Sunday Music

Up on the House Top

San Jose is experiencing high wind. We were warned about it on Monday and it started to bluster yesterday and it really is very windy - the wooshing sound in the sky kind of windy. We have corrugated plastic sheets covering the sky light in our entry. Too much sun and heat for the summer so we cover the window. Winter - we take them down. Well - one of the boys, usually Evan, takes them down (and puts them up for that matter). The wind has been rattling the sheets. It was noisy and I also worried they'd blow away. So, when Claire got home I made her go up. Actually, I got the ladder out and said I needed her to hold it but she graciously volunteered to go up herself. Up she went, and then she sat, and then she sat and sat. She liked it up there! Like Evan likes it up there.

Thanks Claire. And Evan - you still have your "put the lights up" job. :-)

Blustery Day

I'm sure you're tired of these "tree" pictures but I was driving around the neighborhood, delivering things, and the wind was blowing the beautiful leaves off the trees and all around. I so wish I had video on my cell phone - a still shot just doesn't do it. But it was like being with the butterflies again. And on this particular street there was like a wall of falling leaves. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to capture that but I wanted to try anyway. This is all I got. One tree drops its leaves in clusters - and the clusters of three would spin like helicopters. The wind would catch them and take them "up" before the gust died down and then they'd spin off and away, slowly to the ground.


Some of the fancy twirlers.Notice the little seeds at the base of the leaves - I bet that's why they can fly - carries the seeds off and away.

Foggy Morning

I went on a foggy walk this morning - two in fact. I wish I had a picture from the first walk - it being earlier it was denser. I walk a steep hill with a friend and we couldn't see the top of the hill from the bottom - which really isn't all that tall of a hill. It was very dewy and I had dew drops on my head. Was a great walk though.

Second walk was with another friend, we walked the path across the street from the Camden church building. I was there a minute or two before my friend. I sat on a bench and thought what I was looking at was picture worthy. So - the phone snapped some pictures.


Was also a great walk. :-)

Amaryllis

Soon a flower will emerge!

Sunday Music

Is it Christmas time yet?

When does Christmas time start for you?

Does it start on Thanksgiving? or the next day? or the Saturday after? How does it start?

We have not been consistent about when Christmas starts - we are often away from home after Thanksgiving so there is no set up the tree tradition or anything like that. But I do try to have the music out. The piano music gets set out, hoping the kids will pick it up. They usually do. (this year it all came a little early - Claire has been practicing several Christmas pieces for several weeks - so fun - especially Sleigh Ride) The CDs get played in the car. We don't really hear the music in the house! Isn't that weird? We don't have a CD player but what is part of the computer and TV system. It definitely plays on Christmas day though - we are all in the family room - no TV on. We have a bunch of Christmas movies we like to watch - we just watch them whenever.

What signals in the Christmas Holiday for you?

Shop til you drop?

Why do they call it Black Friday?

Have you ever ventured out shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving? Did you have certain things you were looking to buy? Or do you enjoy the crowds and the excitement of it all? Do you go out every year? What's the best deal you've ever gotten? Did you go out today?

I have been out on Black Friday once - and it was to go to the Lights at Temple Square and without thinking much about it ended up in the crowds at the mall that used to be across the street. Didn't enjoy it, and temple square was a zoo. We were with lots of people and ended up losing each other. It was a bit of a bust.

I don't enjoy shopping all that much, I really have to be in the mood for the most part. I don't see myself venturing out to shop on such a busy day. And I don't enjoy the crowd.

Am I a party pooper?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tradition

From the time I was 5 ('68) to the time I was 17 ('80) I had Thanksgiving at my house. My parents hosted Thanksgiving for both sides of the family every year. It was a huge group - nearly 50 give or take 9 or 10 if Peterson cousins came or not . As the years went by the group got bigger as cousins married and continued to come down to San Jose (most of our extended family lived in Sacramento). And then the number began to dwindle as cousins had their own kids and split their time between their in-laws.

I should admit that I really don't know how many years we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. I recall having Thanksgiving in Sacramento because my mom had recently had surgery. That afternoon some of the cousins went to Star Wars - I think it was the first one. Regardless, there were several years of Thanksgivings at my house.

I know it was about family. I'm pretty sure my parents did what they did because they didn't want to have to choose between their two families. It was also about food because my mom made the same things every year - and I'm sure the sides and desserts were the same - people expected them.

