Thursday, January 31, 2013

December 2012

Are you ready to zip through December?  The last 26 days of December anyway?  I know that I am.  Here goes.  Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus...isn't that what it's all about?  I love my Willow Tree nativity set.


And I love cardinals in the snow.  This one is sitting on the net surrounding the trampoline....which has since been taken down.

I took some Christmas card pictures for my niece and her family....little Avery wasn't feeling it that day.  This one was where we were turning the frown upside down.  She wasn't really frowning...just wouldn't smile.  Kids are so funny.

We had a nice big snowstorm, Eric and I took the dog for a fun walk.  The snow was so deep that she got pretty tired...but it was such a beautiful and peaceful day!

My outside decorations were buried in snow.

One of my horse ornaments...looking out the window like he's wishing he could go out and play.

We had a fun get together for Eric's birthday.  My mom sent down some bars for him....he was keeping a pretty tight hold on them!

The best part of December was having Brian home for a few weeks.  This is a picture of the old building that he lives in while in Winona.

Part of my snow village...this piece always makes me smile for some reason.  It really looks like ice.

My project for the football team was finally done.  D-ring binder books and printed books.  260 pages each...just before I boxed them up and delivered them.  So happy to have it behind me.

I volunteered to take some portrait photos of a friends dog.  I didn't realize at the time that she was a dark chocolate lab...dark brown in the snow.  Did I mention hyper too?  Yep, hyper.  We got a couple of cute shots though.


Oh Christmas tree.  It seemed like it had a lot more lights than show here.

I had paper whites blooming right before Christmas.  So fragrant...and so pretty.  White on white.

Paper whites again.

I love Christmas lights...and shallow depth of field.

The boys on our way to take Christmas card photos.  This isn't the one that I used, but for some reason I really like it....so it's my photo of the day.

One of my favorite Christmas Village pieces.  It's very similar to the conservatory at our local zoo.

A cell phone picture of our little home town church the night before Christmas Eve.  It's the annual candle light service...it wouldn't feel like Christmas without it.

Czar on Christmas Eve morning...enjoying the sunshine.

We came back home on Christmas night...the boys tore into their gifts.  The dog was so tired from spending a few days in the country...holidays are exhausting!

Another horse ornament....my tree was full of them.

Paper whites were still blooming a week later.  So pretty.

Female cardinal...we call them "mama cardinals".  I think that they are as pretty as the males.
 Movie night at home with the dog in front of the fire...doesn't get much better than that!

The days are short in December, the ornaments are there...so it makes for an easy photo of the day.

The cat is an easy target too....when she's awake that is.  House cats have it pretty easy.

And with that we are at the end of 2012.  Ring out the old and bring in the new.  See you in January.



Wednesday, January 30, 2013

November into December

Still in catch up mode.  A picture of the flag on a windy day when I took Brian back to college.


Part of my Thanksgiving decorations.  I like to keep them out while the flowers are still nice, not quite ready to get into gear for Christmas quite yet.

The other end of my table....gotta love the Pilgrims!

Transitioning into Christmas.  I had the greens on my front step decorated with bronze ornaments...sort of Christmas decorations in Thanksgiving colors.

Next came the Christmas lights on our fence in the back yard.  Gotta take advantage of the warm weather!

The next decoration that went up were the lights on a bush in the front yard....shown with the Bronze ornament as the focus.

A quick trip to the farm.  Hello sweet boy.  He always comes running to see me...or to eat.  I'm pretending it's me that he loves and not the food.

Our house with lights.  Welcome home.

Christmas Amaryllis.

Getting the decorations up a little at a time.  The garland in the kitchen.  And now they're all boxed up and under the stairs again.  I miss the twinkling lights!

The holidays come and go so quickly....and then there is long, dark and cold January.  Sounds like a good time to catch up with blogging.  Tomorrow I'll catch up with the rest of December....which will put me in the current year anyway!  See you then. :-)

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

A little Behind...with posting!

The intermittent blogger.  Argh.  Things got busy.  Then I got tired.  Tired of photos and trying to keep up.  But I did keep taking them...so now I'll share them.  Two months later.  Let's catch up.  We're in the middle of November here...bright berries on the neighbors tree.


My favorite slippers.  Resting, no music, no TV, no computer, just quiet.  It doesn't happen often enough.

Way back during football season.  The boys were checking the replay on the jumbotron during the semi-finals game.  Cool moment.

 On the road coming home from running errands...Eric was driving.  Thankful for the cell phone camera on those days that getting the big camera out seems like too much work!

When in doubt take a picture of the messy dog.  We had leaves in our house all fall.  Wonder why.

I liked the way the sun was hitting the bare branches.

Billy and sweet Avery on Thanksgiving day.

Football State Championship game at the kickoff...vs. Lakeville North.  EP won!  What a season!

A night out for dinner for Brian's birthday and my birthday.

Billy with his football coach at the end of the season banquet.  They are laughing at me because I forgot to take off the lens cap.  Coach said, "and you were our photographer?"  One of my finer moments.  At least they laughed.

 It was a busy weekend in November with Thanksgiving, football practice that morning, a houseful for Thanksgiving dinner, out of town over night guests, Championship football game, my birthday, Brian's birthday and the end of season football banquet in 4 short days.  No wonder I got tired.  But hopefully I'll get caught up in the next few days here!  Thanks for coming back.  I think I'm back now too.