Joe Gets a Leg Lamp!

We had a wonderful Christmas with Joe's family.
But Joe couldn't hide his happy grin after all his siblings surprised him with a leg lamp. He can't even remember how many years he had put a leg lamp on his Christmas wish lists. He certainly didn't expect it this year... but was this close to buying it himself. Very close.
Besides he got a Red Ryder b-b gun from his favorite cousin to go with his lamp, plus an Indiana Jones hat. It was like all his childhood dreams had come true.
This is a picture that Joe himself took to depict his glorious Christmas day. I was just happy to be with Joe as a little boy at heart.

Leg Lamp Cookies, Frosted

We frosted our Christmas cookies tonight. It was fun... but we are glad we do this only once a year! I think we have enough leg lamp cookies.
You can't forget the pink nightmares!
Enough of cookies.... The bare-looking front of our house was bothering me. It needed something Christmasy. But I didn't want to get anything too commercial and fake. Our floral designer at my work Jeff made me a twiggy wreath, using twigs from his garden. Can't get any more natural and real. It fit by our front door perfect. For Christmas I put a silver bow... which should be good for the New Year. I want to re-decorate it for different seasons in the future. Thank you, Jeff!
From our home on Mitchell Avenue, Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Leg Lamp Cookies!

Once again, we are making Christmas cookies to share. Tonight was our first round... Joe used up a whole batch of cookie dough to make nothing but leg lamp shapes.
It was me who made a little mess of flour....
Joe's leg lamp cookie assembly line.
Here's Joe holding his cookies freshly out of the oven....
Another round maybe tomorrow night. We still need to frost these cookies!

Should've Been a Snow Day!

It started snowing... I think on Friday, and hasn't quit. This morning our car couldn't have gotten out of our driveway. The actual snow accumulation might have been 14 inches, but snow drifts were up to four feet. Joe used his snowblower for the first time this season. He was out clearing our driveway for an hour and half, so he could drive me to work.... Really it should've been a snow day for everyone!! But there were people Christmas shopping at every store in town.
The picture below is Joe the snowman after the first time he ran a snowblower today.
Joe took a break from blowing snow and ventured out to take some pictures of the crashing waves at the breakwall. Tonight we admitted that the winter is REALLY here. Joe is resting up in anticipation of blowing snow again tomorrow morning.

Christmas Spirit

Yesterday I baked cardamon bread. Joe was overly happy! I was worried that my bread making skills were out of practice the whole time I was waiting for the dough to rise. But the result was very good. Moist and soft with a touch of sweetness.
The day before I printed our Christmas cards. Now our dining room table is filled with them. In a couple of days the ink should be dry... I love that faint ink smell!

Snow... Drifting

Posting some white snow pics for our readers who live a bit too far from the North Pole. Not a lot of snow at our house, but snow seems to be still coming, and blowing this evening.
Joe's grill looks so cold....
Under our tree now sit a few wrapped presents... it's getting more like Christmas around here.

Deck the Hall

We decorated our tree tonight with a bunch of new ornaments. I've liked our antique glass bulbs, but we have other ornaments, too. A nice change. Definitely our pine tree has grown, quite a bit droopier now.
Last year Joe was given a cute set of pool ball ornaments. So he decorated his little pine tree with them. The tree is perfect in size this year.

Mark's First Deer: Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving morning Joe took his youngest brother Mark out deer hunting. I was so glad that I went along with them to take tiniest part in Mark's very first shot at a deer. A respectable three-point (a spike horn and a half to be exact). It was almost 11:30 a.m., after my morning nap and some reading I was starting to think of my uneventful deer hunting blog entry when we heard the shot. Practically right behind Joe's blind.
Here's Mark, the proud deer hunter, still a bit in shock.
Soon he realized how much work there was to be done. It was also my first time to be there when a deer was shot. After the deer was dragged to a suitable spot, Joe, again for his very first time, took the honor of gutting out the deer. All he'd ever done was to help and watch his dad. Joe did a pretty good job, though we have no bloody picture. Too sacred to be photographed.
Safely back at Joe's parents' house with the deer. Here's a snap shot of Mark and his first buck with proud Dad and Joe.
In a couple of hours we'll celebrate Thanksgiving in a proper way: we're going over to have turkey dinner with Joe's family. Everyone will be there. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Deer Season: Day 6

No deer.... No significant snow fall yet, either. Dust of snow to make our north woods pretty. Like the picture bellow from my solo Ironwood trip earlier in the week, we certainly enjoy watching wild creatures around here.
Today I joined Joe in his blind. We walked into the woods in the dark, settled in the blind, and waited for it to get lighter outside. It was very quiet, but then you hear every subtle noise... like snow flakes falling on the roof of the blind, squirrel's footsteps, birds flying, birds pecking. I was very glad Joe knew what made every little noise from his years of experience. Otherwise, I would have been spooked by every little nose out there!
Here's me, all bundled up with 8-9 layers of clothing of all sorts. Not so much in the morning, but I sure slept good in the afternoon. My butt was quite happy to get out of my chair at the end of the day though. The biggest creature we saw today was a grouse. Oh well.

