Party's over...

Well, the holidays are coming to an end. The girls (and Al) head back to their homes away from our home. Here Anne, Alana and Erin make a toast to a fun week. The good news is, the antlers go back in storage soon...

Movies & Games

When our family gathers with lots of free time, two favorite things to do are 1) watching and then discussing movies and 2) playing lots of games.  This time, the movies included the requisite masterpiece "Lord of the Rings" (all six DVDs of the extended version - some viewed more than once), requisite seasonal gems "It's a Wonderful Life," "Elf," and "A Christmas Story," and some new releases: "Avatar" (a blue version of "Ferngully") and "Sherlock Holmes" (a high action reworking of the great detective). 

Here are E & A in the 3D glasses they brought home from "Avatar."  LaLa is starting to play with my and Ack's old SLR 35mm cameras.  These photos were taken with the Pentax, my first major camera.

As for games, we started the week off with a game we've had for decades, The Beaver Game. It's a political indoctrination against the Army Corps of Engineers in the guise of a board game (I purchased it for us back in my most political days).  It's actually an amazing game where you take on the challenges of life as a beaver.  It's tough - all five of us died way before our time!  The other bright spot of a game is one that Erin and Al gave me as a gift for Christmas, The Settlers of Catan.  Fun, but frustrating when you're not doing well.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas.  Erin and Alana are home, and Al visited for a day or two (weather kept him an extra day).  It was a fun and relaxing day. Turkey, potatoes, brussel sprouts and trifle for dinner.

Shopping...

We did some shopping today in San Fran -

San Fran

Ack and Anne are in San Francisco. Ack has a conference (16,000 participants) and Anne arrived on Wed to tour a bit with Ack. So far tours include seeing "Wicked", getting great coffee at the Blue Bottle Coffee Company, a wonderful champagne night, a bit of Christmas shopping for the girls and hanging at the Ferry Market. We are soon to go fly a kite.  This tree is in a square that we came across while walking one night. It is about 30 feet tall, and all red and orange lights.

Sunny Sunday

Ack took this photo of me on Sunday before he left for San Francisco. It was a great day for sitting in the sun. Just before sunset, I went skiing over in Cherokee Marsh. The snow was a little heavy but it was a fun ride.

Lookin' Back

Ack's been feeling abandoned in the blog so here's a post I could have done from a few weeks ago -- Michael and Evelyn visiting the weekend before Thanksgiving. 

Winter is here...

The winter solstice is the day of the year with the fewest hours of daylight. In 2009, this occurs for the Northern Hemisphere on December 21. The winter solstice is often referred to as the first day of winter. But there are other definitions of winter. For example, the beginning of winter might be defined on the calendar day, on average, when precipitation has an equal chance of falling as rain or snow. For Madison, that calendar day is November 15. Meteorologists often define the three months of winter as December, January and February – the coldest of the year.

Of course another way to define winter is when you get a lot of snow. Which we have - over a foot!