...White Bird

 

"White Bird," skit writing, finishing an art project... updates coming soon...

...

Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah!

Okay, here's the final painting by Maddie, the one she started working on a few days ago.  She picked it up again this afternoon so she could finish it off, and it turned out really well!

I think in the end, she prefers using colored pencils and pens, but that isn't to say she didn't enjoy this.  She sat at the table to day working on this project while listening to her favorite channels.  The snowy landscape looks great, and of course that was sort of on our minds as we enter January.  There is another Polar Vortex on the way in about a week, and with lower temperatures there is a chance for an actual snowy landscape out there.  I'll believe it when I see it - we haven't seen snow here in North Georgia for quite some time.  Years, I think.

So today is New Year's Day, and of course we had the Rose Bowl Parade on.  We watched the coverage on  the national NBC channel, but the camera work and audio were so terrible, and there was so much cut out.  So right when it was over, we went to another local channel's coverage, and sure enough, it was immensely better.  As in, we'll start there next year.  

Anyway, we were enjoying that parade, and all the while we were taking down things, starting our DeSantafication process in earnest now.  We brought up empty tubs, and got busy.  And after the parade was over, we were listening to some vinyl records, whistling while we worked.  Here's a leftover from last night!

We didn't get to the trees yet, but I was taking some pictures of a few things, and got some more pictures of a few of my favorite ornaments.

Ah, and here below is the reason I had the camera ready.  I got the nutcrackers down for a big group shot:

Not only that, we packed up the Nativity set.  I wasn't taking pictures of the entire Nativity Empire, but I did take a few shots of some of the scenes to help me set up next time.

We did a lot of work today, and there were the chores - I was walking, of course too.  Mom and I had some Factor meals, and we fed our sea monkeys their weekly meal.  Again:  we dropped a package of eggs in this tank at Easter time two years ago.  There are still sea monkeys in there from that long ago.  That amazes me.  

Moving on, we also keep those birds well fed out in the back yard.  We've been watching all of them fly up to enjoy a free meal, all sorts of different birds.  And our neighborhood cat keeps coming up to the front door for a free meal too - Mom gives him a bit of leftover chicken from time to time.

Tonight we played dominos, and we actually played for thirteen rounds!  We didn't plan on playing that long, but I think it was just that easy and that fun of a game that we simply kept going on and on.  Everyone won a few rounds, and it was relaxing with some tea and occasional breaks.

And of course, tonight is the last night of Hanukkah.  We lit our final candle and did our devotional for this last night.  Maddie did a funny photobomb here!

It was a pleasant first day of the year.  We closed things out watching the first Jumanji movie, now having seen all three this week.  The next one comes out later this year, from what we're reading.  The first one is so good, with so much nostalgia.  There were so many great movies in the 90's, these big Christmas time releases.  That's one thing I noticed about all three Jumanji movies, is that they might be considered Christmas movies given that they all actually feature a bit of Christmas in each one.

Anyway, speaking of Christmas, we read more from "Hogfather" tonight, as Susan is now in the world of childhood imagination, and therefore closer to the villains of the story.  Things are coming to a head, and of course DEATH is hoping to help out.

We said our prayers tonight, and there were some prayers for New Orleans today, as a terrorist chose to end his life and many others there today.  The world is a more volatile place, at least in a more noticeable way in regards to entire nations mobilizing armies and taking aggressive stances.  We don't know what 2025 holds, but we know God is still with us.