Happy Deer Huntin'

Yesterday was the first day of deer season. Joe got up at 5 and the guys were out in their blinds way before dawn. A very exciting time. Joe said he saw small birds, squirrels, even a proud fluffed up grouse to whom a female grouse paid no attention, and no deer. Still, he enjoyed the time being out there in nature. Once again this morning, he and his dad are already out sitting in the blinds -Day 2.
Last night I cooked venison curry over jasmine rice to celebrate. It was also my brother's birthday (the 16th), Japan time.
So we had a candle lit tiny cheese cake for him. Happy Birthday, Yoshi!

Joe's Home Sweet Home for Deer Season

Yap, 'tis that time again. For the first time this season Kayo got to check out guys' hunting spots. It was a beautiful fall day to be out in the woods. We baited a little more and did some final adjustments to the blinds.
Here's Joe's blind. Here's the perspective from the deer's stand point at the bait pile.

This is a buck rub, a very nice one, right by brother Mark's blind. The size of the tree trunk tells that the deer is a good size buck with a very nice set of antlers.

Lastly we stopped and checked out the old hunting spots, where Joe's dad had hunted for over 40 years, and even Joe for 20. The photo below shows where we parked the truck and took the wooded trail only last year. It doesn't look like anything we remember. Very sad.

But they found beautiful new spots not too far from the old ones this year, with some good deer signs. Good luck!!

Happy Halloween

Not much excitement for Halloween... I had to work till 7:30 p.m., missing all the trick-or-treat actions. At least we carved our pumpkins the night before.Joe's sister Anne was there to watch us. We had fun visiting till past midnight!

Boooo!

The big bowl full of candies in the morning. Joe went through about the half with our trick-or-treaters. The leftover will serve us well in our lunch bags and for deer season.

New Decor

This past weekend we took a trip to get a couch from the Murphy's. We had to borrow a pick-up truck, and while we were at it, we came back with some more stuff. Even though we got rained on most of the time, we had a very nice visit. Here we have some pictures to show our new decor.
The white couch in its new home. We took our sofa upstairs in the Japan room. This becomes a full-size bed, perfect for guests. No more blowing up an air bed.

One of a few other pieces we came home with. I'd been looking for a perfect little table in this small hallway, which gets very dark at night because there's no light. Now I can put a candle on the table.

Lastly, here's my new canvas of oil painting. The water (if you could tell what it is) is a bit of challenge for me....

Birthday Feast

On my birthday (Saturday, the 16th) we had Joe's big extended family over at our house to feast on Joe's world famous BBQ ribs. We totally forgot to take "before" pictures, when things were somewhat organized with some spooky Halloween theme. The tall stack of dirty dinner plates should explain the crazy and the fun we had. Joe's mom made pumpkin pies for dessert upon my request and left us a whole another pie besides this half one. Next morning we had healthy servings of "Finlander breakfast" our way, a quarter piece of pumpkin pie with vanilla icecream!! Joe especially enjoyed it while saying "Ma can't stop me from having icecream for breakfast," with his biggest grin.

For a little Halloween theme we mixed our homemade grape juice with Sprite, which had the color of blood, and put eye ball icecubes in it. The eye balls didn't spook our guests. All the juice is gone... leaving the gummy eye balls on the bottom of the pitcher, looking up at us.

Instead of my usual colorful dining table, I put a spider-webbed table cloth.... Boo.

Well, I had another wonderful birthday, receiving many birthday wishes from far and near and inbetween. So, thanks everyone.

Partridge Huntin'

It was a beautiful warm weekend, with most of fall color gone. Yet, in the air you could smell that earthy sweetness of autumn. Saturday I went along with guys bird hunting. And, surprise!! we actually saw a bunch of partridges. Even more surprise! they shot three birds.
Here's Joe's first prize. My only past bird hunting experience was to flush a few birds, so hearing a dead bird flap its wings to me was a bit nerve wrecking. His brother Mark managed to shoot one, then Joe another one. But I think a gold star goes to Joe's dad for spotting many more birds in the almost impossible woodsy background.

Then we drove down to Ironwood Theatre and saw an incredible performance by the Clearwater Hot Club with a Dutch violinist Tim Kliphuis for quite a contrasting experience. On the refreshing cool evening their gypsy jazz music was certainly hot!

Is It Done?

Finally!! I'm able to spend some time to paint. As much as I love painting, it can feel somewhat like work, and it should be. But once I get started, my own artwork always rewards me with a good feeling. I should continue on.
Now, a question I always ask myself rather carefully is: Is this particular painting done? A tricky question, for I could easily overwork. Well, this one is very, very close to be done. Maybe a little touch up.
Another matter on colors, outside the studio, is the fall color. These pictures are from last weekend when we took a walk to pick up a Sunday paper in our neighborhood.

After this weekend we might have to say our fall color is also done....