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Here and There…Now and Then |
Keith, Gordy, and Sue
I’m so often taking pictures of young people that I thought I’d post one of some not-quite-as-young people. This is Keith, Gordy, and Sue, three of the nicest people you could ever meet.
We had a congregational lunch at church this afternoon and I took this, along with a bunch more, as we were getting ready to eat.
Joseph and Justin
There was a banquet, award ceremony, and dance this evening at the school. During the award ceremony, the two emcees, Joseph and Justin, performed for the audience. While Justin played the piano, Joseph did an interpretive dance. At least that’s what they called it. I won’t comment on what I think they were interpreting. They were actually quite funny and a good time was had by most.
Dorothy’s Laurel Wreath
Dorothy made a laurel wreath for herself this evening. Actually, she started it a few weeks ago, cutting out and painting the leaves gold. This evening she turned the pieces into a wreath that she can wear. It’s spirit week at school the four “houses” each have a theme and they are to dress in some way that relates to the theme tomorrow. Her house’s theme is Greek mythology so she plans to dress as a Greek goddess, complete with golden laurel wreath.
Dorothy at BWI
Dorothy left for Boston this evening. Well, technically she left for Wenham, northeast of Boston, but her flight was to Boston’s Logan Airport. She has an interview at Gordon College scheduled for tomorrow, as well as plans to sit in on one or two classes. Of course, I’m posting this on Sunday and she left on Thursday, so tomorrow was the day before yesterday, as I write this. The interview went well and she enjoyed the classes. We don’t know if this is where she’ll end up, but she could do worse. Here’s a picture of Dorothy at BWI before her first airline flight with no one else that she knows. She’s flown without us a few times and once with her friend’s brother on the same plane, but this time, she’s really solo. All went well, I’m happy to report.
Cathy
It’s been a while since I posted a picture of Cathy, so, here’s one. She’s a good sport to let me take pictures all the time. Once in a while, she even appreciates it. One really nice thing to do is to go back about ten years and look at pictures. We can go back much farther, of course, but 2003 is when I got my first digital camera and most pictures from before that are not on-line so they are a little harder to get at. Once it a while we’ll look through prints, of course, but a lot are also slides, which are harder still. I really need to start at the beginning and scan pictures. Even if they are not good enough scans to let me really get rid of the originals, it would make looking through them easier. It’s a bit of a task, though. There are more than a few dozen pictures to scan, as you might imagine. Still, if I got started, even if I only did a little at a time, I’d get through them eventually. Who knows, maybe I’ll do that in 2014. The Great Digitization Project needs to begin.
One Second to 2014
This is the last photo I took in 2013, taken at 23:59:59 (give or take a half second). In all, I took 24,837 shots in 2013, although some of them could easily not be counted (e.g., when the flash didn’t fire, etc.). Still, I have managed to take at least one photo every day since December 29, 2010 (1,099 days) and have been posting them since three days later. So, three years of a photo a day comes to a close. I don’t plan to stop, so for those of you kind enough to visit my blog, either directly or via Facebook, thanks for your time. See you next year.
Second Christmas
As I mentioned in the previous post, we had a multi-part Christmas this year. Actually, that’s normal. We have a multi-part Christmas almost every year. So, we had a normal Christmas this year. After breakfast and presents at Cathy’s mom’s house, we went to my mom’s and had Second Christmas. There were a few more people for this one, as you can see. Mom has posted a picture on Facebook from her end of the table. I’m in that one. So, here’s one that she is in, along with everyone else. This was taken before we popped our Christmas crackers. I took a few with all of us wearing our little hats, but it isn’t as good so you’ll have to imagine that, instead.
Grandma and Dorothy
We had a wonderful Christmas with multiple parts. After emptying our stockings at home, we went to Cathy’s mom’s house (a.k.a. Grandma number 1). Our friend Betsy joined us, which was a real treat. We had our traditional breakfast of pancakes, poached eggs, bacon, and sausage. After breakfast and a nice cup of coffee, we opened presents. I took pictures with Betsy and Cathy in them, as well, but I really like this picture of Dorothy with her grandma. I hope you like it, too.
Santa’s Pre-Visit
I don’t know if it’s because the kids in our neighborhood have been especially nice or if they need a little more encouragement to be good. Whatever the reason, Santa often makes a pre-visit to our neighborhood and he came this evening, the Sunday before Christmas, driving through around with Christmas music playing and giving out goodies to the children who came out to see him. Generally we hear him in the area long before he gets to our street, so there is significant anticipation among the kids, particularly the younger kids. Note that the reindeer have a very big night ahead of them and they are not asked to pull the sleigh this night, as well. Santa opts for the less traditional but very practical diesel.
Gretchen
We had our last X-Factor of the year this evening and enjoyed a festive time with traditional Christmas pizza (well, it was traditional American pizza, anyway, which is probably close enough). The youth enjoyed our annual gift swap game (you know, one of those where “stealing” other peoples’ gifts is actually encouraged). I took pictures, to no one’s surprise. This one, of Gretchen, turned out very nicely, don’t you think?
