Dry Conditions

It's been dry.

We've had two storms this winter.

A snow storm earlier in December

and just this Saturday when got a

whopping .07 of an inch.

The lake level is down 131' from the crest.

The photo above shows the lake level this

past weekend.

This is the same location from a photo taken

in April 2010.  Note the trees just above the lake

on the far left. Those are the same trees that are 

in the center of the first photo.

Sigh,

Back to reality for this year.

 These blue skies are not welcome

at this time of year, but what are we 

going to do ~~~ we'll enjoy it anyway

and hope for rain!

 We recently had our photos taken

for new passports.

Oh for goodness sake,

who are these old people... (smile).

I was worried about having a blemish

on my nose ... but guess what?

It didn't even show up in the photo.

What does really show

 are the dark circles under my eyes.  

Who knew 

you have to take your glasses off

for the photos?

Imagine waiting for the clerk

to finally find the correct button to click

on the camera ... and meanwhile

you're getting super self conscious

and just know you're getting that darn

deer in the headlights look.

Um, yeah with dark circles underneath.

Sigh

Our old passports expired years and years

ago.  Gosh I remember when we first

got those passport photos taken. 

 We had orders to be stationed

in Misawa, Japan.

This was back during our Navy life.

The day came to have our 

photo's taken and we had no choice

but to go when they tell you to.

We were sick as can be and 

the photos showed 

how miserable we all were at the time. 

I shouldn't have been surprised

that the new photos for something

so important,  and long lasting,

would once again turn out to be

so ... so ... uncomfortably revealing

of the truth... (grin)

Finishing Up with Christmas ~~~ Oh So Late

My most favorite time of the day is

very early is early in the morning,

before the sun has even thought to rise. 

Of course, in the winter time

there's plenty of dark morning time to enjoy.

From these upper  windows in 

  the front room I can watch the stars, satellites,

the phases of the moon, clouds, rain hopefully, 

and snow flakes fluttering down 

at least once a year.

I can see the birds starting their day,

and the bats swooping across on their last flights

of the morning.  I just love it.

We'll put the blinds back on the upper windows

sometime this spring before the sun starts flooding

that wall with too much light.  We used to close

the blinds to stop the heat from coming inside,

but the new windows are supposed to take

care of the heat transfer from now on.

They were so late finishing up the window job

last fall, that we didn't have a chance to notice

a difference in the heat buildup in that room once

the sun hit that wall in the afternoon.

  For now we're 

enjoying the view.  I've purchased the 

blinds for  just one of the upper windows so far.

I have three more boxes to go and I sure 

wish they would go on sale. (ha!)

The old blinds were white, but we've switched

to brown to go with our new wall color.

The new blinds look much nicer.

Now that the holiday's are over

it's time to get back to finishing up the 

painting job... oh my.  It's not even fun anymore...

and who want's to start on that mess again.

(not me)

So let me hide my head in the sand 

just a little bit longer.  OK...?

Last month our cousin Joyce

and I whipped out the gift baskets

we use for the Christmas party at 

the Senior Hall in just a few days.

The baskets are put together using donated

items that are saved over the year.

I think we did close to 35 baskets,

and then there were many mugs filled

with Christmas candy that Joyce did on her own.

She deserves a vacation and is

 now spending the winter months

down in Arizona.

Here's Conner enjoying his

hot cocoa here.   He spent some

time with us before Christmas

while he was on winter break.

  

He gets hot cocoa here quite often,

but not with whipped cream

 (leftover from Thanksgiving).

 To make it even more festive,

I topped it with sprinkles.

Conner said "now that's even better".

We had a nice Christmas day.

We loaded up the trunk of the car

with presents for the grand kids,

and headed to Mount Shasta for the day.

First though we waited for the 

fresh homemade cinnamon rolls to 

come out of the oven.

Then of course,

we had to sample them first,

before we headed up the mountains.

It's a good thing we left the rest of the cinnamon 

rolls up there with the kids.  Just looking 

at the photos has started a  cinnamon roll craving.

Dang.

I  use to make these just once a year 

for Easter breakfast, but this year I decided

to make them for Christmas and 

to take them up to our daughter's family.

The recipe makes

way too much for Rick and I 

and they're way too dangerous to keep around

the house, even when frozen... 

Most all of my Christmas photos of the kids

turned out blurry because they're constantly

on the move.

But here's one of Katelyn sporting her new

pigtails and wearing her new princess gown.

  Her hair has finally grown long enough 

for pigtails.  She will be three in March.

Just about all of the comments from

my last blog post (waiting of the dock)

were about our sunny weather.

Yes it has been sunny,

more like spring than winter. 

Our dry sunny weather is not welcome though,

for we've just finished our driest year on record.

Ever.

We would gladly trade a bit of sunny

weather for  some of your rain and snow.

You can keep those record cold temps though.  

Sitting on the dock ...

Waiting for Rick to come back with the forgotten boat key.  Happy New Year!!!