Thursday’s Blog Sliding In......

There are surprises in the sky on daily basis.  The jet vapor trails add man-made clouds to the works in the sky. As times goes by the trails blend and scatter making it look like unusual cloud shapes.

The last of packages to be sent will be done so in the morning. The last goes to my wife’s sister who lives in covered bridge territory. She will get her box of things in plenty of time for Christmas.  My wife had a commissioned portrait to do the past few weeks and that has been picked up now. The place is not getting snow but I know that it is inevitable. We have very cold and damp weather today.

The decorating is done and anything not placed on display will not be displayed now.  We went shopping this morning to make a first run for shopping for each other.  We were not expecting to get much as we are going to the mall in the big city tomorrow. We are reworking the Christmas letter one more time. I write a draft to get things started and my wife rewrites or adds to enrich the letter. It being a draft means we could never send it reading like that! We don’t worry too much about getting them out on time. The idea is that we do them.

We are grateful to be ahead of our schedule at this point.  We may collapse some time down the road but our stress should be less by now.  I hope everyone is doing well out there in blog land.  Don’t  overdo and keep up the positive attitude.  Thanks for checking in on me today.

Wednesday’s the Middle......

My squirrel feeder works well for our one squirrel.  He isn’t such an old guy as his size seems smaller than an adult one. Yep, the lid on the feeder is leaning  because of the creature that is feeding there. He looks like he has a very long tail.

Another successful view of a day moon.  When I zoom in on it the camera turns the blue sky black. I had clouds and jet vapor streams all around but the focus goes just to the moon.

At the bottom of the stairs is my sea bird display.  I guess it is my desire to go somewhere other than being in Iowa.  I caught the shot a while back but never shared it.  It is at the bottom of the stairs displayed on an old pie safe cabinet.

I shipped out a box of gifts this morning to Maine.  They said it would get there the day before Christmas.  I was surprised. We spent the rest of the morning finishing up our shopping for the others that live in Chicago and Winterset, Iowa.  We have all of them to wrap now and will ship in the next few days. We feel like we are scrambling but in reality we are getting things done in time.  I tossed the Christmas letter and have four or five collages of photos to choose from to print out for our letter.  We will still have a half page to write our letter on and the rest is nine different photos of all of the family.

I hope everyone is doing well today.  I appreciate your stopping by at my post.  If you are out and about shopping, I want to warn you of all those people who want to charge at you with their cart. It is getting to be rough for some of them while they are shopping.  It is like playing dodge ball in a store that has too narrow of aisle and too many people. Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday’s Tidbits.......

We are getting some things done for Christmas.  We have some gifts for my wife’s friend and she is going to feed us a meal today at her place. She, having no family, gives us an opportunity to share gifs for her Christmas morning. We also have a box of gifts ready to ship to our kids in Maine.

I wrote a Christmas letter for our cards last evening. I have already decided that I don’t like it and will trash it. I am thinking I will create a collage of photos of us and the grandkids.  I decided I  could have written, we didn’t do great things for all to see this year.   We did survive the year and we are grateful for Christmas blessings.  I started to think the letter I had written was the same as last years anyway.

I have some great moon shots from last night and  I promised on the photo blog that I would cut down on the moon shots. Here is the amaryllis putting out another bloom, making it to be four open now.  I am hoping the first blooms don’t go into decline until all buds are open.

I thank you for stopping by today.  Everyone take care.

Monday's Moments........

Bloom number three should be open by the end of the day. The colors of this amaryllis is so great to see.

The guy is selling flowers to the little girl.  He has stopped the horse in the street and waits as he sells his flowers.

We did get the villages completely set up and the boxes are moved back down stairs. We really have enjoyed the villages.  I along with my wife, keep moving piece around as we pass by the whole scene.

Sleigh bells ring as the horse pulls a carriage or sleigh.  The jingle sound is recreated often by orchestras but the real sound is a deeper, richer sound as the brass bells are shaken up and down as the horses prance down the road.

We received two photos from our oldest son today in his email.  One photo  was of the works of he and his son’s creation of gingerbread houses. Also along with that picture was one of our new grandchild in the womb. The birth is over four mouths away and we will be excited to see if it is a boy or a girl.

My wife and I were out shopping today buying presents for the family members who live far away.  We don’t have the energy at this time to get them wrapped and in the mail but maybe tomorrow something can be shipped.  We are having a warmer day today and it is really nice to have.   Thank you for stopping by today.

Colorful Morning.....

It was a beautiful morning with lots of color. As the color changes from streaks to larger clouds of reflected color of the same. It was great to see after the many days of dull clouds.

Saturday’s Stuff.....

The season does approach too quickly but it is the same each year. We started shopping yesterday and  I am reminded that it will be a crowded shopping season in our city.  We have a batch of presents to prepare for shipping to Maine.  They won’t get there in time but they will be arriving with in the right time frame. More shopping yet to do for the batch that we ship to Arlington Heights, Illinois. We get to shop for a few toys for that shipment.  It can be a challenge even for buying toys but I like it anyway. We recently saw the grandsons so we will have an easier time at picking the right kind of thing for their ages.

Today we are headed to a birthday party for our Asian Minister.  He is collecting funds for his birthday present and giving them to a woman who is going to have a kidney replaced. She needs the funds and we will be served a homemade chicken and noodle dinner for the donation. People are asking these days for people to donate for a cause as their present and this one is just a little different. It will be fun and it will be nice to help out the woman in need.

Our day is looking great today with warmer temperatures and sunshine. It will be a good day today.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Friday’s a Go.....

There is a little blur but one can get the idea of parts of the village are under the tree. The really look like they belong there and getting the buildings lighted helps with a special effect.

The two tops of two pieces of furniture really can’t handle the whole collection. We are still working on putting out the people to add to the look of the city. We have a train and other carriages to put up.  We will get it done and then will leave it up the whole month of January.

Just for fun I took this shot of all the ornaments on the tree. I am some who don’t heavily decorate like this but it just the way we do it at our house. I don’t really think there is any need for us to get any more ornaments.


I have all the empty boxes scattered in the storeroom.  There isn’t any need to put them on shelves as I will just have to bring them back upstairs  in a few weeks. I will have to clear things a little for the furnace man to find the furnace.

I ventured to the old place today to see how things are doing.  We have snow in our yard up there.  We don’t have snow now at the southern home.  We live in a line that splits the weather from the north and from the south. No rain, no snow, but we do always get the wind from either direction

Thank you for stopping in at my posting today.