Christmas Contest 2009
Chicago Lights
Lenore was well enough to take walks so we did just that. We walked to The Measuring Cup to eat a breakfast pizza and pick up chicken dumpling soup, ginger cookies, and apple and chocolate pie. We walked the nice trail behind the library and the deer posed for us. We walked with Paula around the neighborhood to take pictures of Christmas lights. And I heard the cackle of and saw a flock of cranes for the first time.
Dancing Fools and Ornaments
Also if you missed it as the Picture of the Week, the 2009 McDonald Family Christmas Contest has been announced:
The theme is Christmas ornaments! How fun is that! It has been on the list of suggestions for a while and we've had a lot of literary themes lately so I thought it was the right time. This year is a big anniversary of the contest. I started the contest 20 years ago to try and climb out of a pit of depression. I never would have believed we would still be doing and that it could be so challenging, frustrating and stressful yet so ultimately fun and creative. 20 years, can you believe it?
So as we say to each other every year: Let the procrastinating begin!
Recent Past
First, I added pictures from Lynda's party on the main Web page. Austin was responsible for some of those pictures. Lynda's party was a blast. She and my mother planned a perfect 50th birthday party and us worker bees did a great job with the furniture moving, cake, drink, music, entertainment. BoBo, a local Edisto caterer, did the party food (he and his wife are sleeping in the Photo Booth video). Here are some pictures that Dell took of the fun.
Note the fingernail polish. I had my first ever professional manicure that morning.
And now, going back in time, here are pictures from my Christmas at Washington Hospital Center and Williamsburg. It wasn't clear at first whether Austin would be able to join us after his quadruple bypass surgery but he managed to get out on good behaviour. And it was a treat to have William with us. Lenore's and possibly Austin's pictures are included.
Next I would like to document a weather and time related disaster that occurred on my balcony. Sad.
Before and after.
And here are some recent pictures. I took some during our walk today in the very light snow. We are supposed to get a lot more snow tonight.
A new fountain at the condo building next door and some pretty blue pots with matching shutters a couple of street over.
Again from the condo building next door.
From Dana's party at a bar near his house. Lots of fun.
Christmas Contest 2007 Pictures!
I am almost ready for the trip to Chennai, India. I have taken the Typhoid pills and am stocking up on anti-bacterial cleansing products and mosquito repellent. I bought a new mid-sized suitcase on super sale at Macy's on New Years Day. I went to Target and bought some cheap thin cotton Tshirts in some nice colors. And I bought a pair of sandals made in Israel. What else could I possibly need?
I hope to find some wi-fi hotspots in Chennai to blog and upload some pictures. If you are interested you can also check http://dtsbco.blogspot.com. I actually may add some personal entries and pictures there
Baking Latvian food
Take a look at the pictures
Speaking of the Christmas contest I worked on it for several obsessive hours this weekend. I think I should be done on time! No Tardiness Award for me.
Databases and bike rides
So I exercised my brain Saturday and the rest of me on Sunday. We took a 33 mile bike ride on the Four Mile Run and W&OD bike trails in Virginia. The weather was perfect . The prettiest part was actually near the water treatment plant where the late summer wild flowers are at their peak. The most unusual part was the guy riding a low-riding recumbent bike pimped out with an aerodynamic shield and red and black zebra print spandex. Joe has seen him an number of times over the last couple of years. It used to be Captain America-themed This was the sort of bike he was riding. Picture the black and white part as red and black zebra print spandex:
And as a reward for reading my blog here is an advance copy of the Christmas Contest announcement.
Christmas Contest Entries
Here are some neighborhood pictures.
A pretty little house in Georgetown
Toys In Yards
Recovered
The trip was good. A photo page will be up sometime next week. The Christmas Contest went well. It was a challenge to us all and although I cursed William for suggesting it every year for the past 4 years or so until I relented I am glad we did it. I can now die saying "I wrote a sonnet and it wasn't half bad."
