Shopping

Shopping...that's rather a touchy subject in December. One can't get too specific where gifts are concerned. All I'll say is, we've done our share.

Today's Temperature

Today's temperature--a comfortable 50 degrees--is warm enough that our winter crop of broccoli continues to do pretty well, and the grass is staying nice and green. I wouldn't mind some colder temperatures (accompanied by snow, of course!), but I have to say that I have gotten used to the mild winters we have here in the Northwest. 

As a side note, I've mentioned before that we are kind of novice gardeners. I had never really thought about growing vegetables in the winter until I read an article about it in the paper. We have yet to see if it will be a success, but it's been interesting at least to give it a try. 

Joyous

For this one I'm taking some inspiration from what Missy said in her post. I agree with her that music is one of the really joyful things about Christmas. I think it's one of the things that gets us closest to the "true meaning of Christmas"--celebrating Christ's birth.

One special way that Christina and I get to enjoy Christmas music is by playing it together on violin and piano. We haven't played together yet this season, but I'm looking forward to it!

Red

Our tree had a stray branch that needed to be cut off. I decided not to throw it away though. We put it in a vase, but it still needed something...

red!

December Photo Challenge: Day 1

A dear friend of mine, Missy, invited me to join her in a December photo challenge. First, let me just introduce Missy. I met her and her family when I was nine, while we were living in Germany where our dads were both stationed, so we go way back. And while we've lived far apart for many years, Missy, her parents, and her sisters are basically family to us.

As I was saying, Missy, who blogs at Babbling Baker, invited me to do this photo challenge with her. The actual challenge is from A Content Housewife. Feel free to join in! Let me know if you do so I can follow your photos, too. Here's the list of photo themes:

I'm a day late, but I'll start with Day 1, which is "Your View Today". Saturday was a busy day and my view kept changing, but here's the part of the day I'm going to share with you. There's actually two photos, and perhaps that will make up for the fact that I'm deliberately skipping a post for Day 2. For now.

In the Northwest, you have three options when it comes to getting a Christmas tree--buy it pre-cut in a tree lot, cut it yourself out in the forest on state land, or do u-cut at one of our many local Christmas tree farms. We take the last option, and we always go to Thornton's Treeland. They have a "small tree" section that generally works pretty well for us.

So there you have it--my view.