December 31, 2010, the end of another year. How quickly the time passes....to quickly.
It has been a very nice, low key holiday. Doing what i enjoy and sticking close to home. Visiting, chatting via e-mail and phone with family and friends. staying warm, and now finally a break in the intense cold!
plans for this evening: hanging out with family. some snacks to eat, movies to watch, and a book i would love to finish! we are having mimosas to drink too.
We spent most of the day trying to activate new phones. switching from AT&T to Verizon. The reason, Lockheed Martin employees get a 20% discount and time for a change too. 4 hours later, 2 phones still need to be activated. Looks like i will be texting in 2011. time will tell.
To all of my faithful readers, drop in's and hardly evers',
Hope the year ahead is better than the one we leave behind.
Happy New Year!!
bucks county
farm field
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Christmas time 5
Juliette enjoys gift unwrapping Christmas morning.
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| waiting patiently for her presents. |
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| i know there is food in there but how the heck do you get it out???? |
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| peek a boo treats! |
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| just checking but i got them all! |
Christmas time 4
It is amazing what a difference in size leads to with dogs.
I have had the terriers since 1978 and have continued to enjoy the look, and personality of each individual dog. Small enough to pick up and remove from danger, but with big dog personalities. Size wise, easier to have more than one as they don;t take up much space in a small house.
When i decided to go with a spaniel breed, a dog with a longer leg & ears and the stamina too be out in the cold to hike with hubby, everyone of my friends was shocked as i had never really talked about another breed, much less a spaniel. I was a closet spaniel lover! looking around the homnestead, i see i have a number of nice concrete statues outside, cats, rabbits, frogs, pigs and 2 spaniels. neither have the look of an american cocker to me, more of an english cocker look. But the breed i went with was one of the lesser known spaniels, field spaniel. Just a solid liver colored (or chocolate as some prefer to say) unassuming spaniel smaller than the best know English springer, larger than the English cocker. I am still surprised by the difference in personality.
Juliette is like a three year old child in terms of understanding. she can perform somewhat intricate tasks if you use the word TREAT in the sentence. Example... "bring me the other shoe and I'll give you a TREAT", and off she goes to fetch that other shoe. Some mornings i wake to find all the loose shoes in a pile next to my side of the bed.
Since Christmas is all about the young, we have gotten Juliette a few toys each Christmas. She loves soft toys especially if they make noise. This year she got 2 dogie games along with the red sock monkey.
I have had the terriers since 1978 and have continued to enjoy the look, and personality of each individual dog. Small enough to pick up and remove from danger, but with big dog personalities. Size wise, easier to have more than one as they don;t take up much space in a small house.
When i decided to go with a spaniel breed, a dog with a longer leg & ears and the stamina too be out in the cold to hike with hubby, everyone of my friends was shocked as i had never really talked about another breed, much less a spaniel. I was a closet spaniel lover! looking around the homnestead, i see i have a number of nice concrete statues outside, cats, rabbits, frogs, pigs and 2 spaniels. neither have the look of an american cocker to me, more of an english cocker look. But the breed i went with was one of the lesser known spaniels, field spaniel. Just a solid liver colored (or chocolate as some prefer to say) unassuming spaniel smaller than the best know English springer, larger than the English cocker. I am still surprised by the difference in personality.
Juliette is like a three year old child in terms of understanding. she can perform somewhat intricate tasks if you use the word TREAT in the sentence. Example... "bring me the other shoe and I'll give you a TREAT", and off she goes to fetch that other shoe. Some mornings i wake to find all the loose shoes in a pile next to my side of the bed.
Since Christmas is all about the young, we have gotten Juliette a few toys each Christmas. She loves soft toys especially if they make noise. This year she got 2 dogie games along with the red sock monkey.
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| new sock monkey |
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| enjoying new baby, note the old baby to the right. |
Christmas Time, 3
Shopping this year has been a little trying.
For years, i was the lone shopper. Reading ads, driving around, hunting for the perfect gifts. I had wish lists, and ideas of what sons and hubby wanted, needed, liked. As we accumulate everything our hearts desire, and we all age, shopping has become a little more difficult. Seems like just a few years back, while older son was still in college and not working, He took over the black friday sales and comparing ads, then running around from store to store to get the best prices for what we wanted. He enjoyed the hunt for the perfect gift at the perfect price too. Now that he has a full time job, getting up at the crack of dawn is not so much fun,
and i am back to being the main shopper.
This year, there was no big ticket item to purchase. no wish list, no ''would like to have''. We have it all, and what we don;t have we probably don;t need. Shopping was a little frustrating for us all with the exception of Younger son who has a huge list of things he wanted. After age 21, all those things desired by either son are best purchased by those who want them so the correct items arrive home for wrapping.
Being ever resourceful, The lack of ideas this year did not stop any of us from finding things to wrap,,, well hubby is not into shopping or presents.. actually if christmas never happened again he would be fine with that too.
For years, i was the lone shopper. Reading ads, driving around, hunting for the perfect gifts. I had wish lists, and ideas of what sons and hubby wanted, needed, liked. As we accumulate everything our hearts desire, and we all age, shopping has become a little more difficult. Seems like just a few years back, while older son was still in college and not working, He took over the black friday sales and comparing ads, then running around from store to store to get the best prices for what we wanted. He enjoyed the hunt for the perfect gift at the perfect price too. Now that he has a full time job, getting up at the crack of dawn is not so much fun,
and i am back to being the main shopper.
This year, there was no big ticket item to purchase. no wish list, no ''would like to have''. We have it all, and what we don;t have we probably don;t need. Shopping was a little frustrating for us all with the exception of Younger son who has a huge list of things he wanted. After age 21, all those things desired by either son are best purchased by those who want them so the correct items arrive home for wrapping.
