Amazing sunset tonight

A beautiful, mild day today with the perfect sunset through the trees:

Merry Christmas

Scenes from our annual Manhattan visit on Christmas Eve:

Most famous Christmas tree! I see I caught the zamboni too!

Saks on 5th Ave.

We had a good visit but overall not as crowded as past years. A waiter mentioned that tourism was way down this Christmas and they were suffering. Hopefully this recession will not last long.

Merry Christmas to all!

Tree & Snow

Quick updates ...

Tree ... when I suggested to Don that we just get a small Christmas tree this year, he came back with the tallest tree we've ever had. It's at least 11 feet. We love it! Now all we need is Santa's visit to fill in the bottom.
Snow ... definitely a white Christmas is in store for us. This snowstorm couldn't have arrived at a more perfect time. We may get some rain before the 25th but for now its hard to believe this could all be gone in just a few days.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ...

Why I so rarely post photos of Carolyn ...

This is my beautiful daughter at her piano recital on Sunday. (At least we think its her.)

Our choice

I like this. Makes it all seem so simple:

"As a body in a world, here is our choice: we can be more loving or less loving. That's it. We can relax as the entire moment's show of love's swirl, feeling open as all - a vicious rainstorm, tweeting birds, our lover's lips, a sense of worthlessness - or we can close to some aspect of experience, pulling away as if we were separate." - David Deida

I took it from Kelly's blog. Thanks Kelly!

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with another family here yesterday. We all decided we have lots to be thankful for - family, friends, health, jobs, opportunity! For us, we are also thankful that Toby, our cat, showed up at our door on Thanksgiving morning after being awol for 3 days. We were worried we had lost him, but there he was, healthy and normal, as if he'd never left. If only he could talk.

After a busy Thanksgiving evening we found him camped out in the powder room sink. Comfortable?

Carolyn started work at 5:30 am today in preparation for Staples' early opening at 6 am. There was already a line-up started outside the store when I dropped her off. I went back to bed, leaving the black Friday shopping deals for others.

2008 KHS Fashion Show

I haven't blogged for awhile because I've been working on the Program for our annual high school fundraiser - a Fashion Show. The students and teachers model clothing from local stores while parents and students watch. We had a gym-full of baskets filled with donations from stores, restaurants and families, that we all buy tickets for a chance of winning one or more of these baskets. There is also a 50-50 which last night was just under $1400! And a raffle, and a separate table of special baskets, etc. LOTS of opportunity for parents to spend money.

Our theme this year was "Under the Sea". I run a contest with the students for cover art - always hard to choose just one. We also get lots of advertising and feature the businesses that donated baskets. Here's this year's Program.


Here's the overall look of the gym with tables last night. My talented friend, Jennie, put together the table centerpieces and designed and painted the arch! The models came through that arch to walk along the runway which is not visible in this photo.

It was another successful night - both as a fun night out and as a fundraiser!
(Link to last year's, where I notice I said a lot of the same things! Pics are nice.)