Tonight we enter a New Year.

Can you see the hands of the clock whirring around?

I can. Clear as day.

Here are some of my favorite moments from 2009...




January saw Katie dancing.




April. Picture taking.







The cold snowy winter departed and spring arrived.
Spring is a favorite moment.




Our one chance for a Christmas picture came in June when we were all together for Bridget and Dan's wedding.






Matthew smiled.




The Glyman kids are all together again after a 10 long years for the wedding of Wes and Steph.





Cindy's visits to Wisconsin were a blast.




Playing four square was a big hit over the summer.
Everyone who came to visit got to play four square with us.




August took us to the Ranch to meet Ree and her family.









Katie's first visit to Lambeau field was very cool.






What can I say. My haircut was a highlight.




In November I dashed off to Arizona for Ashley and Joe's wedding.



And a very special photoshoot.





And when I look back on December of 2009 I will think of snow.
Lots of snow and when "I dropped my basket",
driving in said snow.


It's been a wonderful year.

I have a heart full of gratefulness.

Thank you for being here with me and sending me so much love and encouragement
in the comments.

As our Katie says,

Love you like a friend!

Donna

To tell the truth or not to tell the truth.
That is the blogging question.

I started reading the book Eat, Pray and Love last night.
One of the first thing the author says is tell the truth...tell the truth...

Well, yes, that is always good.

But I noticed she does not tell ALL of the truth.

And perhaps that is the way to do it.

If you are going to speak about a subject.
Tell the truth. And if you have decided NOT to speak
on a subject. Don't speak.

This is the way I have written this blog over the years. I have been truthful,
but I also keep some hurts and pains and stories to myself.

It's a matter of respect for others.





Joe Fox: It wasn't... personal.
Kathleen Kelly: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me. It's *personal* to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?
Joe Fox: Uh, nothing.
Kathleen Kelly: Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.



It is tricky to tell the truth about your life while leaving out big chunks.

It's like a good parts version of the story and that's not always the most 'real' way to communicate,
but it's what works for me.

Maybe when I am old and cranky, I won't care what anyone thinks and I will tell it all.
But I don't think I will be blogging then.
I'm starting to run out of things to talk about as I finish up year six of blogging.

I've been talking for a long time.

We have so much in common, we both love soup and snow peas, we love the outdoors, and talking and not talking. We could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about.

from Best in Show




Encourage one another,
Donna

In passing, Patrick mentioned that he likes those knit hats with the brims.
In my innocence, I thought they were dorky.

I told Emma, your dad wants one of those dorky hats.

She said they are not dorky. She bought one for a friend of hers.
It is snowboard-y cool.

Oh. Okay.

So we searched around of a knit hat with a visor.

We found one at PacSun.

Emma tried them on and well....she put them on a little different than a 50 year old would put it on.
Back wards and sideways, baybee.

That's the cool way to wear this hat.


So Christmas morning Patrick opened his hip snowboarders hat.

He put it on like a 50 something.

The girls showed their dad the right way to wear the hat.





Here is Katie's take on the subject.










I think the kids have it right on this one....

I love that second look :o)




Encourage one another,
Donna

Patrick and I went to see It's Complicated on Saturday.
We both enjoyed it even tho we had to sit in the middle of the row and were stuck like sardines without
popcorn. But the movie was funny.

I had lots of advice for Meryl's character but my husband says if she followed my advice
there would be no movie.

So there you go.


I liked Julie and Julia better, I think, when it comes down to my favorite movies of the year.

I made Emma watch Ice Castles with me on Christmas. The Ice Castles from 1979.
You know. The one with Robby Benson.

Oh how I loved that movie and I actually think it held up well.
Except that Lexie sometimes looks blind before she goes blind.
But other than that....

Great movie from my past.

Do you remember Ice Castles?


*****

I'm waiting for the cable guy this morning and then we are heading over to the Luke House for lunch.
The girls are coming with me. They like to serve. Hope we have a big group that feels welcome.
We serve the same meal every month. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
Rib sticking.
Katie's favorite job is taking the desserts around.

I guess I need to think of a meal for dinner. You can only eat left overs for so long.
I could eat them forever. I don't mind left overs at all.
But I'm not alone here.

So perhaps some chicken or steak bites...

