A Lake of Salt, and Spires of Stone

I was cleaning off my SD card, and thought I would post a few Christmas images from a visit to Salt Lake City, Utah. The text/photo settings have been a little off lately in my posts, I am sorry to admit. In addition to shots of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Roof Restaurant's life-size nutcrackers, and Salt Lake Temple, notice the large tree to the left of the temple in one of the shots. It is a Cedar of Lebanon, often mentioned in the scriptures as a symbol of human strength or pride. It is also mentioned in the New Testament when a man falls out of one of these lofty trees. They only light it every other year and this year it is lit in brilliant red:

Oh, Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?

When we first moved into our neighborhood, we were a little shell-shocked by how nice everyone is. We weren't sure how to handle it, but you get sucked into sincere, genuine kindness, and now we are probably some of those same people who show up being nice and friendly, while the new neighbors suspiciously wonder why we are so nice. I confess, while we were looking at purchasing our home, we met several neighbors, and they really sealed the deal on the purchase of our home.

Several nights this month we have received 2-3 loads of goodies, gifts and treats from our kind neighbors at a time. We often come home to find our sidewalks snowplowed, our sidewalks edged, and occasionally, our lawn mowed by our neighbors. When C's parents visited on their BMW motorcycle, it tipped over, and our neighbor rushed over to help lift it. When someone is moving something, we rush over to help, or when someone has a basement flood, we do the same. We take in packages for each other, feed pets, take in mail, watch each other's homes, help each other when we have car problems, drop each other off at the airport, pick each other up when we see a neighbor waiting for a bus, and have healthy sports rivalries with our neighbors' children. We even get an occasional invitation to a child's birthday party as the only adults invited with camoflaged party invites! Several neighbor girls drop by on a regular basis to see our little bird, and when our neighbors' children have dance concerts or musical events, we do our best to go to them.

The other day I dropped by to visit a student who will be in my church class come January, and when his parents told me he was at another neighbors' home, I felt perfectly welcome stopping by that home to introduce myself. I was welcomed in with, "Oh, Hi there, [A], we are just playing with fire." I walked into the dimly lit kitchen to find a crowd of children around a table filled with half-burnt candles, and my intended student held a long, brass candle-snuffer in hand. "It's Solstace. Happy Solstace! We are just practicing for the bonfire later."

Now, see? I never would have known it was Winter Solstace if I hadn't felt comfortable enough to make that friendly neighborhood visit! One of our neighbors is a movie producer, and has an annual summer-screening of a child-friendly movie on a big screen in his yard. Another neighbor opens her home for a girls-only Christmas party, and women of all ages gather to fill her home and mingle. Two of our neighbors have a bi-annual Christmas village fest, where they invite the entire neighborhood to tour their elaborate villages. We are in an off-year, but last year's display was spectacular and challenged the magnificence of Mini-World in Victoria.

Our neighbors love us, it is true, and who could ask for better neighbors? We have a particular newer neighbor who expressed a desire to offer some herbs that might assist with our childless situation. We kindly declined the offer, and they kindly tabled the offer, but I confess: When homemade items are offered, we curiously wonder if those herbs might have wandered into the recipe.

We share produce, we show up at funerals, we look for the best in one another, we go on double dates together, we feed each other, we haul one anothers' pruning clippings to the green-fill for each other, we share strawberry and raspberry plants with each other, we serve one another. . . and these are the people in our neighborhood!

While we are on the subject of Sesame Street, I have to include a personal favorite here:

So, who are the people in YOUR neighborhood?

These are a Few of my Favorite Things!

At the end of the day, where would I be without . . .

• Post-it highlighters with flags - the perfect study companion.


• The iPhone. I'm not going to lie. It really IS that good! Oh, and the silicone case? Don't leave home without it.


• My chunky scarf to fend off those bitter cold walks downtown.


• Soft headbands for greasy-hair days. It's true! Movie stars wear them often. We think it is stylish. Nay, I even saw Hillary Clinton wearing one just the other day at a press conference, and thought, I guess I am not the only woman in the world who doesn't have time to wash her hair!


• Mentha Lip Tint. Fresh breath plus stylin' lips. Win-win.

• When Kawi lifts my fingers off the computer so I will scratch his head...
  
  
  
  or when he sings in C's ear like he is telling him a secret. (By the way, C is making Hors d'œuvres for work while I filmed this, thus the jumbled footage)
  
  


• Our friends who came over for dinner and decorated our tree for us because we have been too busy!

• Surprises!!! When I was little, my brother and I would wrap up household items and give them to each other just for the thrill of a surprise. Sometimes staring at the packages is even better than opening them!
• My Vibram Five Fingers (they are in my Gymbag in the car - sorry, no pic) because I can run again without pain.
• Valdosta. It speaks for itself.
• Fig Balsalmic. Finger lickin' good.
• My amazing hubby is my most favorite. He is my prince charming, my buddy, my best friend. Yep, I like him best of all.

What are some of your favorite things?

Crystal Balls and White Elephants

This was the third year C has been in this bishopric, and we always look forward to the annual Christmas party. Somehow it never fails to delight. The white elephant gift exchange is one of the most anticipated events of the year because inevitably everyone winds up laughing until their sides ache. C is truly the grand jester of the party, and it is so much fun to see the brotherhood among these men.

