After a Christmas in Kuwait, I was able to share another with my family in Nebraska. It was great to see everyone again and it actually turned out to be a White Christmas. Cold, but white.
A few years ago, Mom switched to unicolor lights. Initially there was some back and forth between all red and all white...white eventually won out. Decorations? Nests with little hand-crafted birds. I did add one of my cards (middle, left) for effect. I do love the look.
Visited my friend for a few drinks and took the 'ol 10-Speed. My dad put airless tires in awhile ago which is a super hard ride, but they always work...even if it's 10 degrees outside. Speaking of drinks, we (father, brother and nephews) shared some Woodford Reserve and smoked cigars on Christmas Eve. Dad even let us use the enclosed porch which was 1000 times better than sitting outside.
My mom is always up to speed (or in front of) fashion. She gave me this bracelet. My nephews gave me two drawing books. Draw People will be good practice for me and has good tips. 642 Big Things to Draw will also be good practice since it simply gives you the subject with space to draw. Great gifts.
Pop could always out draw or paint me. These buffalo on the great plains were painted with no reference and rather quickly (assuming I remember it correctly). To capture the White Christmas, I tried to take a cool closeup of this little snowball sitting all by itself on a table of snow. I like it but couldn't get the camera to focus on the ball. It keep grabbing the closer snow.
My parents have a great sun room. It's easily my favorite room. Big table, seven large windows, great light (day and night) and perfect for family meals. This is just before sitting down for Christmas lunch. If you zoom on the upper left plate, you can see the affair; yams, peas, carrots, roast beef, ham, taters, gravy and stuffing. Below hat plate, you can see we share a glass of wine, but lower, you can see my coffee cup. We have Taster's Choice almost 24/7 in that house. Or at least it's available 24/7.
On the way to the airport, we stopped by a post office to drop off a large group of Christmas cards. Mom helped me stamp them enroute to the delivery. The top one has a "Global Forever" stamp. Yep, they have those if you're interested. Just like domestic Forever stamps. Nice.
Last supper with the family was a Zio's Pizzeria. You can get pizza by the slide, pre-fabbed or build your own. It was good eats. Since my flight out of Nebraska as delayed I was afforded 4+ extra hours in Atlanta. This is in the one of the lounges (near my gate which is always awesome) with some whiskey+diet and Mad Thai soup. I hate going to a restaurant first THEN remembering lounges. I'm getting better at it. It was a great Christmas! Thanks to God and my family!
- mm -
No comments:
Post a Comment