Tag Archives: Christmas

Skywatch Friday – Christmas

Here is Lizzie the Christmas Cat. She loves laying under her tree in our living room. She is kind of cranky right now because there are now presents under the tree.

I’m recycling this photo from a couple weeks ago. Santa water skiing on a lake in Chickasha, Oklahoma.

This is my brother’s Christmas tree in his apartment at assisted living. Please be thinking of him. He got a breakthrough infection of Covid despite being triple vaccinated. He has had the monoclonal antibody treatment and is recovering. The center has quarantined the residents to their room right now because of the Covid surge. He is a former marathon runner and he had been doing virtual 5Ks in his walker up and down the hall of the center. So no more of that. I’ll be able to go see him tomorrow.

This was a scene from Bentonville, Arkanasas in November. Kids just kind of make Christmas.

And a drone shot of our house decorations.

My MIL has great decorations. I love how she does the cast iron stove in her front entry.

Some people go to Turkey Mountain and decorate trees there. They do go and take the decorations down.

One of the project managers at my former employer had a pipeline construction Christmas tree. She added to the decorations every year. She and the rest of my former coworkers are still working remotely, since March of 2020.

My wife’s gingerbread cookies are always a hit!

One of the nice things about working downtown was checking out all the decorations in the various office buildings.

Oops!! I forgot, this a Skywatch Friday post!!! Here is a sky from the Bakken Oilfield of the North Dakota. My friend Josh took this photo and I am stealing it.

I hope everybody has a great Christmas. Come join the fun at Skywatch Friday!

Rhema Bible College Christmas Lights

One warm evening last week all three of us headed out to Broken Arrow to check out the Rhema Ministry Christmas LIghts.

They have been doing this for years and it is free and quite the show. The lights are spread out all over the campus. They also have really good pedestrian flow compared to previous years and that is important in these pandemic times.

There is no charge and there is a very chill vibe going on.

There are milliions of lights, and reflections of those lights all over the place.

It’s a Christian organization and of course Christmas is a big deal in Christianity, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

There is certainly a lot of joy on the Rhema Campus.

I love the marching band.

And of course, you have to have Santa Claus.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Come check it out!!

Wordless Wednesday -Images of Christmas

The Lights at Rhema Bible College in Broken Arrow, OK

We had a great Christmas. We were blessed to be together and my brother Bob joins us for the Holidays and we had a great meal with Nana, the world’s greatest MIL.

After the meal, we ran home and dropped the dogs off (Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas if we didn’t bring our three rescue mutts over to visit with Nana’s two dogs, they all joined giving the neighbor’s dogs a good barking if nothing else.) And then we ventured to the Tulsa Suburb of Broken Arrow where Rhema Bible College has had a great light display. They have been doing it for years and years.

We were eager to see the lights Tuesday nights because they are best seen o foot and the weather was good and is expected to get cold, windy, and rainy on Wednesday.

They have over 2 million lights and they spend months getting ready for the Christmas Season.

I bet they were glad to see LED lights get popular with their drastically lowered electric consumption. I bet the meter was about to spin out into space with conventional lights.

They are so generous. The whole thing is free. Yep, free, no charge for admission or parking or anything else. They do have refreshments and snacks available for charge and otherwise there is no charge.

And they do a good job of it. The designs have got more elaborate over the years and they have added music ad pulsating lights. It’s really a good show.

They are open nightly through New Year’s Eve. If you are in the area go check them out.

Take your camera. I chickened out and used the night landscape setting on my Nikon and I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. That is what makes me a picture taker instead of a photographer.

I also know my limits!!!

Merry Christmas Skywatch

The weather has been terrible. We had a little bit of snow, not much. I am cheating with this December 2014 photo of the snow in our neighborhood.

We had a pretty good Christmas with the world’s greatest MIL, Nana, and them I am to the left, then Heather, then Logan then my brother Bob on the right. I liked the way this photo turned out although my professional photographer friends are groaning. The white balance, the busyness, all the water bottles, blah blah blah. I like it is all I’m saying.

Ginger, the always freezing dachsund spent a lot of time in her bed with a fleece throw. She is wants to move to Mexico, or Spain, or some place warm all year round.

And the Lizzie the kitten during her Christmas afternoon nap. She goes either 100 miles or an hour or is sleeping, with stops for eating. I don’t think she is going to get very big but look at them huge jack rabbit legs. What is up with that? She is not a hold me kitty but I love how she is interested in everybody and anything. and never loses her cool. We adopted her from our Vet. She was thrown out of a car window at a Hobby Lobby here in Tulsa when she was very little.

