A Belated Christmas Eve

Yes, I realize that Christmas was almost a month ago, but as I was looking through the last pictures I was able to retrieve from my old camera, I noticed that I hadn't posted any pictures from our family gathering on Christmas Eve. I really wanted to post a few pictures of our evening and the delicious dinner our daughter prepared for our family.

For many years, part of our immediate family's tradition on Christmas Eve has included dear hubby and me preparing a prime rib dinner with all the extras, often including fresh king crab legs! While it is a great meal to enjoy on that night, the problem with this meal is that there is a lot that needs to be done at the last minute, and grammas and papas get tired after spending hours and hours in the kitchen. 

After our Christmas of "09," this gramma announced that she wanted to do things different the following year. I told everyone that I want my grandsons to remember Christmas as time spent with family, with their gramma and papa available to give lots of hugs and kisses, play with their toys, read books or anything else that is needed at the moment. When I am trying to get a meal on the table at just the right moment, that makes me too busy to take care of the small requests, like "Hold me Gramma," and too tired to have much fun after the meal is over. So, I determined then that we needed a new plan.

We tossed different ideas around during the year and our daughter and son-in-law decided that they wanted to have us all over for a Mediterranean Feast. It was an amazingly good meal! All the tastes and flavors are still a memory that I would like to have again before next Christmas Eve. The whole evening was so much fun, with lots of opportunities to give hugs and kisses, play with the boys, read books and play with their new toys.

Here are a few pictures of our family Christmas.

Ivan ready to start the evening

Wiley bringing out the "old" toys

Dear hubby and amazing son-in-law

Time for Dinner

Feta cheese, tabbouleh and tzatziki

Juicy California oranges

Yummy Salad

Rice and Bulgar wheatberry salad

Amazing marinaded chicken, pork and lamb

Time for a few presents

A pensive Wiley was asking me how Santa was going to know that he needed to come in the front door because there was a fire in the fireplace and he would get burned!

Ivan modeling his new shirt for gramma

Blowing kisses

The last picture from my CyberShot camera...

I Ran Out of "Virtual" Storage Space

I have a couple of posts that I was planning on publishing this week, but have been notified by Google that I have run out of my allotted "free" virtual storage space. It was news to me that there was money involved regarding the amount of pictures a blogger posts. I am waiting for Google to process my request for more space. Until my order goes through, I can't post any more pictures. Having just moved further complicates things due to address and phone number changes. So, I'm not sure how long this is going to take, but I'm waiting for notification from Google that my virtual storage space has been expanded. 

The moral of this story is: Beware of "free" offers from Google.

My next question is: Are they going to start charging me for the amount of key strokes I use in every post?

I guess if you see my posts getting shorter and shorter, you will know the answer to that question! 


P.S. $5.00 a year for 20 GB's isn't going to break the bank!

Finally.... I'm back

Hello! Yes, it has taken me longer than I planned to get back here, but, oh yeah, I'm back!

A lot has happened since I posted last year. We moved into our new home and we are very comfy, cozy and happy! We have felt at home since our very first day. We had planned on getting the majority of the moving done before we spent the night, but the first day of the move, our son put our bed together, I had all the bedding ready, it felt like home, so we spent the night! I am in love with everything here; especially all the windows that bring in lots of light, even on the darkest and rainiest days! I really love my warm and bright kitchen and  am enjoying the time I spend there. The rest of my days are spent running up and down the stairs and sorting through the remaining boxes!

If you remember from one of my last posts, my old camera gave out on Christmas day before the festivities even started! I was very disappointed, to say the least! We started our move the Monday after Christmas, so there wasn't any time for camera shopping, which means I don't have any pictures of the move. But, I am happy to say that I am now enjoying a new camera! My dear hubby wanted me to have a new "great" camera, so we went shopping! I now have a Nikon Digital SLR D5000, with an extra telephoto lens. That is a mouthful and it has been a little overwhelming. There is so much more to this camera than my little Sony Cyber-shot! I still have a lot to learn about it but I am enjoying the process. I'm working on the "Nikon School of SLR Photography" which will take me some time to get through, but I'm loving the process.

One of our favorite things about our new house is that our back yard is woods; no houses or people, just woods! The first few days we were here, I didn't see or hear even one bird. Nothing, just total silence. How is that possible with all those trees. So, I bought bird feeders and sent out the invitation and believe me, they came! Now, every time I look out the window or open the slider, there is constant motion and noise in our yard and in the woods with birds, squirrels and croaking toads! We haven't seen a toad yet, but they let us know they are out there. They are all very entertaining, so I have taken a few "practice" pictures. 

The following pictures are not good, they are quite bad actually, and I have taken better pictures since then. I saw an opportunity for pictures, my settings were wrong, and in my haste I didn't realize this. I'm showing you these pictures anyway because this grey squirrel is risking it's life, hanging in thin air to get to this bird feeder. 

We hung this feeder on this branch so that the squirrels couldn't get to the food. Right!!

The grey squirrels really blend into these trees

They empty the feeder in less than 24 hours, while balancing on air

We aren't sure what was keeping him up there!

A grey squirrel nest is on the upper left side of this picture. We can see at least five nests in trees, deeper in the woods.

Lots of seeds for the birds. Can you see the squirrel on his way down the tree, ready for more? He's right above the bird feeders.

Today I noticed the larger bird seed container shaking back and forth. I looked closer and the squirrel was at the base of the metal rod, shaking it back and forth! That didn't work, so he shinnied up the rod, about even with the feeders and leaned out and had his front feet on the long narrow feeder and his feet on the rod, swaying back and forth! He stayed that way for about 10 seconds and then scurried back down. I though those feeders were squirrel proof, but I'm not sure now. It all happened so fast, I didn't think to grab my camera.

My favorite Wiley

My favorite Ivan

Wilers trying to smile for gramma

Ivy posing for gramma

 

Bye until next time!