Ontario, but today I really understood how small. I had never been up there after all the boats had been put up on dry dock. Our boat looked like a toy! But the plastic Tracy covered the boat with has stayed in place so that was good. On our way home we drove through Durand Eastman Park, another beautiful park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. It’s still beautiful in November.
Later this afternoon Tracy and Matt moved most of his furniture and belongings from our garage to an empty garage in Naples that Tracy’s mom owns. There’s still a bit of cleaning out to do, but we’ll eventually be able to park in the garage this winter. While they were gone, I got a few more Christmas cards made–three of each design.
It’s hard to see in the photograph, but the trees all have a bit of glittery “snow” on them. The star has a tiny Hero Art rhinestone in the center. Both stamps are by Memory Box.
A few of the fall decorations around the house. We had friends for dinner and finally some sunshine so I managed to get three shots I was satisfied with. More later, perhaps.
The dining room centerpiece.
On the dry sink in the dining room.
On the coffee table.
I wasn’t happy with the shots of the mantle, so I’ll try again tomorrow and add them here then. I’m trying to live up to my goal to post every day—maybe not such a good idea some days.
We live just about a block from Highland Park. It was designed by Robert Law Olmstead and is the site of an annual Lilac Festival that draws thousands of visitors each May. When we went for a walk earlier this week, I was delighted to see these beautiful new signs on Goodman Ave.
Here are a few more shots (taken with my point and shoot) as we walked to the park and around the neighborhood.
The Highland Park Reservoir
There are still a few trees with most of the leaves still on the tree.
I love the shape of this tree. There are several old trees in Highland Park that are just lovely.
Tracy noticed the cool shadows along the sidewalk from the reservoir fence.
Happy Halloween! It’s a cold, wet, very windy and dark day here in western New York. I feel sorry for the little trick or treaters. It’s going to be a chilly night.
Earlier in the week, Tracy and I skipped going to Midtown to work out and went to Mendon Ponds. Unlike the last few days, it was a warm and sunny day and the walk around 100 Acre Pond was lovely. I’m sure many of the beautiful leaves are now on the ground.
I took this photo for Sarah who said she was missing the colorful leaves of autumn in California. She spent last week in Malibu at a retreat center for a conference, so I have a hard time feeling too sorry for her. Especially on a dark, dreary day in Rochester. Adam posted some beautiful photos of the Pacific Ocean from the place they stayed on their way down.
On the way around the pond, Tracy spotted this snake. He thought it was dead until it raised its head!
It was a beautiful afternoon.
Tracy and Bob have gone to the Adirondacks every September for years. This year Cathy and I decided to go along–not to backpack, but for a girls’ weekend. We picked a great year to go. We dropped the guys off at the trailhead on Friday, and they took off for Mt. Marshall. Here they are, already to take off for their two day hike.
Cathy and I, however, did not rough it. We checked into the Ledge Rock Motel in Wilmington, just north of Lake Placid. We had a great view of Whiteface Mountain from our room where we enjoyed wine and cheese and crackers, talked, and read.
Friday night we drove into Lake Placid, ate at the Lake Placid Brewery and did some shopping. There was a great breakfast at the Lake Placid Diner on Saturday followed by more shopping in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. We did get a little exercise walking 2.7 miles around Mirror Lake.
The weather was fabulous and the foliage very near peak.
Saturday night we had a great meal at the pub at the Hungry Trout in Wilmington. Sunday turned out to be gray and rainy. Here’s the view from our room on Sunday.
The hikers were wet and very tired when we picked them up.
But grateful for the cold beers we brought with us. All of us had a great time. I think this could be a new tradition!