My mom did turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry salad and rolls - her rolls were famous in the family. Everyone else brought sides and desserts. The dough for the rolls was made in a big ceramic bowl - I think it was yellow - she'd cover it with a very thin white dishtowel (we had things that lasted forever) and put the bowl on top of the freezer in the garage for the dough to rise. She'd visit the day old bread shop and buy a bunch of loaves of bread. I only remember doing this once but Ed and I sat in the family room watching TV while tearing the bread into pieces. I seem to recall pealing potatoes in front of the TV once as well. The cranberry salad was frozen. She'd make it ahead of time. She'd grind everything with this hand crank grinder that she'd clamp to the wood cutting board that pulled out from under the countertop. The turkey would cook all night long it seems. I remember waking up very early one Thanksgiving, not feeling well - and my mom was in the kitchen checking on the turkey - it was dark outside - i don't know but I wonder if she ever went to sleep.

My dad would always prune our Fruitless Mulberry tree on Thanksgiving morning. Funny he did but he did.

The house was always set up the same way. The kitchen was the buffet area - the peninsula and the table were covered with all of the food. The family room had football games playing all day. I don't remember my dad being very much into sports but I had cousins who were very interested in the games. They'd eat in there. The dining room table was stretched to full length - the piano bench for two to sit on was always placed at the end of the table nearest the piano :-) the dining room opened to the living room - there was at least one more table in there that was stretched to its limits - it was a beautiful table that served as a lamp/side table all the rest of the year. There was a fabulous little wood picnic table with benches attached - it would get covered with a table cloth and serve as seating for a few little people. (Nancy has the table now). There must have been a cart table or two we ate at in the living room as well - maybe not but seems there was. And for sure there was a cart table that was set up in the living room right by the kitchen door covered in appetizers - cheese and crackers, chips and dips and some veges as well as soda.

On my father's side of the family I am the youngest grandchild - on my mom's side the 2nd to youngest with another cousin the same age - they are boys. Did we have the adult table and the kid tables? I don't know? But I think I was forever at a table that was not in the dining room. I think I was a bit of a misfit among the cousins - being one of the youngest and the youngest girl by a few years I kind of tagged along with Ed. But I think I also hovered around the adults, prematurely stuffing myself with those appetizers. What I really wanted to stuff myself on was potatoes and gravy.

Good weather meant football outside in the street or even quick trips over to Santa Cruz. But I don't remember any tables ever being set up outside or chairs outside. We all sat down to a place setting inside except for the guys who wanted to watch TV while they ate.

After I headed to college I never had Thanksgiving at my house again. I don't know if the Sacramento group was still going. I have a feeling that they weren't. They were all hosting their own children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. But my parents were still hosting their family - their children and grandchildren. I think it became the gathering holiday because Christmas everyone spent at their own homes.

Greg and I have spent Thanksgiving all over - mostly in Tremonton and San Jose but also in Santa Rosa, Pleasanton and more recently Island Park Idaho. School being out, we have often taken the kids on little trips. We've spent time in Santa Cruz yet come back over the mountain to be with the San Jose crew. We've been to the Redwoods and had dinner in Santa Rosa. We once spent Thanksgiving at Clear Lake - jet skiing. That year we had dinner at an all you can eat Thanksgiving buffet at Konocti Harbor Inn. It was an interesting experience but the food was good.

The consistency of my parents' holiday traditions is hard to match (Christmas is a story as well). Do you think it is unique? I don't know. It's all I knew.

Cewel

Fall Color, even in San Jose

It wasn't until Greg and I moved to San Jose that I realized San Jose has Fall color. The neighborhood I grew up in had Carob and Olive trees as the tract trees. They are Evergreens and their fruit is very messy but I think they are disease resistant and the thought of not raking leaves was given more thought than picking up squished fruit that gets tracked into your home.

The neighborhood Greg and I first lived in when we came to SJ the tract tree is Liquidamber. BEAUTIFUL! Granted they drop these walnut sized pokey balls that could sprain your ankle if you stepped on one or cause serious injury when they go flying out from under a lawn mower - and of course there's the leaves to rake up - but the colors! Sensational - especially to a girl who never realized such trees existed in San Jose.

Then we moved to the house we are in now - the tract trees are Chinese Pistache - again BEAUTIFUL! *And* we had two Liquidamber trees as well. OK, female Pistache drop these clusters of red nuts that squish at first but over time get dry and hard and kind of act like tiny marbles if you step on them - but the colors! Sensational.

One of my favorite sites in the Fall is the yellow leaves of what I think is an Elm tree against a blue blue sky. It's my neighbor's tree across the street. I walk out to my driveway and "Wow" - beautiful beautiful color.

Thanks to Greg we have some pictures of our Fall color.