Do you get tired of making dinner?

I think Christmas Eve day took more out of me than I realize.




Aging.

It's not for the weak.


Happy Monday after Christmas!
Hope you are rested and well and happy as clams!


Encourage one another,
Donna

This is THE Christmas shot this year.

(It's especially sweet to me because Emma mentioned the night before,
"Katie watches me all the time. No matter what I am doing she just sits and watches me.
And she watches you too.")

Was Emma subtly telling me to stop screaming at cars?

I don't know if she was or wasn't....but I'm kind of, sort of convicted.





For Christmas, Katie let me take a few pictures.

I may be all natural light.

But the wind is a different story.




Katie got a cute pair of red earrings. A little while earlier she pointed to her left ear and said, "This one kind of hurts."
So I took a peek at the earring and saw she had caught an extra piece of skin!

"Oh NO!", I cringed.

"Emma can you fix Katie's earring?"

I could not bear looking at it.

So glad Emma was home to help.




Camera: Nikon D700
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 1000


This is my favorite edit.

This Eye Candy action is called Film Camera. I love it.


***


Anybody go to see It's Complicated yesterday???

I'm sure we will see it this weekend. Perhaps today. Yeah. Today.
It looks so great!!!




I sure hope you are safe and warm and with the ones you love today.


Encourage one another,
Donna

Merry Christmas!

With Love,

Donna and family

She's a decade today.




What joy and fun this little girl has brought to our lives.

She is kind and helpful and funny and sweet.

We love her to pieces.

Happy Birthday Katie Gracie!

Love you,
Mom

The Nativity 1597
by Federico Fiori Barocci







How beautiful is this scene? I like Mary's halo and her hands.
Such gorgeous colors in this painting.










My Judd's Christmas tape is warped so I haven't been able to listen to their Christmas music this year.
This morning I found my two favorite songs on youtube.


I hope you like them, too.

Christmas Eve Prayer

Loving God, Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I know I am a day early for the Christmas Eve Prayer.
But, I don't think it will hurt me to say it two days in a row :o)


Encourage one another,
Donna

I watched Return to Me last night. Have you seen that movie?
Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake wrote the screenplay and I can see Bonnie's fingerprint all over the film.

For the last two years I have watched The Bonnie Hunt show every day.
I have heard about her loves and favorites and I have met her friends/colleges that are on the staff.

So last night, it was just so much fun to catch all the Bonnie in the movie.

The music...the Dean Martin music...and the city; Chicago.
I spotted Bonnie's friends and staff throughout the movie.
And her mom was in the movie. Briefly. But she looked so pretty.

The movie is sentimental and funny and sweet.

My favorite scene is one of old men dancing. It's magical!

If you haven't seen it and you like Bonnie, you really should watch this movie.





***

I bought myself a little Christmas present...

Eye Candy Actions by Sheye Rosemeyer

I love her look and her actions are on sale until Christmas so I took the plunge.

I also bought a white balance tool. Which I hate and am sending back.

Here is a picture I took with my new white balance too yesterday.

Yuck.




Good thing I had some new actions to play with.










Something a little different.


And here's Emma.

No actions magic. Just our pretty girl in the garage wearing an alpaca hat that I knit a few years back.
The guys don't really like it. They think it is too light. But Emma, she is like her mom. We are all about the feeling.
Soft. Softer. Softest.

That's alpaca. Yum.








What a jumble of things today.
Ah well.
That's how I fell I guess.

All jumbled and a bit discombobulated.




Encourage one another,
Donna

Time to bake the cookies. Not me, mind you. I am the photographer. Not the baker.
My husband is the baker. He bought the family business when we were first married. Yes, that's right.
Boucher's Bakery.

These cut outs are a tradition.

Katie needed cookies to take to school for her Birthday treat, so she asked her daddy to make them.

I wanted to use the angels.
I did not get my way.














I made Katie move the coats on the couch.



This is serious business.







All baked and ready for the frosting.




plop




swipe



sprinkle




smile pretty for the camera






katie helps







Little Miss Eager



Thank you Patrick!!! Katie was very proud to take her shoebox full of cookies to school today!!!


"Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love."
Craig Claiborne, Kitchen Primer


Encourage one another,

Donna