And SNOW it did!!

Yowsah...this is the biggest snow storm that we've seen here on St. Andrews Dr.! It's over a foot of snow.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it snow!

IT HAS BEEN SNOWING ALL DAY TODAY! It's still snowing tonight! The forecast is that it will continue snowing all day tomorrow until 5 p.m.! Holy cows! Dats a lotta snow! The heavenly bamboo shot (first one) was taken this afternoon. The other 2 shots are night shots I just took with my camera set up on a tripod and a lime green umbrella to keep the falling snow off of my camera. I did take the fuzzy purple house slippers off and donned my Ugg boots for the outdoor trek. But, the rest of me was in my jammies. What a nutcase I am...but all this white stuff is quite magical. Until you have to drive in it and shovel it off of your driveway! In all of the 12 years we've been living here in NM, this might be the most snow we've seen here in our neighborhood. What a way to end the year!

Christmas Eve

It doesn't seem to matter how good or bad the weather is before Christmas eve...it always is cold and windy when it comes time to set out our bags of luminarias and whoever the 'volunteer' is in our family to light them before we head off to mass gets frozen by the wind chill factor. But, it does make for a magical evening throughout New Mexico with luminarias lit everywhere. Happy Holidays to one and all and have a very blessed Christmas! Pax et en terra...

A Journey Home

Took my final exam for Art History on Thursday, Dec. 7th. Friday, Dec. 8th, I'm on a plane flying home to Hawaii for my dear Uncle Pablo's funeral. I'm not often in a position to go home when a family member passes away, so I'm very grateful that I was able to go home this time. It was sudden and unexpected and profoundly sad to say goodbye to my uncle. But I did get to spend some wonderful time with my dad and brothers and the rest of the clan. Even better still, since I was traveling alone, I 'popped' over to Hilo for a day to see my sister who couldn't make it since she just had a baby a month ago. I got to see my brand new nephew and his brother and sister who were both home sick from school (yes, they really were sick!). I'm so glad I went as this turned out to be such a special journey home. The time I spent with my family was priceless! My brother Roy from Tacoma and I did our best to support the local economy on Molokai and did some great shopping. On Oahu, I got in some great time with my sister in law and we did an evening and a full day of "girlie things"(my brother, Tim had to work)! Wow...dinner at a chic restaurant and the following day we went to China Town (downtown Honolulu) and I shopped and shot photos. The icing on the cake was lunch at Neiman Marcus. The best part is, all of it was ALL spontaneous! Something Jayne and I don't get to do very often. Life does have its share of unexpected moments, be they high and be they low. I'll take them all, as the 'highs' wouldn't be nearly as sweet if I didn't have the 'lows' for perspective! The water lilly and carp are from the Ala Moana Shopping Center. I am totally enthralled with the landscaping they have there; a visual feast! The Christmas tree is a Norfolk pine tree (a very, very tall tree) at the Lodge at Maunaloa on Molokai.

Sneak Preview

Sneak preview of my ATC's for the exchange this Saturday here in Albuquerque (do a Yahoo search for our group). There were two themes to work with; "ornaments/ornamentation" and "toys". Lots of possibilities for both! I made about 23 of these and each one is different. Unfortunatley, I won't be there for the exchange and comraderie; my dear, sweet uncle passed away on Molokai, so I will be flying home for his funeral. It's so eerie; out of the eight siblings, there are now only two left; my dad nad his younger sister. It's a long journey home for a sad occasion, but I will get to see my dad and many other family membes. It'll be nice to see how he does up his yard too with all the lights. Aloha mai...