We started out with a lovely meal of teriyaki chicken skewers (satay), baked potato skins, rolls (compliments of yours truly), several salads including fruit, green, and cookie salad(?), and a veggie tray. The cookie salad was much better than you would think, and in fact, one of those items you never should have tried in the first place. We had a couple of bets going tonight. C and I have our own little secret conversations and crystal ball moments where, based on past behavior, you can determine what present behavior will be. I'm sure we are not alone in this juicy and intimate luxury.

For example, we could predict that our neighbors across the street would bring splendidly mischievous white elephant gifts. The trick is to notice when they arrive so that you can see what they put under the tree, and then avoid picking those gifts at all cost. Actually, that is what really makes the gift exchange fun, when someone opens THAT present. Well, this year C said, "You HAVE to get a SNUGGIE as one of our white elephant gifts!" We think they are spectacularly ridiculous, right up there with the Sham-WOW!, so Snuggie we did - black and white striped, and wonderfully hideous - and we knew EXACTLY who would go home with it! When it was finally locked in with our victim after three trades, we both jumped in the air, taking in the victory of this crystal-ball slam dunk. You would think that our favorite sports team had just scored the winning victory!

The second white elephant gift was hand-selected by C. You know that movie that is all about infatuated, freakishly obsessive teenie bopper love? Yes, that one. Well, C found a collector set of three boxes of SweetTarts with the three main stars' photos on each box. The flavor? Forbidden Love. The phrases included, "Bite Me," "Live Forever" and some other crazy vampire lingo. I told C that he really out-did himself on this one, and had mastered perfection in white elephant gift giving.

We are strategic. While many interesting and worthless items floated about, we snatched two that caught our random interest: Richard Clayderman, The ABBA Collection, and Eve (from WALLE the movie) in the form of a spinning fan. Our two hour deadline stretched into three hours, but it was worth the experience, and waiting for Meg's gingerbread. I could eat that all day. I am too tired to add photos right now, so text is all you get. Maybe I will add the photos tomorrow.

Oh, I won't describe the third bet we had going for the night, but yes, we nailed that one also, but with a little more subtlety. Now don't think malicious or mean. This isn't us at all. It is all very harmless, with no ill-intent whatsoever. Just crystal-balling at its finest. Oh, and speaking of crystal balls, I made one today in PhotoShop. I will add it to this post tomorrow!

A Sprig of Spring in December (or Stained Glass part II)

Welcome to my virtual tour of the Butchart Gardens. We visited this past summer, and I pre-grouped C with this statement: I have always wanted to see these gardens. I know you will be bored to tears, but this means a lot to me. If you get bored, you can go sit in the car (he had some homework to do - this was not a punishment, just a suggestion:).
How's that for being a loving wifey? Well, despite my low expectations for his interest in this very important pilgrimage, when all was said and done, he told me that this was his favorite part of the trip. To his credit, he made this experience even better than I could have imagined! He kindly encouraged me to take my time while I carefully strolled through the gardens during the day, and he even encouraged me to go back that evening! I thought I would share a few (yes, there were more) of my better shots from the garden. This is a reverse tour because I don't feel like rearranging the pics. Sorry about the sub-standard evening shots. I was melting in C's arms most of the time and taking it all in instead of taking photographs. The daytime pics, however, turned out quite magnificently!

I love popping these blossoms! They sound like cranberries cooking.

Indoor garden at night:

Italian Gardens at night:

Pond next to the parking lot:

Indoor garden:

Italian Gardens:

Entrance to the Italian gardens - see photos above.

I have this thing for stairs. . . down into the Japanese gardens.

I have some of this in my yard.
Out of focus shot, but I still like the composition. Check out those Japanese maples!

Deer-chaser fountain.

This was Annoying New York lady. We were running ahead to take pics that she kept interrupting. Great shot nonetheless.

Zen, baby.

Did I mention I have a thing for stairs? That's New York Lady again, upper right.

The Sturgeon Fountain.

Now entering (exiting) the Rose Garden. I am not passionate about roses, however, I really loved the setting.

No more roses. . .

This arrangement was atop a garbage can:

That archway leads into the rose garden.

Bark in its magnificence!

Dahlias, dressed for the show!

I never see Hydrangeas without thinking of my Grandmother.

A couple of great shots with my macro lens:

Redwood trees never fail to amaze.

I love these meandering paths:

A little hidden shot of the garden borders on the far side of the totem pole.

My favorite garden: The Sunken Garden.

My sweetheart in the rain!

Entrance to the Sunken Gardens - careful, there is a topiary tiger on the left!

I hope you enjoyed! Some neighbors visited the week before we did and said it was hot and crowded. We felt so lucky to get so many great shots without visitors in the way (exception: Annoying New York Lady), and the rain wound up diffusing the light just right, and popping the colors on these gorgeous plants! So what's with the stained glass? Well, with all of this beauty, and even the work of man here, the real rights to beauty belong to He who made these beautiful creations! What an amazing artist God is!