Being ever resourceful, The lack of ideas this year did not stop any of us from finding things to wrap,,, well hubby is not into shopping or presents.. actually if christmas never happened again he would be fine with that too.
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| as you can see, there was plenty of presents under the tree. |
christmas time 2
One of the things i have been doing all month was to ruthlessly pack up items to donate to salvation army. Clothing, household, decorations, books, you name it and i dropped it off at the shop for them to resell. I have been trying not to bring anything new into the house unless i have gotten rid of something that i have and have not used in a long time. I have been somewhat successful too. Let's face it, we like to change our inventory of things periodically, and for most of us, the old stuff is perfectly fine, we are just tired of it, or our taste has changed, or something more interesting has arrived on the scene. The idea of a lawn sale in the spring/summer is always enticing, but the reality is that it is too much work, and yields too little cash considering the initial value of what is being sold.
In between drives to salvation army i made my way to the back of the storage area and considered what to decorate the tree with. I could easily decorate 10 trees. all the soft things from when the kids were little, the houses, the birds, the toys, the rocking horses, the india type decorations, the nut crackers, the star fish, the Santa's, the snowmen, the barbies, the star trek, then there are all the old fashioned Christmas ball.
As far as garland... i have pearl beads and clear beads, wood beads, and beads that look like cranberries. Garland that is shaped like candy (one of my favorites), gold beads, silver beads, and the tinsel garland from 40 years ago. i also have the newer strands of garland wired with different colors, and themes, music, trees, hearts... maybe i could do more than 10 trees??
Trees i have recently done: the barbie tree, the santa tree, the snowman tree, and the star fish tree. looking through boxes, i am just not ready to let any of the tree decorations go. I decided on the rocking horses for this year. all the things that are not really tree ornaments are in a box to go to salvation army when it next opens, Monday. and i am not going to go through that box again... what ever is in it is going. the end!
In between drives to salvation army i made my way to the back of the storage area and considered what to decorate the tree with. I could easily decorate 10 trees. all the soft things from when the kids were little, the houses, the birds, the toys, the rocking horses, the india type decorations, the nut crackers, the star fish, the Santa's, the snowmen, the barbies, the star trek, then there are all the old fashioned Christmas ball.
As far as garland... i have pearl beads and clear beads, wood beads, and beads that look like cranberries. Garland that is shaped like candy (one of my favorites), gold beads, silver beads, and the tinsel garland from 40 years ago. i also have the newer strands of garland wired with different colors, and themes, music, trees, hearts... maybe i could do more than 10 trees??
Trees i have recently done: the barbie tree, the santa tree, the snowman tree, and the star fish tree. looking through boxes, i am just not ready to let any of the tree decorations go. I decided on the rocking horses for this year. all the things that are not really tree ornaments are in a box to go to salvation army when it next opens, Monday. and i am not going to go through that box again... what ever is in it is going. the end!
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| Tree with candy garland, and rocking horse ornaments.. |
christmas time
Well i have been busy all month with Christmas day prep.
We got the tree up and lighted the weekend of the 18th/19th, a week ago. I like the idea of the earlier the better, starting just after thanksgiving for decorating and spending the month doing holiday things. If a real tree is in the mix, you need to go out and get it which somethings requires the combining of several people, schedules and weather conditions.
All through my childhood, My parents always started the house decorating the weekend after thanksgiving. Everyone in the neighborhood was out putting up lights. After that weekend, it usually turned cold and windy, so better to get out there and decorate before it was too uncomfortable.
During my young adult life, i utilized the time from thanksgiving through New Years day to enjoy the christmas season. Even thought i worked, i tried to visit with friends a few nights during the week, as part of my holiday event. No sense cramming a month of activity into a week.
It takes just as much orchestration to start the holiday early as to start last minute. Having gotten older, i have also gotten slower, and after 5 hours of furious work, i tend to need a few hours to chill out (read.. take a nap).
anyway... here are some shots of the lighted tree.
We got the tree up and lighted the weekend of the 18th/19th, a week ago. I like the idea of the earlier the better, starting just after thanksgiving for decorating and spending the month doing holiday things. If a real tree is in the mix, you need to go out and get it which somethings requires the combining of several people, schedules and weather conditions.
All through my childhood, My parents always started the house decorating the weekend after thanksgiving. Everyone in the neighborhood was out putting up lights. After that weekend, it usually turned cold and windy, so better to get out there and decorate before it was too uncomfortable.
During my young adult life, i utilized the time from thanksgiving through New Years day to enjoy the christmas season. Even thought i worked, i tried to visit with friends a few nights during the week, as part of my holiday event. No sense cramming a month of activity into a week.
It takes just as much orchestration to start the holiday early as to start last minute. Having gotten older, i have also gotten slower, and after 5 hours of furious work, i tend to need a few hours to chill out (read.. take a nap).
anyway... here are some shots of the lighted tree.
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| The tree is up, with lights |
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| cool photo of lighted tree and unsteady hand. |
Saturday, December 18, 2010
One week to christmas...
I have always wanted to get dogie photo's taken with Santa. To date, i miss the day for the photo shoot by a country mile! It definitely helps to have someone that assists with the dogs day to day so life does not get backed up at that crucial time. And that someone has to enjoy the prospect of socializing with other dogs and dogie people. Until i make it to Santa with dogs, i will enjoy photo's from friends.
this one today:
Happy holidays to everyone!!!
this one today:
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| Ch. Nicholas Romanoff the Leash Owners:W. Sparks & R. Giotta |
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