Thanks to all the people who make this X-Factor happen. Thanks to our youth, obviously, for coming and being so enthusiastic. Thanks to their parents who bring them each week (even if you carpool so you don’t personally come every time). And a special thank you to Hannah, who helps us get set up before the youth arrive and helps us get cleaned up before we leave. You’re a real blessing.
Lessons and Carols
We went to Fourth Presbyterian Church this evening for their Festival of Lessons and Carols, a celebration of the Christmas story. We enjoyed the sanctuary, youth, and covenant (children’s) choirs accompanied by a fairly full orchestra. We sang or listened to 13 different songs (somehow appropriate for Friday the thirteenth), along with 9 passages of scripture. Not everyone’s cup of tea, perhaps, but we really enjoyed it. It wasn’t the sort of thing to take a lot of pictures of, but I did take a few, including this one from our seat towards the rear of the sanctuary.
Dorothy, Sara, and Jessie
We had our second annual Christmas caroling outing this evening. Like last year, we rigged up a pick-up truck with drums and room for a base guitar player. Then behind that was a long trailer with a table set up for a keyboard. The rest of the trailer had bales of straw for folks to sit on. It was quite a bit cooler this year than last, so folks bundled up with blankets in addition to their jackets (and I even rolled my sleeves down and put on a pair of gloves!). We had a good time and enjoyed being together, both out in the neighborhood and back for hot chocolate and cookies when we were done singing.
Tim and Jeffrey
We had X-Factor this evening and, as is so often the case, I took some pictures. Naturally, some of them are good and some not so good. I find it interesting which people are easy to photograph well and which are not, and find that it has little to do with good looks, somewhat surprisingly.
Anyway, this is Tim (or does he prefer Timmy?) and Jeffrey (or would he like Jeff?). Like the hats, boys.
Our Thanksgiving Gathering
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we had homemade pizza for our Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. Well, we had our proper Thanksgiving today, with my mom and family. It was your traditional meal with turkey, stuffing, gravy, and two types of squash (leftovers of the acorn squash with Gruyere cheese I made yesterday and George’s butternut squash with maple syrup). There were three types of cranberry sauce, salad, asparagus, a puff pastry dish with farro and feta cheese (which is really, really good). For dessert there were a few pies and cakes as well as an assortment of ice creams.
Julia
It was a short week, with only three days of school for Dorothy and of work for Cathy and me, but somehow it seemed like a long week. We were all tired and ready for a break. When Wednesday evening finally came, Dorothy asked if she could go hang out with Julia, who was home for a few days from college. We dropped her off and then went out to dinner, but of course we stopped in for a few minutes to visit, first. Visit and take a few pictures.
My Photo Table
As I think I mentioned, I had a vendor table at the WCA Christmas Bazaar today. It’s something I look forward to every year and I had a great time. Of course, many of the people that I saw are old friends but I usually meet a few new people or get to know some that I’ve only just met recently. I sold a fair number of cards and prints and enjoyed all the visiting. Thank you to everyone who stopped by. Dorothy took this picture of me, so I could show you my display. Nothing fancy, of course, because I’m not really a fancy person.
Ravi Zacharias
This evening I took Dorothy and four of her classmates to Johns Hopkins University to hear Ravi Zacharias speak. For those not familiar with the name, Dr. Zacharias is a Christian apologist and defender of traditional evangelicalism. Rather than simply copy his bio here, I’ll link to it on the RZIM web site. He was speaking this evening on the topic of “The Problem of Suffering and the Goodness of God.” We got there about a half hour before the program started and were fortunate to get seats, much less seats all together. It was a good talk and worth the effort. Of course, you can also hear him online or on the radio without driving to Baltimore. Still, it’s nice once in a while to actually see and hear people speak in person.
Cathy, Pancakes, and Syrup
In the continuing story of the celebration of Cathy’s most recent birthday, the three of us went out for dinner this evening. It wasn’t what you might call a fancy dinner. We had thought to go to a small Italian place that we like pretty well. Unfortunately they are closed on Mondays so we had to fall back on Plan B. That, as it turned out, was a trip to IHOP. Not gourmet, particularly, but it was good and it was and is always nice to be together, just the three of us. Happy continued birthday!
Dorothy’s Braid
I was late getting around to taking any pictures today. I was taking pictures of small things in the kitchen when Dorothy came in with a new braid in her hair. I asked if I could take a picture of that, and here it is. It is called a fishtail braid. Perhaps we’ll resume our regularly scheduled collection of fall color photographs tomorrow. Who can tell?
Katie and her Kids
We only had 32 trick or treaters for Halloween this year. Of course it started to rain about the time the kids started to appear so I suspect that kept the numbers down a bit. Katie came by with her three, and they stayed at the door long enough for me to get their picture. I got another one, later, of Porter and Joseph, which is good but not nearly so cute.