Heading home. . .

Took some pics of Kay last night. . .her tinsel (from her non-existant christmas tree) was pretty. . .

It's been so nice to hang out with Kay. I don't want to leave.

Don't truly have to either, but now that she's back to work, it seems silly to hang out at her apartment (and around Indy) when I could be home. . .doing work around the house, giving Gizmo some company, visiting with friends, etc.

So. . .it's time to go home. Glad it's sunny for the drive back.

Christmas Day 2006: a photo journey

Because our family celebrates Christmas a weekend early now (to accomodate in-laws scheduling, etc.), Kay and I have begun a tradition of celebrating Christmas together. We've discovered that we really like a simple day without any set plans.

This is how our day turned out this year:

Woke up around 7:00, but fought to stay in bed until 8:45 because we didn't get home from church until after 1:00 a.m. . . .eggs, coffee, tortillas, turkey bacon. . .yummy breakfast was worth getting up for!


Late morning: Kay and I both uh. . ."tested" Ryan's new BOSU ball while he was celebrating Christmas with his family.















Early afternoone: Photo shoot for Ryan. The point was to get some good head shots for him - he's an actor. We got some cool pictures. Kay liked the raindrops on the window the best. I like them too.

Mid-afternoon: "Christmas dinner" with filet mignon, asparagus, salad. . .

. . .and chocolate mousse. Excellent.

Late afternoon/evening:

Kay really wanted me to watch Pride and Prejudice. She didn't tell me it was 5 hours long. Good thing we weren't on a schedule. Loved the book, loved the movie. Even have a soft spot for Colin Firth now (he's one of Kay's favorite blokes).

All in all, a fantastic no-commitment day.

Hope all of your celebrations were wonderful as well!

Santa's Helper? or Ghost?

Interesting.

Did you know that Santa (or at least some of his helpers) wears Colt's gear? And goes around giving out $20 bills in envelopes to random strangers on Christmas Eve - at parks, grocery stores, gas stations, etc.? (Too bad Santa wasn't giving a win to the Colts at the same time. . .)

One of Santa's helpers also masquerades as a ghost. Check this out (behind Caroline's head). . .

Maybe that makes it easier to come down the chimney???

Merry Christmas. Hope the "Christmas Spirit" has found you!

Family times. . .

Have you ever made a pineapple upside down cake? If you didn't know, this is how it starts out, with a pineapple upside down. . .

We had an Italian Christmas Dinner tonight (or so the sign said). Great pasta, bread. . .and peppermint ice cream. Yum.

This was a beautiful scene seen from my sister's deck on friday afternoon - the rainbow was starting to fade, but I was able to get a few pictures. . .

Christmas is awe. and love. and hope.

Sometimes it's hard to remember the wonder of the season with all of the busy-ness. . .especially without snow. However, the purity of little kids excitement and awe over presents, Santa, pretty trees and lights (and snow when we have it) helps. . .

This is my youngest niece. Yep, she's really as angelic as she looks! My sister worried that she would forget her somewhere when she was younger because she was so quiet and non-fussy.

Another good christmas message

~Christmas is Love: Believe~

(Gizmo meditates on this thought every day)

"I hope I can do this soon. . .and that people stop taking pictures of me trying."

Thanks for letting us all share in the fun, Kelsey.

Volleyball fever. THIS point.

Well, this is from a few weeks ago, but I'm having trouble uploading pictures from my computer. . .so you might see several posts in the next few days as I rotate between sisters' houses!

Just got home from watching my friend Christy play volleyball. Well, really, if I'm honest, it was half watching the volleyball, and half watching her 3 month old son. Very cute. Here's a picture of Shawn (and dad, Chad) - notice how interested Shawn was during the first game. He did perk up for the second and third games. . .even SCREAMED when I took his bottle away to try to burp him - oops!

Lots of volleyball lately. Our school team (which I help coach) lost in the semi-finals of the state tourney on saturday. Great lessons and experience throughout the season, but especially saturday. Lessons about staying focused on the point at hand. Not the one just over. Not the one coming next. THIS point.

I also am struggling with a need to post a picture of one of my favorite objects...my mom, on the other hand, struggled this weekend with questions of why I took so many pictures of this object. . .all I could say is that I like how it looks. . .?? (oh yeah, and it makes great s'mores!)

Monday Musings

Channing said I should post this picture, so I will.

Nothing like a good hot chocolate after ice skating. Especially with whipped cream. And cinnamon on top.

This was from last week - no chill today, with the mid-40 temps. The non-ice rink would still be functional though. How cool is that?

Welcome to my World.

Welcome to my blog - and to a piece of my world!





Isn't it funny how HAVING more seems to correlate with feeling like we need to DO more?





For example: now that I have a digital camera, I need to create another profile on another website (this one) so that I can also post pictures on my (not quite) daily blog along with words.





Don't get me wrong - I love having a digital camera, and it's not much work putting this together (I like picking colors, fonts, etc. . . !!).





The question is this: do I get rid of my myspace page now to simplify???





At left is a moment in time from my first day of owning a digital.

Doesn't it say in the directions that you have to test it with funny faces?