Monday, July 13, 2009

Christmas in July

In the late 1990's, Jeff's parents started spending their winters (including Thanksgiving and Christmas) in warm and sunny Alabama. The siblings continued to get together on Thanksgiving for the traditional turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie, but somewhere along the way the not-so-traditional exchanging of Christmas gifts became part of the celebration.

Not sure how that came to be, exactly. Maybe it was because we were often unable to be together in December, and rather than mail gifts back and forth, we thought we'd exchange when we were all in one place. The only downside to this was that we seldom were able to celebrate the holidays with Jeff's sister and her family, who live in Virginia. They made the trek to Michigan every summer, but another trip back for Thanksgiving wasn't always possible.

Then several years ago, while sitting around the campfire at Family Camp, the conversation turned, as it does in many families, to how we exchange Christmas gifts. Should the adults continue to draw names? Should we start doing a version of Yankee Swap? Should we only exchange handmade gifts?

That's when someone threw out the idea of celebrating Christmas in July, while we were together at Family Camp. The general consensus was that since we weren't celebrating in December anyway, why not move the celebration to a time when we could be together?

That was in 2003. We just finished celebrating our fifth Christmas in July, and I think it's safe to say that it's officially a tradition. The kids love it. (Imagine that!) For the adults, it's definitely a more relaxing experience than what happens in December, when we're all stretched to the limit with decorating, baking, parties, shopping, wrapping, visiting, etc. We just throw up a few strands of lights in the trees, play some Christmas tunes, and have fun with it.

Christmas in July

Monday, July 6, 2009

Friday

blue sky friday

Finally, on the second-to-the-last day of our vacation, the clouds gave way and we saw blue sky for the first time since the previous Sunday. A spontaneous cheer erupted through the camp, and a few of us grabbed our cameras, eager to record the fact that the sun, though late in arriving, did indeed make an appearance at Family Camp 2009. After lunch, we went to the beach, arriving around 2:00 p.m. and staying until 7:00. It was heavenly.

little fingers, little toes

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

Greetings from "family camp". So far we have had mostly rain and unseasonably cool temperatures. Good times! Today sounds like more of the same...tomorrow may be a little better...and then perhaps (perhaps!) on Friday and Saturday we will see some sunshine so that we can go to the beach. Oh well. What're you gonna do? We are eating well and enjoying each other's company in spite of it all. (I'm writing this from the K-Mart parking lot in a nearby town. Cell coverage is almost non-existent where we are camping, so I can't even surf the 'Net while the rain pounds our camper. Now that, my friends, is roughing it. :-)
Jacob says, "Please make it stop raining!"

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

myles & boston

More from my day with Boston & Myles.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Finally

Rosa 'New Dawn'

Now that the weather is warming up, the garden is starting to take off. This little beauty greeted me this morning when I woke up. Isn't she lovely?

Monday, June 22, 2009

Brotherly Love

I have a long way to go before I could ever be considered a "real" photographer, but from time to time I am asked to take photos of nieces and nephews and I always happily agree. It's great experience for me and I love doing it.

In this shot, we were trying to encourage Myles to stand behind his sleeping baby brother, Boston, and...what? Gaze at him lovingly? Pat his back? I dunno. He's not quite two years old; what did we expect? But this is what Myles came up with, and I think it's priceless...even if I did cut off Boston's feet!
(P.S. Myles was being very, very gentle.)

brothers

Monday, June 8, 2009

garden urn

garden urn

This is the urn I planted based on the recommendations for shade-loving annuals at the Proven Winners website, which I talked about a few posts back. It seems to be growing well and I'm thinking it will just get better as the summer progresses. I'll keep you posted.

* * *
Edited to add:
Valerie asked what was in the urn. Good question! And something that would have been useful to include first time around.
The mix contains one each of the following:
streptocarpella (purple-blue)
ipomoea (Sweetheart Purple)
torenia hybrid (Summerwave Blue)
fuschia hybrid (Ballerina Blau - pink & purple)
vinca vine