Merry Christmas

Does anyone else have this Christmas tradition?  We paint representations of our faces on a canvas. We now have 3 or 4 years of these. Including the kids, now adults, the parents and the auntie and uncle. It's very cute. Makes you think about what your "important" features are. (This is residing at my sis-in-law's house; I'll post a photo when I get one.)

The Moon, Jupiter and a star

Our Christmas tree, in darkness and light.

God's rays

Candy's Mom...more feisty than her daughter

Candy, in the morning before she gets let out.

The Pitbulls. One goes round and round. The others just bark.

Candy getting excited about my appearance. I did find out that when she has a bone to gnaw on, I disappear from her consciousness!

Moon and Jupiter

Neighbor's Christmas lights, being moved with the camera.

Lovely sunrise

Palm trees for my baby.

The Bulldog: I'll watch but I'm not running around!

We found out that without her collar, she does race after me and/or my car!

I don't care who you are, it would be impossible to discipline a dog with that cute of a face.

I have been accused of being bossy...but to quote Edith Ann, I am not bossy. My ideas is just better!

The ball I brought her was completely dirty in under 10 minutes.

Which didn't stop her from loving it.

She loves playing with her pal, the bulldog.

Escaping to see her doggy friend.

Nene

She looks surprised when I go..

A found ring. 

Palm trees and morning light

More of God's rays

The "please scratch my belly" position.

Candy's friend wonders why I don't pet her too.

This naughty horse made me call the cops: She had jumped over the slightly down fence and I was afraid she would get onto the road. Which she eventually did. Luckily, a man who lives nearby had carrots and was able to coax her back into her yard.

A neighborhood library. With me in my raincoat. Of course, it didn't rain that day.

Ending with God's rays. Always a treat. Hope your holidays are great. Be safe!

Does 70 sound old?

 Just passed my 70th. I have been surprised by how many people think 70 is really old! (And how willing they are to sound off about how they feel about that age, too.)

And then my cousin sent me a photo of Scrabble with seventy spelled out. It said: Seventy is only 13 points! ha. She brought me back to sanity.

We did have a wonderful dinner at the base: he had prime rib buffet and I had a great pizza. Good times, with sunset views, too.

And the boxer was so excited to see me that she jumped up on me. And then when I drove away, she galloped after my car. That girl! So much for the (fake) electric fence keeping her in the yard.  Her owner said she likes me more than him!

I have totally borked the file names for my photos (since my computer updated), and can't find some of them. Oy vey!

Ah, the coolest winter

 By the standards of others, our winters are not very cool, but I am digging the below 70s temps. (Yeah, I know, cry me a river....)

I had to laugh: I had told my landlord about this cool succulent for the yard. Turns out it's called a Jade plant. And there was one right across the street. ha

The Moon and stars

The Moon (center, down low) and a streetlight. 

My camera is not designed for far away, night shots, but these stars showed up anyway.

They look almost equally bright, non? Moon on the left, streetlight on the right.

This pitbull has created a huge circle in the yard by running around and around. I am unsure how he isn't dizzy! His 2 friends in the next yard are big barkers, but don't do the circle.

3 Chickens on the fence.

A lone Christmas tree at the beach. A few days later, I also found about 10 opercula! and Alex found many more.

And no, I didn't even see the operculum near the flower, on the right.

Land snail. Much less beautiful than the ocean nudibranchs.

Did you know Santa can surf?

Somebody was excited to see me. (And those long nails got me later.)

She watches me as I walk away. I almost turned around for more belly rubbing.

A beautiful Lab and his pal, the combo Wolf Pomeranian! My brother said there must have been a step stool involved. ha

You can see the wolf, though, right? Those wolf eyes.

A cute little house.

Sometimes clouds help see other things. Like the Moon and stars/planets.

I think it was Jupiter, but I don't take my pen and notepaper outdoors with me. It's enough to carry my camera.

Spot the crab. Hard to see amongst the sand bits.

Lots of opercula, just waiting for me to take 'em home. Not that I need any more: I have over 15,000. Yeah, I collect Hello Kitty pens, too. But thankfully, I do NOT have 15,000 of those.

Friends gave us these cool LED Christmas tree lights.

One day's worth of operculators....

Streetlight and Moon. They look just alike, don't they?

Two Frigate birds. I have heard they come ashore when there is a storm out at sea.

Streetlight and Moon, with Jupiter between. I think.

Much fun to get up and see the stars. I also got to see the International Space Station, as it inched its way across the sky. If you go to Spotthestation, there is an option to be notified when the station is in your area. Of course, I only look at 6:30 or 7: 30, when I am not too sleepy.