Picture the Holidays and Journal Your Christmas Days 3 & 4

I’m keeping a list of the Picture the Holiday prompts, and as I have time and inspiration, working on capturing them. I decided I wasn’t going to pressure myself to get it done day by day. It’s a good thing:  Sunday I went to Buffalo for a class with my friend, Nancy, and had dinner with friends; Monday I had my first dental appointment for a new crown, did some crafting with Nancy and Mary, saw the ankle specialist, and went out to dinner again; yesterday I drove through a snow storm to get my oil changed (not my smartest move), did some Christmas shopping, had lunch with a friend and met two other friends for a drink before dinner. Fortunately, today was much less busy, and I finally got a few crafty things accomplished.

But before I get to those, an update on the ankle. The specialist does not think it is broken; just a bad sprain. He gave me a much better brace which has already made a big difference and prescribed some physical therapy which I started today. I go back to see him in six weeks.

Today’s Picture the Holiday prompt was “Reflecting on the Season.” We were to photograph a reflective surface. Every year I struggle to take decent photos in our very dark house without turning on the lights or using a flash. This year it’s going much better because I’m using the tripod. Of course, I knew that would help, but have always found using a tripod cumbersome. I’ve been working on it now for about a month, and like most things, practice does improve your performance! So I’m happy with this photograph.

Here’s another take on the same prompt:

December 4th’s prompt was You Hold the Key. We were to photograph something that helps us gain new perspective when the bustle of the holidays begins to seem too much.

For me, curling up on the couch with a cup of tea in my favorite Christmas mug and a good book is one way to refresh. I love the lights on the Christmas tree, and it’s my favorite time of year for snuggling in on the couch. Justice is our next book group book, and it’s very thought provoking.

I finished several pages in my Christmas Journal today, and have a couple more started. I should be caught up by the weekend.

Without the transparency:

The journaling reads: Entertaining at Christmas time is one of my favorite things to do. Our house is just the perfect house for Christmas decorations, and it doesn’t take a lot for it to look festive. Our dining room table expands to seat twelve, but it requires using plywood leaves that Tracy made years ago. It’s hard to find a tablecloth the right size and shape, but this year I found one on the Williams Sonoma website that it just perfect. I wanted a bright red table runner and Target had just the thing–and very inexpensive. I found the red sparkly chargers at Target as well. The holly china was purchased years ago from a discount department store when they went out of business. I have enough for twelve and it gets used every year. Tonight our book group came to dinner. We had our usual lively discussion and a great time.

Even though we got our tree on the first of December, I decided to do my annual tree hunting spread on Day 4. Here’s the journaling: 

    Tree hunting was a lot more interesting this year. While we were in California we went to Rancho Siempre Verde, south of Pescadero, to cut down a tree for Sarah and Adam. It had rained off and on all day, but the sun finally came out just as we arrived at the tree farm. It was, however, incredibly muddy and all of our boots were caked with several inches of heavy clay mud. It didn’t stop Sadie from having a great time, though.

     The trees at Rancho Siempre Verde are not your typical “perfect” tree, so it took some time to find one everyone agreed on. Although there’s not a photo here, the tree looked lovely in their living room, and was just the right size.

    Before we ever came home, we had decided not to cut down our tree. We didn’t arrived home until the first of December, and we were entertaining our book group on the weekend. Good decision. We arrived home to pouring rain that turned to heavy snow by noon. we deicided to try Grossman’s Nursery where we had found beautiful poinsettias last year. Not only did they have trees, the trees were inside and dry! We found a perfect Fraser fir, they baled it and put it inside the van so it didn’t even get wet on the ride home. It was a different experience this year, but both tree hunting expeditions worked our really well.

This turned out to be a very long post!