Tennessee Visit + Safari Park

This is the third year Mrs. B and I packed up and went to Tennessee to visit Sarah (and this year, her new husband Tim!) Crazy wild fun, laughing until your stomach hurts, insane stories at midnight, deep theological conversations, tears for friends in pain, competitive board games, an ongoing round of My Cows, one crazed goose and a few too many emus.

This place was fantastic.  Other than the attack birds, it was totally awesome to see and feed the animals.  Gotta love baby goes who try to eat your clothes, right?  The buffalo that slobbered all over the car was a highlight as well.  Seriously, I had never been to a drive through safari before, but this was so much fun and now I want to do it again.

 

The Winter Months

  

The New Year blows in snow, ice, cold, and more snow.  I may not be a big fan of scraping ice off my windshield before 6:00 in the morning (then again who is?) but there is something to be said for snow days.  In spite of the below freezing temperatures I personally was definitely able to make the most of winter - specifically by getting an entire week off work and spending it with my family, my cat, my blankie, my pajamas, and Jack Bauer in a 5 day tv marathon in front of the fire.  It was the week of hibernation I had hoped for, and honestly I think the forced extra rest did us all some good.

Sammy had a birthday - three years old now! We made the morning extra-special by putting candles on his muffin.| On one of the extra cold days, the girls had a day off and I didn't.  We made a nice and cozy fort in the living room, and yes, the TV was inside it. Several blankets, pillows, books, and movies made it in too!

   

 

I may have a problem. With buying books.  Maybe I'll buy more books to make myself feel better about my problem.

A Very Harry Christmas

"Harry arrived early in the Room of Requirement for the last D.A. meeting before the holidays and was very glad he had, because when the lamps burst into light he saw that Dobby had taken it upon himself to decorate the place for Christmas.  He could tell the elf had done it, because nobody else would have strung a hundred bolden baubles from the ceiling, each showing a picture of Harry's face and bearing the legend HAVE A VERY HARRY CHRISTMAS!" - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Every year at Christmastime, we give our tree a theme.  Sometimes it's a color, others a T.V. show - this year it was Harry Potter.  We were getting ready for the trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter over the summer. We filled our tree with the house colors and other various wizard paraphernalia.

The Golden Snitch.  Ay and I spent and evening creating ornaments for the tree.  Simply hot gluing feathers to a small golden bulb did the trick!  I suppose in theory one could spray paint the feathers gold as well, but we were on a bit of a time limit.

 

Christmas Time

  

Christmas lights and wrapping paper and hot chocolate and carols: it truly is one of the most beautiful and magical times of the year.  All of the events and parties and present exchanges in December are constantly adding to the excitement! 

In our house, we have a rather relaxed Christmas Day. We start opening presents sometime between 6:00 and 7:00 A.M., and end sometime mid morning.  Granny and Papa usually leave early to travel back and we stay in for the day. * Pajamas and fuzzy blankets and apple cider and snack foods * new movies and books and games * between cat naps and trying out new gifts, we have a Doctor Who Christmas marathon.  We pull out the favorites and watch them (simi in order) throughout the day - occasionally interspersed with another tv series Christmas special.  It's truly wonderful to have Christmas itself a relaxing affair amidst all of the other holiday bustle.

using my new photography home studio set up for the first time  ^_^