My favorite gift. Heather got me some skull socks. She knows that I love the Day of the Dead holiday. I love these almost as much as my Psychobunny socks. I have Psychobunny pajamas and a hat also. Don’t you judge me!!

I hope you had a great Christmas!!

Skywatch Friday

Finally, Rain

We finally had some rain today. Not a whole lot and it brought some cold weather along but things were getting very dry.

I just now noticed the nativity piece located in the prime position below the monitor and above the power strip.

Logan is doing well with his new job at a grocery store. He worked in the deli for a while and is now working maintenance and appears to be doing well. He is getting all growns up it seems. I took him to a medical lab for some blood work and he checked himself in.

I love taking photographs of refineries and other industrial stuff. I read that in Japan indusrial tourism is a thing. They call it Kojo Moe. People try and visit factories and other industrial facilities. I can understand that. I think I would have a hard time getting the other two in the family to join me.

LJ the cat is happy. It got cold enough for us to turn the fireplace on. Sometimes I think he is going to burst into flames.

We are having a little bit of a toned down Christmas this year. We have had lots of distractions but I am taking a few days off and my brother is driving in to visit. We’ll eat good and maybe watch a movie or two. My main problem with Christmas is that I can’t turn it off as fast as many people can. I always want to stay on the vibe for a week or so. Lots of people seem to be done with it the day after. Too quick for me. I love the time between Christmas and New Years.

Skywatch Friday – Christmas is Coming

Courtesy of Cheri Lou Gastineau

Here is a crowd scene in western Oklahoman. Tough looking but nothing like Tulsa shoppers on a shopping rampage.

Courtesy of Cheri Lou Gastineau

And here’s security, a guard donkey keeping the bad guys at bay.

Here is my happy spot. Not this Christmas but maybe future??

I’m linking at Skywatch Friday come join us.

It’s Getting to be Christmas

Well we are running behind schedule on Christmas this year. This is the tree. Heather put on the Topper just to keep me from putting on the Dallas Cowboy Star. I strung the lights. Oh well, we have a lot going on in our family right now. Believe me. Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you about it. Buy me three or four and you will hear all of it but you will have to drive me home.

Oh well, what keeps it fun is that Lizzie the kitten is enjoying the dickens out of Christmas.

And at work, the Large Projects Group that I work in has a tree. It was a woman engineer that raised the cash from us deadbeat men engineers and bought ornaments and the tree. I think she did a great job. I love all the construction equipment ornaments.

On a cold windy day last week I went for some noon time geocaching out on this remote lake. I froze my butt off and didn’t find the cache but I loved the hunt. In case you need to dispose of a body, I found a couple really good spots!!

Son Logan is working at a Neighborhood Walmart these days. He is proud of his job and seems to be doing well. We went by there the other day (he wasn’t working) to get a few things and then all the customers were ordered to evacuate immediately, so we did. And I fulfilled my blogger journalistic duty by taking a photo of the fire engine and fulfilled my artistic duty by using prisma to pretty it up a little bit. I don’t think there was any property damage nor was anybody hurt.

So that is what is new with me, what is new with you?

Our World Tuesday – Clear Sailing

Sailboat chilling on Wolf Bay, Alabama

Well we did Christmas. I love Christmas and we had a nice quiet one at the house with our small family including my Mother-in-Law. We exchanged gifts and cards and had a nice meal and texted/facebook messaged our other family in Idaho, Colorado, and western Oklahoma.

Now I am ready to be done with it. Sure, leave the lights and tree up for a few days but it is time to go outside for a little while and get the head screwed on straight. I’m taking a week off and although we have errands and stuff to do I plan to get a few runs and hikes in and take a bunch of photos.

How about you? You done with Christmas also? (I know, I know, it is technically still Christmas while I post this but I am about to come out of my skin.)

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

Christmas Eve

This is my favorite Christmas Card this year. A water color set in New Mexico. I grew up in New Mexico and I don’t think there is anything prettier than snow on adobe. Throw in a traditional blue door and a ristra of red chilis and it is perfect as far as I am concerned. Check out the artist, Terry Clark, on his blog Coffee With Clark. Artist, Journalism Professor, Journalist, all around great guy, and fellow lover of New Mexico. He is painting and posting lots of New Mexican scenes and commentary this month on a Christmas theme.

I like the quiet moments of Christmas the best. The introspection and remembering years past, especially the loved ones who are no longer around.

Plus, young kids are great at Christmas. They still have the wonder of how it all happened. Plus I like playing with the little kids toys the best. Especially during the afternoon nap.

So unlike Professor Clark I never got around to making cards except I put this together on PicMonkey. So, to those who celebrate the holiday, Merry Christmas!!!

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world