Christmas For The Record

First sleet, then snow, it’s a little foggy, slushy and there is slippy slush in the driveway and we were out in it. Winter, bleh.

But we’re home now and all is good! I have homemade peppermint mocha in a SpongeBob mug and Rina has a peppermint tea. It’s relax and play on the computer time. We braved the slush to go to our favorite Toledo Middle Eastern restaurant, Ya Halla and to ship a package she was sending to a friend.

Contrary to what this week’s Mug Shot may lead you to believe, this Christmas was not just about coffee! Since I had everything I’d want from the Eastern Market already, except hard candy peanuts, for which Tori and Rina searched but couldn’t find, I opted out of the trip thus year so I could finish some preparations at home. Rina was coming home with us after Christmas Eve dinner at, my cousin, Lisa’s place.

David and I met up with everyone at Dad’s first. We decided that, wince Lisa and her family had moved to closer to us instead of farther out from Dad, that we’d exchange our family gifts there first so we could leave for Toledo right from Lisa’s.

The highlight for me was Tori and Rina getting their ornaments. I grumble at myself because this year I didn’t get pictures. I need to start photographing everything before I wrap it so I can at least journal about it! In that pic above, taken by David, Tori is looking at me saying, “Oh Nana, thank you!” with a glassy eyes and a warm smile. I had ornaments done in their respective favorite colors with their names on them from Bronners, just like my Mom had done for them when they were born. They’d lost those ornaments in moving and really missed them. They came with ornament stands for four ornaments. I figured they can have them for their dorm desks next year with those ornaments from me with a special memory of their Grams with room for the ornaments I gave them last year and a couple of other special ones. Hopefully they’ll be inspiring reminders of how great they are while studying for exams before they come home for Christmas! David and I gave Dave and Laura a neon Tiki Bar sign for their entertainment room. I was happy to receive am electric cake pop maker! Rina and I had talked about trying it out this week, bu9t there are still so many8 sweets in the house! Cake pops together may be on a future visit.

Christmas morning was fun! It’s been just David and me as long as we’ve been together and this is our seventh Christmas. This year Rina was with us and it was so cool! I set up the breakfast tray and the fruit spears I made with chop sticks. Rina got a chuckle out of that. Then we opened stockings. It was fun putting stockings together for Rina and David!

Rina’s very warm fleece scarf

She also got a Wolf pendant that she’s worn every day since she got it. (Proud of herself auntie!) David had a very digital Christmas as he courageously embarks on the journey from film to digital!

Of course he’ll need flash drives to bring his “slides” to railfan gatherings!

This one is the first of his 12 steps. Understanding where his film went! The flash drives made with old film canisters were so cool

The flash drives as well as a cup that looks enough like a Cannon lens to be confusing, were all from Photo Jojo. They have a plethora of useful and whimsical gadgets for photographers. I loved shopping that site for him. (Edna, if you haven’t been. you should check out the site! He also got a card for his digital camera and a card reader so his computer can talk with the cards.

For his big present he got the slide scanner he’d asked for. Now is time to start scanning a couple decades of slides! I see, for my holiday efforts, a number of nights in the near future of frustration helping him learn all the new toys, but I’m confident that it’ll be totally worth it when he produces his first digital train sound and photo show!

I hope you all had as Merry a Christmas as we did!


Barn Charm

I’m not leaving you all on a Tuesday without a barn!

This pic was taken on December 18, just north of Dexter Michigan the way to a Christmas party. I saw it and said, “Ooo, gray barn! Stop!” The sun was hitting it just right and in addition to “gray barn” I like the stone base. It’s just a sweet shot!


Okay, games time with David and Rina starts soon, so I’m off to continue to enjoy my Sweetie’s visit!

Links

Photo Jojo