Day 10: Packing Away Christmas

E and I packed away our Christmas decorations, our tree, everything -- an all-day job. It looks as though Christmas never happened. One of my very least favorite jobs. I hate to see the Holy Days go.....

Day 9: Winter Sunset in the Mountains

One of the most beautiful things about living in the mountains is the sunsets, especially in the winter when the trees are stark and leaveless. So striking.

Day 8: Words, Words, Words

I've been really enjoying teaching the grammar workshop at BraveWriter.com this week. Julie has invented a class that looks at grammar in an entirely fresh way that reinforces the beauty and power of words. Our first assignment is to write a list of words we like ... so here's the first page of my list of favorite words. J has even more words on his list than I do.

Day 7: Free Teen Guitar Class

Today J started the Intermediate Guitar Class with Father Acker. The Free Teen Guitar Class (FTGC) is a wonderful outreach of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity, and J has been learning guitar with Father Acker since July. J is definitely our musically-gifted kid and it's hard to keep him focused on doing his schoolwork when he'd much rather be strumming the very cool red electric loaner guitar from the FTGC: a Silvertone Rockit 21. Today J was thrilled to start learning some chords; he ended up with quite a bit of one-on-one instruction today in his class; however, the new Beginner Class was QUITE a roomful! Anyway, J will be enthusiastically practicing until class next Wednesday.

Day 6: A Small Town's Holidays Wishes

Just after Thanksgiving, the Holiday Elves of our small town (and we know who you are!) decorate our main street. In front of the popular 1950's diner, "Happy Holidays" is strung across the highway to be enjoyed by every passerby on foot, bike, motorcycle, car, truck, or bus. Gold-colored garlandy stuff by day and sparkly lights by night, this sign remains up through Epiphanytide to wish all, residents and visitors alike, "Happy Holidays."

Day 5: Twelfth Night of Christmas

J, B and I attended Twelfth Night festivities at Victoria House, the vicarage for Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. A good number of parishoners arrived to celebrate the Twelfth Night of Christmas and the Eve of the Epiphany.


The key to a Twelfth Night gathering is the lighting of the greenery, thus making a bonfire that symbolizes the light of Christ in a dark world. B had the honor of lighting the dry greenery that started the fire as Father Acker helps him.

After the bonfire started burning well (and smoking a great deal!), Father prayed aloud the Collect for Epiphany from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

A blessed Epiphanytide to you all!

Day 4: In the Dirt....

While T and J helped plant two new bareroot apricot trees this afternoon, they discovered this quite large and nasty insect which Keith identified as a potato bug. The boys then destroyed it with the wheeled dolly -- splat. Eeewwwww. Boys will be boys.

Day 3: The Tenth Day of Christmas

Today is the final day for our Christmas things to be up. Tomorrow after church E and I will start the dismantling process, packing carefully away our beloved Christmas things for another year and reassembling our large living/school room and kitchen. It's a job I always dread, and yes, we're doing it a bit early this year, on the 11th Day in fact, even though Epiphany arrives on Tuesday. But practicalities being what they are, we need to pack up when we have a full afternoon to do so, and Tuesdays are big school days around here, and I have two students to tutor in the late afternoon.

Happy Tenth (Saturday) and Eleventh (Sunday) Days of Christmas!

Day 2: My Prayer Corner

My "prayer corner" is my bedside table. It's upstairs (only the master bedroom and bath are upstairs in our home) so it's away from much of the noise and bedlam of the house. I have my Anglican prayer beads (different from a rosary with many prayers and Scripture possibilities), and my devotionals: my old 1928 Book of Common Prayer, my copy of The Message, my old favorite in hardcover, The Diary of Private Prayer, and The Daily Book of Common Prayer which has daily selections of Scripture and prayer for the year but different from the Morning and Evening Prayers from the 1928. I love lighting my candle and praying before my icons and pictures of Jesus. Sometimes I kneel to pray and sometimes I sit on the side of the bed. I hope to follow the Liturgy of the Hours this year, praying in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at bedtime. I'll also be using Phyllis Tickle's three-volume The Divine Hours which has Scripture and prayers arranged for each of the four aforementioned prayer times.

Starting 365 Project Again.... Day 1

Okay, I've decided to pick up my 365 blog again because last year I didn't take enough photos and didn't grow as a photographer the way I wanted to.

So here's our New Year's Day photo -- snow in Southern California! I took the kids up to my parents' little cabin on Mt. Laguna where they had fun sledding ALL day. Here goes E down the slope. My brother managed to snowboard on the same toboggan that E's on here. She got the incriminating video.... :)