Here are a couple of pics to tide you over:
intense kitchen work............Austin is keeping Lenore from finding sharks teeth
there is a little crab in this picture............the christmas table
Graeme in the driver's seat
Goodbye 2005
Highlights of the trip:
- Cooking and listening to new music on Christmas day with a short mid-afternoon break to play a highly competitive game of bocce. "Steve Holt!"
- Eating Christmas dinner: goose with fruit and chestnut stuffing, standing rib roast, winter root vegetables in a mustard cream sauce, green beans with with mushrooms and almonds, salad and bread made by my dad and latvians. For dessert there were lots of sweets, including homemade (by Austin) egg-nog.
- Driving around the island with Lenore and Austin taking pictures. Lyla, Tracy and I also took some pictures of an old plantation on the way to Savannah.
- Christmas Eve dinner with Tommy, Sandy, Little T and Sandy's parents in Savannah. I always enjoying being there to see them and their yard which has beautiful old huge live oaks and tall southern pines. Sandy's parents brought over some southern iced teas which was a real treat.
- Assembling the Christmas Contest prizes in the waiting room while waiting for Lynda's blood work results
- Hiking the Edisto State Park 3.5 mile trail
- Seeing that guy on the side of the road to Charleston speaking or singing into a microphone again. I saw him when I was there last August.
Haven't seen enough pictures? Look here
Hectic Times
Joe was at a mall recently and saw this for sale. The picture on the right is something recovering Catholics know well. This one though has lights and a garish clock attached. I kind of like the lights. The clock, not so much.
Cozy
This weekend Lyla, Tracy, Austin and I went to Baltimore to attend a birthday dinner party for my aunt Zita. It was a nice evening and it was nice to visit a new Baltimore neighborhood. The hosts live in a beautiful old row house in the Bolton Hill area.
Another highlight of the weekend was finishing a project. Joe asked me to make a cozy for our scanner so that it doesn't collect so much dust. Here is what I did:
If you think it looks familiar you are right. It is the same material that I used for Running With Scissors Man.
Cutthroat Competition
Lenore and Lynda are competing for the best scar from ovarian cancer surgery. Although Lenore's scar from her breast cancer surgery increases her total scarage, Lynda's stomach scar is longer and was cut into again for her second surgery. The prize is getting the most sympathy from the family. And you thought we only competed making puppets, writing sonnets and creating black velvet artwork. If you are squeamish, DO NOT GO HERE.
By the way, here is a list of our Christmas competitions:
- 1990 Write a Story based on a Edward Gorey drawing
- 1991 Make a 1992 Calendar
- 1992 Make pages for a Alphabet Book for Graeme
- 1993 Make a Mobile to hang in the Edisto house
- 1994 Karaoke Gilbert and Sullivan
- 1995 Puppets with a Purpose
- 1996 Touchy Feely Book for Little T
- 1997 Lawn Ornaments
- 1998 Poetry: A Limerick and then one other poetry form
- 1999 Mosaics
- 2000 Photography (Photography By The Numbers)
- 2001 Comic Strip
- 2002 White Trash Cooking Show
- 2003 Stuffed Toys
- 2004 Dioramas
- 2005 Black Velvet Art
Some more movie/DVD
reviews
Kilnieks
(Hostage) Lorella and I went to see this
Latvian movie directed by Laila Pakalnina that
was part of the European Union Film Festival. It
is a story of a hijacker who forces a plane to
land in Riga. He lets all the hostages go except
an 8 year old boy who asked to stay on the plane.
The story is about the hijacker and the boy's
friendship as well as about a number of
interconnected events that happen around the
airport involving racing cyclists, farmers,
detectives, biathletes, folk song choirs,
bunnies, dogs, cats, cows, bees. The director
manages to include many Latvian traditions and
favorite foods in the stories. It was quite
enjoyable although I am not really sure what
happened at the end. Even though we see the
hijacker and the boy sitting and talking in a
tree it is not clear if they got away clean,
died, or if they were just in the imagination of
some children playing in the sand. The film was
in English and Latvian. I recognized alot of
words but unfortunately my grasp of the language
has severely dwindled.