December photo-a-day challenge

Day 31, the last one.
"Self Portrait"

So long 2012, and good riddance.

Now, where was I?

This will be partly a carry over from yesterday's lost post - I have no idea where the rest of my post went. Oh well.  I'll start fresh. 

Today's photo prompt for the Dec. photo challenge (day 30) was "something that made you smile this year."  Although it was a heck of a tough year, there were somethings that made me smile.  I think this photo I took at Mt. Soledad captures some of those things perfectly.

I smile when I spend time with my family, when I am out and about in beautiful San Diego, when I honor God, and my country.

Photos, memories, and more.

First, yesterday and today's photo challenge pictures. Easy-peasy.

Yesterday's prompt was "cold" (for us San Diegans, 47F IS cold!)

 Today's prompt is "hot" - and that's easy because we have a roaring fire going right now and the embers are glowing. It is helping to keep our family room toasty.

 

I'm not sure why the rest of this post dumped out, or why it didn't post when it was supposed to (yesterday!!)...darn-tootin' blogger. I'm not going to try to re-create it. I was on a roll, and had written half a novel. Maybe it's best that it didn't post. Hmmm.

 

I'll just move on. And grumble about it of course. Cause that's how I roll.

 

Prisoner 24601 & day 27 of the photo challenge.

The prompt for today was "how you relax"

I love going to the movies, whether it is with friends, family, or by myself, as I did this evening. Tonight I saw

I.LOVED.IT.

If you are a fan of musicals I HIGHLY recommend this movie. It's the best one I've seen in a LONG time. I hate to admit, but I was not at all familiar with the play and the only song I'd ever heard from it in the past was "I dreamed a dream." 

I have nothing but praise for the movie, and the first thing I did when I got home was to purchase the entire soundtrack.  This is a movie I won't soon forget. Kudos to Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Amanda Seyfried, and most of all, in my humble opinion, Hugh Jackman. What a spectacular performance! I was extremely impressed and I'd see this again in a heartbeat. If you have a couple of minutes, check out this trailer (and be thankful you can't hear me singing along.)

December Photo-a-day challenge, day 26

Day 26 - the prompt is "mess"

The window near my desk leaked. All of the contents from my desk got shoved quickly into this laundry basket. This is a MAJOR mess I'm not looking forward to cleaning up.  Lucky me.

Merry Christmas 2012

Here's hoping that your Christmas was everything you hoped it would be.
From our family to yours...Merry Christmas, and happiest of whichever holidays you celebrate.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas Eve and Christmas morning...

 Christmas Eve with Mom.

 She always makes us an authentic German dinner, and it is always out of this world!

 Kona guarding the presents

Harley thinks this whole 'get up early' thing is over-rated.

 Mom loved the giant coke bottle we got her - she always wanted a big bottle to put quarters in.

 Barry and AJ hamming it up for the camera.

 Mom was pretty emotional with the last gift we got her. I made her a special hard bound photo book in memory of my Dad. It was a very, very special moment.

Warmest wishes from us to you.

December Photo-a-day challenge

December photo-a-day challenge, day 24
"tradition" - our tradition for Christmas Eve is an authentic German meal (complete with home-made saurkraut) at my Mom's house.  IT.WAS. AWESOME.

 Day 25 - "lunchtime" - the turkey is not quite ready

 Table for 9 please!

 Ready at last! (and it was delicious!)

More of a challenge than I thought! Updated

I have been thoroughly enjoying the December photo-a-day challenge that I've been participating in, but with as busy as these last couple of days have been, it's been tough to post the photos here.  I've only missed one day on my FB posting, but again, I am running behind here on my blog. 

Friday's prompt word was "tree" - a pretty easy one, given the time of year.  We were out and about for a good part of the day, and braved one of the local malls for some shopping.  We spotted this tree (it was pretty hard to miss) and I took the picture with Pickle in it to help show how large it was.  It was very nice and festive indeed!

 

Yesterday's prompt was "decoration"

I posted this picture of our cozy family room. These decorations make me happy and warm inside.

Today's challenge is "joy is ______"  That's going to be a tough one for me. Capturing "joy" in a photo. Hmmm...we'll have to see what strikes me...stay tuned. I'll try to update later.

Updated as of 9:45pm
My "joy is____________" picture - taken today on a hike to Iron Mountain.

My kids home from college, my husband home from traveling, my beautiful dogs, and spending time outdoors with them. Yes, that makes my feel joy for sure.

