Apparently Santa is a smoker. . .

Merry Christmas.

Vintage Christmas

Wonderful vintage Christmas pictures, all of which make me feel incredibly happy and festive.



The above picture is cute, but I feel obliged to inform everybody that, although this woman seems overtaken by a spirit of possessive joy upon receiving her delightful little vacuum cleaner, I don't think most would find this a spectacular Christmas present. At least I wouldn't.


Buying your child a Schwinn will make him the toast of the neighborhood.



Take note, people. Gun enthusiasts are having their Christmas gift wishes so blatantly ignored they're having to buy presents for themselves. I want you to think really hard: is there anyone in your life who would like a Colt for Christmas? Or Hanukkah...or Kwanzaa...

Florida. I love Florida, can you tell?
These three personable palm trees I photographed at St. Augustine.



Even though this is an osprey, he kept making me think of the song 'Hej Sokoły.' (Polish national song...it means 'Hey, falcon.' Don't listen to it. It's catchy). Anyhow, I took a lot of pictures to get this one.



This lovely gator is technically "the one that got away." I had forgotten my zoom in the house, and subsequently, missed out on a photograph that could have appeared to have been taken from only a few feet away. And I couldn't get a picture of his fascinating tail.

Dragonfly larvae. (I believe).




This is one of my favorites. A boat came through and made these wonderful ripples.
Mist in the early morning.

Here I become rather obsessed with reflection. When I was younger I thought it was bad luck to see my reflection in the lake, so I wouldn't look. It's actually sort of cool. The water was, one evening in particular, just like a looking glass.
Snail eggs. They were a delicate pink color that doesn't even show up as nicely as it did in person.



More reflections...

This is also one of my most mourned photographs. If it had been more centered, the heron and his reflection would have been frame-worthy.





I like this island a lot, as you can probably tell. It has a lot of character. One day I'm going to buy a canoe and go chasing alligators all over it. (It's too swampy to really walk across, though).

So, that is my Florida trip, summed up in pictures. Maybe I'll add my St. Augustine photographs later.

Josiah's Birthday

So sad my little man is three already! He woke up yesterday morning and dressed himself for the first time.
We had a small family party, just us and Grammy and Granddad. Josiah had asked for a variety of cakes - blueberry, chocolate, et cetera - and we got a lovely Bavarian cake with whipped cream frosting. It was so good!
Josiah is the sweetest little boy ever. He is so creative and generous - he even offered me one of his presents when he was admiring them in their wrapping! He's very thoughtful. He crawls in bed with me almost every night to cuddle. He's so loving, every year with him has been wonderful, has changed my life. I can't wait to see what he's like when he's older - several months ago I had a dream I came home to visit for Josiah's 17th birthday. In the dream he was taller than me, and picked me up when he was giving me a hug. What's hard to imagine is that it will probably come true...


Some delicious dinner. Pork, broccoli and cheese, mashed potatoes, and Caesar salad. (Which is, by the way, my new absolute favorite. I could eat Caesar salad and coffee for the rest of my life and be a very happy girl).



Here he is, waiting for our lovely dinner...
And here, FOUR varieties of ice cream! They were having a sale, so dad brought these home - Reese's, chocolate chip chocolate, vanilla, and cookie dough, yum!



Josiah's cake. He's been asking for Playmobil for practically forever - he's always stealing everybody else's, which doesn't encourage brotherly love. So here is his pirate man and soldier! It came with lots of little parts which probably won't stick around long...but he's been carrying his pirate around everywhere, he loves it!

This was him blowing the candles out, VERY eagerly, before we were even through singing happy birthday! Of course it was dark, but my lovely flash lights it up like day. You'll have to imagine the dark part.
He had to lick the bottom of everything taken off the cake.


The candles, too.

Benny, eagerly awaiting his dessert . . .

Mm, so yummy! There is now a grand total of seven different kinds of ice cream in our freezer. The most we've ever had. And I have no self-control. Needless to say, Operation Fat Kaley is well under way. Thank heavens I love to exercise.
Opening presents! These are his dinosaur pajamas.



Dad, not falling asleep.


Giving Grammy hugs!

The rest of his Playmobil set!
And the tricycle! See how he manages to ride his Radio Flyer while still clutching his Playmobil?
And it has a bell! Which has been thoroughly broken in since yesterday...
Max was determined to reached the tricycle...
Victory! With a little help from Grammy, tee hee.

Granddad demonstrated some facial distortions at dinner time.
Josiah showing how he could shoot my eyes out.



Here he is, trying to hold up three fingers. Apparently he's not quite there with the coordination thing.
I love you, little man! My favorite wild thing fairy-tales partner! Happy birthday!