My favorite artist is Terry Redlin. I absolutely adore his paintings. There is just something about them that draws me in. They are nostalgic and indicative of a time gone by; a simpler time that really seems to appeal to me. I used to have a digital screen saver of some of his paintings, but I lost the disc at some point so haven’t been able to view it in years. I also have a set of seven Christmas plates that I bought several years ago hanging in my dining room. My favorite piece, however, is the print my husband bought me after we first moved into this house over eight years ago. I had always wanted a Terry Redlin print, but had not felt that we could afford it, so one Christmas he saved up some money and bought me one. It was probably the best Christmas present he ever gave me. What I would love to have now is a book of his paintings. That way I could look at all my favorites whenever I wanted to, but in an affordable way.

Christmas Day here around my house is a pretty laid back affair these days. When I was a kid, we were always busy on Christmas Day. We would get up and open our presents (when we were young enough to still believe in Santa Clause), get ready and then head out to my mom’s family’s gathering. Now we don’t have a family gathering that takes place on Christmas Day anymore, so we get to relax that day. I will admit, sometimes I miss having anything going on that day, but I have found that I really like the relaxed atmosphere and non-rushing, non-frustrating day. Our plans for this year are to make the kids wait to get up until 9am like usual, open Santa gifts, let me take lots of digital photos of the kids, eat our breakfast of cinnamon rolls or doughnuts (whichever is the preference because we have both) and oj, then spend the rest of the day relaxing, perusing some online catalogs to see if they want to spend any Christmas money they received that way, watching movies, playing any new Wii games, and snacking on other non-healthy food all day, and watching the kids make customized single pieces of Christmas art. What can I say, we enjoy it.

I enjoy photographing nature and landscapes and even some wildlife from time to time. I don’t have many opportunities to shoot wildlife, but every once in a while I will get lucky and just happen to be in the right place at the right time. One thing that I have wanted to get a shot of for the last couple of years is a bald eagle. I have no idea if I would be able to get a decent high resolution digital photo of one even if I had the chance, or if my camera is even good enough to get a decent shot, but I sure would like to try. The thing is that although there are bald eagles around here in Iowa in some places, I have never seen one myself. That is until this weekend. On Friday, as I was driving home from a clothing shopping trip in Des Moines, I saw one flying by near the interstate on the other side of the road. Then on Sunday, at my mom and dad’s house, I saw one flying over the hills near their property as I was taking out the garbage. It turns out that that particular bald eagle likes to roost in some tall trees that are on the edge of their property. I hadn’t realized that, and now that I have, I will definitely be on the lookout for it. I don’t know if I could ever get a decent shot since those particular trees are pretty far away for my camera, but it’s fascinating to watch them nonetheless. Too bad I can’t make a digitally printed sign that says, “Come here so I can take your picture” and actually expect it to work.

I just love my mom’s Christmas village. Every house, every person, every piece (with the exception of the light posts because she bought those and they actually light up) was painted by hand by my mom over a period of several years when I was a kid. She is such a fine detail kind of person that each piece is exquisite. The quality of work is fantastic. You never see that kind of quality in what you can buy in the stores. And then on top of the meticulous detail that she put into painting the pieces, she also puts a lot of thought into how to make the village setup look realistic. She makes a waterfall, a river, lots of snow, mountains and in the past she’s even done a road. I want so badly to take some cool digital photos of the village, but so far I have never been successful at doing it justice. It doesn’t help that I always forget to bring my tripod so I can’t set up the shot or put my camera settings in such a way that would show off the village to its best advantage. I think what I need to do is make it a point to go over to their house with the intention of shooting the village. Then I could remember to bring my tripod, but not my kids so I could take my time and shoot it right and finally do the beautiful village some justice. And maybe if the shots turned out decent, I could have them digitally printed into a book for my mom.

Coming up next weekend is a Christmas tradition that my parents and my brother and sister and I started a few years ago – our annual Christmas Slumber Party at Grandma and Grandpa’s House. We pack our bags (and me my camera so I can take digital photos of the festivities) and head to my mom and dad’s place for two whole days and a night of Christmas slumber party fun. We typically have the kids (there are seven grandkids still young enough to want to have a slumber party at grandma’s) help put up the Christmas tree and my mom’s Christmas village. We also usually make lots of different kinds of cookies and other goodies. Last year I think we cleaned up the kitchen about 5,396 times. Each time the kids were done with what they had decided to make, we had to clean up the kitchen (and sometimes the kids when they got flour or frosting all over their shirts). I got so sick of cleaning that stinking kitchen by the end of that weekend! The fact that my brother and sister and I look forward to the slumber party (we spend the night too) almost as much as our kids do is completely notwithstanding. And I must remember my camera again this year. I think I want to use my digital printer to make scrapbooks of the last three years for all of the kids to keep.

Saturday was my dad’s 58^th birthday. It’s hard to believe that he is coming up on 60 years old already. In my mind he and my mom will always be 40. They may have a few more wrinkles and a few more gray hairs, but they never seem to age to me. Anyway, since his birthday fell on a Saturday, I was able to take my kids over to his house for a visit. My kids wanted to make him a printed banner, but I managed to talk them into keeping it simple with homemade cards instead, although they did talk me into making some printed stickers for him which I am sure he immensely appreciated. The kids got to help him a bit with his dogs, they spent some time watching football with him, and they even got to ride the golf cart with him. Then I made a supper for us all of parmesan chicken, spaghetti, and garlic bread. After that we topped off the tank with chocolate cake with white buttercream frosting and ice cream. Then on Sunday my brother and sister and their kids were able to make down to my mom and dad’s place and the whole process was repeated. I even think my niece gave him some digitally printed magnets that she had made at school. Plus the weather was gorgeous both days, so I’d say my dad had a pretty great 58^th birthday!