Christmas 2020

The celebration started on Christmas Eve with a fire, some sausage and a guitar.  

I played a few Christmas carols and we both sang!  It took Mike a minute to get on board but he did. 

No chestnuts roasting on this fire just sausage of some kind.  

Just posing.  Didn't eat the sausage. 

Christmas morning.  Welcome long expected Jesus!  I love this time of year.  2020 has been a challenging year for sure with this Covid thing but this day was a day to celebrate the birth of our King.  Mike and I had already purchased presents.  A gun club membership for him and a new lighter weight kayak for me.  The Lathops got these paddles for me.  We had pancakes and scrabbled eggs for breakfast.

Later in the day we headed up to the Lathrops to share a bit of Christmas with them.  There was a new ping pong table and Layne and I headed straight to the basement to play.  Layne wanted to model her chicken socks.  

Lucy joined the ping pong party after awhile. 

It's a new bike for Lucy!  I want one!  It is pretty nice.  

The chickens.  Layne got chicken socks and Justin got a chicken shirt.  

A little outdoor basketball.  BRRRR

Kristin and I were the photographers. 

These squishy balls were a hit.  The girls threw them all over the walls and sometimes on the ceilings.  

New sign! I love it!!!!!

Katie and her boyfriend Chris celebrated in Seattle. 

I added a couple of pictures from the New Orleans Gleason clan.  Rivers on his new go cart and Gray along for the ride.  

Michel and Steve!!  

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

The Star of Bethlehem December 2020

This was copied, not my words.

 

THE CHRISTMAS STAR appearing this year on December 21st is making news. It's amazing that this occurrence is also happening in the year 2020.

IN THE YEAR when Jesus was born, there was violence, chaos, political and social unrest. It was dark.

THE MAGI FOUND HIM by way of the star, which was the "meeting" of 3 stars: Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. They followed the star until it rested on where he was and they began to worship him. In a time where it was dark, Light was brought in to our world. Jesus stepped in to the chaos and brought peace.

FAST FORWARD to 2020. It's a time of violence, chaos, political and social unrest. It is dark. Winter Solstice, December 21st, is the shortest day and longest night...it's literally the "darkest day" and is the beginning of what most would say the cold, dark winter season.

BUT ON the darkest day this year, Jupiter and Saturn meet, giving us the Christmas Star! How fitting...that in the moment of time during the Christmas season that we get to see this beautiful reminder...that even in the darkest of times...Light will, and has, stepped in. In our chaos He is there. In our darkest time, He is there. He brings Light, and makes all things new.

SO AS YOU LOOK out on Dec 21st for the Christmas Star, may we be reminded of His power, and His Light that he brings for all mankind. He is perfect at stepping into chaos and bringing it into peace. (Copied from a friend... you may do the same.)

I was so excited to see the Star of Bethlehem. A once in a lifetime experience. It had been 800 years since it was last seen. It was visible starting on December 16th. On December 21st Jupiter and Saturn were the closest together.  Of course they were actually millions of miles apart.  If you were at the right angle they looked like one bright star. The Star of Bethlehem.  So fun.  I researched and researched how to take picture of stars and how to take pictures at night.  It was confusing so I just played around with the settings.  Mike brought out his spotting scope and we got a few decent pictures. Looking through the spotting scope was amazing. You could see the moons around one of the planets. 

If you click on this picture and enlarge it you can see the moons.  

We saw the Star of Bethlehem on the 22nd of December but it wasn't as bright and brilliant.  I just loved this!   

This is not my picture.  Someone took this in North Dakota.  A better camera, the correct angle and perhaps a filter of come sort.  Or they just knew how to photograph this.  Beautiful.  

Idaho Eagles! 2020

Well, it was a different year all around in 2020 including the eagle viewing.  Where there are usually hundreds of eagles we found 4 or 5.  I watch the eagle count on the internet and it never got over 100, in fact it was going down instead of up.  We decided to wait no longer and off we went.  Good thing we did because it wasn't getting any better.  As were were driving to the eagle viewing place in Idaho I saw some flying over Lake Coeur d'Alene,  Ah, there is hope.  We stopped at our first place and nothing.  I researched the lack of eagles and there was a lack of fish to eat.  We could see a difference too.  Usually they're a lot of dead fish along the shore.  None this year.  The eagles had to go elsewhere to eat.  We did find a few far, far away in the trees.  

Mike got the spotting scope out and we took some pictures.  Not our best pictures but it was all we could do.  We did see them flying and got to watch the through binoculars! Amazing.  

An old eagle.  His white feathers aren't as white. 

We persisted and got to see some eagles.  The pictures weren't great but the day was.  The tradition continues. 

Eagle watchers!

On the way back to Spokane we stopped at Jimmy's Down the Street.  It is all part of the yearly eagle tradition.  

And there you have it.  The sign in the men's bathroom.  

Bear Lake Adventure!

A perfect day for a walk around Bear Lake.  Talena, Angie, Laurie and I met at the lake around 10 AM.  The sun was shining and there was a chill in the air.  It was a beautiful fall day, although it felt more like winter.  Off we go!   

Lots of joy here.  I am thankful that I get to hang out with these ladies.  

Taking gloves off to take pictures wasn't the best idea in the beginning but I did it anyway.  I couldn't resist. The scenery was just too special.  God's creation at its finest.  

I just pointed the camera on my phone toward the sun and took the picture.  I really didn't know how it would turn out.  Love the colors on the clouds.

A sun blob!!!  Reflection pictures are the best.  The sun is reflected on the frozen lake. Glorious!

How do I get my phone camera off of live?  I tried to help but it didn't work.  I know how to do it on my phone.  It was a good effort. 

A pause in the action for a photo.  

This is us trying to figure out how to get all 4 of us in a selfie.  

Better! Laurie had a brilliant idea.  Put the camera in position and then get our faces in the camera.  

Good idea!  

Along the way we threw rocks on the lake to get an idea of how frozen the lake was.  Could we crack the ice? We couldn't crack it with the small rocks we were using.  And up went Laurie, on a mission to get a bigger rock. 

Up, up and away! 

You know that feeling when your children do something dangerous and your heart jumps up out of your chest.  Well, I experienced that feeling at this moment. I turned around after taking a picture of Laurie and there is Talena testing out the depth of the ice.  Will it crack if I set on it?

Of course I recovered enough to snap a couple of pictures. I am really glad I didn't get a picture of her cracking the ice.  

Laurie rolled the rock down the hill. 

The rock!

I really thought I was brilliant! I captured Angie throwing the rock into the lake and the rock cracking a hole in the lake and it sinking below the ice.  Not so!  This is all I got.  I have no idea what I did.  Click to see a one second video of a rock flying.

I did get a picture of the hole and the air under the ice.  Talena was hoping to see a penguin come up out of the hole.  That didn't happen! I like the colors of the frozen lake.  You don't really see those colors just looking at the lake.  They show up in the picture. 

There was some talk about this being a man-made lake as we walked around the lake.  Nope, it was made by bears! That's why it is called Bear Lake.  Perfectly logical.   I will end right there except to say the fellowship is a blessing from God and we had that today.