iPhone


16
Dec 10

Special Church Christmas party

Santa

Santa paid a visit to the Special Church Christmas party. The guests lit the advent candles, ate cake, got presents and sang songs, including perhaps the greatest song ever written “Cowboys and Coyotes.” It involves a lot of howling and noise making and you would not believe how good or catchy this song is.

What was cute were the people coming up to Santa saying, “I believe in you, Santa.” And they really, really do.

Santa

“Smile, Santa!”

“I am, you just can’t see it through my beard!”

This is a project of my mother-in-law’s, because she’s just an awesome lady. She runs this program. It isn’t even her church. And she has a special inside connection to Santa, because she’s an awesome lady. Special Church is the neatest thing. I’m glad we get to be included in it from time to time.

We had dinner at Tutti’s. This is in one of the reviews on Trip Advisor: “We got the worst table in the place, a two top, which is almost in the kitchen and we didn’t even care.”

Tutti

I cleaned my plate. I got the gold star. Just insanely good.

Late into the evening we visited a family friend. We were in the house of a man who has been featured in Sports Illustrated. I think that might be a first for me. He may have been on the short list for casting of the most interesting man alive campaign. The man celebrated Christmas as a child on Old McDonald’s farm.


15
Dec 10

Tis’ the season

Choir

An angelic choir.

Choir

It was only a matter of time, really, before the truth came out.

These are from a place called the Historical Christmas Barn. It is a store shaped like a barn. It is 20 years old. They also had Halloween displays, which look ancient in December.

And then we visited the Christmas house tonight. It was full, just chock-full of Christmas decor that a woman pushing 70 has been collecting her entire life. She buys all of these things at yard sales. She has ancient ornaments, old kid’s ornaments, an entire historical collection of Santa images, more snowmen than you can possibly imagine. Every surface of her house is covered.

She said it takes her a week to set everything up. And she has to take pictures each year to make sure her things don’t wind up in the same places every year.

She showed us her guest book. She has a huge Christmas Eve party and the book has been signed for more than a quarter of a century. Great stuff.


14
Dec 10

The coldest December

Clock

This is about 45 seconds after the day’s best light has passed through the library. The sun is very fickle just now, but we can still have beautiful golden tones in short bursts.

A few minutes later we went out for an afternoon walk. It flurried on our walk two days ago. It is merely bitterly cold this evening. We stopped by the drug store and then the grocery store on our walk. One lady at the grocery store said she’d noticed us as she was driving in and wondered at our long walk.

Another woman stared very hard. She was thinking the same thing.

We brought home fish for dinner from the grocery store. It froze on the walk back. We had hot chocolate when we got back inside, and now we’re all warm again.

The house is clean, the laundry is done, the walk has been made. Now to bend back to my reading and notes.


12
Dec 10

Silent Night


12
Dec 10

Catching up

Allie

We found a cat under the Christmas tree! She found a toy … and ornaments.

Tree

And then we encouraged it by taking pictures. Allie being Allie, this was not encouragement. She hates the camera. Not that any cat enjoys a camera, but Allie has a knack for even knowing when the phone becomes more than a phone. And she will walk away.

Numbers

They’re running numbers at Moe’s Original Barbecue in Lakeview. I hope they’re all coming to my table.

Sunset

Sunset in Auburn.

Sunset

That same sunset in Auburn, from the same spot. The difference was one haircut.