Some more of my photos from today...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This evening we went out in search of Christmas lights after dinner and we found out that the Mormon Temple nearby has a beautiful display set up that you can walk or drive through at no charge.  It was lovely!

Cheap and Easy

Hey, hey, now come on, what were you thinking this post was about?  I saw this post on a trusted friend's FB page, and thought it worthy to share with you all. 

EVERYONE knows how good if feels to give this season, and especially to someone in need.  Mathew needs a new van.  Not wants, NEEDS. Please take a minute to read the post, and then, if you are so inclined, as I was, stick a buck or two in an envelope and help make a miracle happen.

From my friend Rob L.

It is Christmas, the season of giving, of helping your fellow man. I received the flyer below from my aunt Nancy, her church is trying to help someone. I am sending Nancy a donation today on behalf of my mom. If my mom were able, she would ...help with this. Since she's not, I'll do it for both of us.

Because I love my aunt, because I want to try to help someone I don't know this Christmas, and because I know the quality of my friends, I want you to join me in helping to make this happen. All I want you to do is pull out an envelope and put ONE DOLLAR in it, and then mail it to these people. If you want to put in two or more, cool. But nobody should have an excuse why they can't spend a couple minutes, an envelope, a stamp, and a buck, to help someone. Do this for yourself, or on behalf of someone you love that isn't here to do it themselves.

Additionally, your friends might be as cool as mine, and you might want to share this with them, give them the opportunity to do join us in this for very little time and money. If so, I would appreciate it.

This is not a scam, it is a group of people trying to help someone. I want this to happen, there is no reason we can't do this.  If you are able, we would appreciate any donation you would make. You can send a donation to the Matthew Bell Van Fund, c/o Nancy Marks, 15940 Stoddard Wells Road, Sp. 23, Victorville, CA 92395.

December Photo-a-day catchup and more!

First, let me catch up from the days I've missed for posting my photo-a-day challenges.

Day 16 was "something you made"
meet my 3 knuckleheads!

Day 17 was "on the floor"
Kona - only the nose knows.

 

Day 18 was "makes you feel merry"

Mom's homemade Christmas cookies!



 Yesterday's prompt was "something beginning with 's' "
Sparkly surprises!

 The prompt for today is "weather". 
It's rare that San Diego even has much weather to talk about, but lately we've had a couple of storms roll thru and even a little rain. It's been a nice change.

Since my last post, Pickle had a birthday (on the 16th) - it's so hard to believe my baby is 19! Holy moly, I feel old!

 

We celebrated with a nice dinner out with friends and family, and a small gathering at the house later. It was very nice. On the 15th we picked up AJ, who flew in late that evening from Indiana for the holidays.  Thankfully the weather was decent back there and there weren't any delays with his flight home.  It's so nice to have everyone in town for a change!  We were able to get our annual Christmas picture done, and cards are finally in the mail.  I sent out 120 cards this year! Here are a couple of our "out-takes" from our Christmas photo shoot.

 

 

 

 

 

I was glad to get these done - finally!

I'm off to feed 2 hungry college students now - cheap Chinese buffet, here we come!

A Party and some pictures.

After the horrible news of yesterday, I have to admit, I had some hesitation in going forward with my birthday party. It seemed, after all, quite insignificant.  So much tragedy in our country, so many families mourning, and her I am, celebrating how old I'm getting. Strange, right?

Well, we did decide to go forward with the party, and after a rough morning, the evening turned out lovely.  I enjoyed the company of about 30 of my closest friends, and had several pleasant surprises throughout the evening. I had 3 of my very dearest, oldest friends here with me, and the only thing that bums me out is that several special people weren't able to be here, and were missed very much (you know who you are....) I wish that I would have thought to get a group photo, but it was too distracted....

I also had two out of my 3 children here, which was very nice.  My son comes home in just a couple of hours from college in Indiana (about 2300 miles away) and I am considering his arrival a late birthday present.

Below are some pictures from the party last night.

"Temptation!"

Some of my favorite friends and neighbors! 

 

 

 

 Mom & Doug - I love this picture!

 

 Happy Jack...

 I was overwhelmed with the beautiful and very thoughtful gifts I received. 

 

 

 Of course Kona had to get into the act too!

I wanted to catch up on my photo-a-day challenge too. I've posted the last two days of prompts on my FB page, but not here...so for those of you who may be following along, here they are .  The prompt for the 14th was "green" - here is my photo (sago palm leave from my yard)

The prompt for today was "outdoors" - again, a shot from my backyard.

Tomorrow's prompt is "something you made" - tomorrow is also Pickle's birthday. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Easy.