Wreaths for the Season

Evelyn walked past the other house in the neighborhood that is essentially the same floor plan as ours, and guess what? They decorated the front the same way we did! Wreaths on the windows and floodlights to illuminate them. (They put wreaths only on the front four windows--two on either side of the front door, because their garage opens to the front instead of the side like ours. Our arrangement gives us six windows at the front of the house instead of their four.)
"Maybe they got their idea from you," she ventured.
No matter, my decorating sense has been vindicated, and Evelyn agrees that the wreaths can stay. (The only problem we have is the bright light shining into the front bedroom, even with the wooden blinds closed tight. If Nina sleeps in there at Christmas, we may give her one of those masks they issue passengers on overnight international flights! They really do block out all the light!)
I snapped pictures when I got home from work tonight, but they don't really do justice to the whole dramatic effect!  :-)

These are the wreaths on and above the windows of our garage.

These are the wreaths on the bedroom windows to the left of the front door.

These wreaths are on the dining room windows, to the right of the front door.

Sometime this Christmas I'll take a picture of the whole house from the front sidewalk. Actually, it's pretty simple, but it's what we're doing this year.

Three Days, One Post

I know, I know . . . I haven't been keeping up my daily blogging. Well, I've been BUSY! :-) But let me give this quick summary of the weekend.

FRIDAY

Took the day off. Spent the morning enjoying coffee, Facebook, and the "Today" show. Answered some work e-mails, took a shower, and met Evelyn for lunch at Servatii's at Harper's Point.  Snapped some pictures of the baked goodies in the case before Evelyn and I enjoyed soup and chicken salad half sandwiches.

Looked for bargains and Christmas decorations at Stein Mart, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Target, and Kohl's. Got bargains at the first and last place and Christmas wreaths and bows at Michael's. Scurried home and changed clothes in time to grab supper at the Indian restaurant in Mason before heading to church for the annual Christmas pageant. We enjoyed it, as always.

Snapped this picture of the choir in concert mode during Act II of the Pageant. And this picture of the final moments of the grand tableau with the wise men at the end of Act III.

Connected with Dave and Carol Ray at the pageant and ended up with them at Frisch's for dessert and sat and laughed and talked with them till after 11:00.

SATURDAY

Met Bill and Verna Weber at Bronte Bistro in Joseph Beth Bookstore for breakfast at 9:00. Caught up with each other till about 11:00. Back home, talked with Wendy Wagoner for quite awhile, and then jumped into the day's duties. Evelyn graded papers, and then we mounted the wreaths we had bought Friday on the windows in the front of the house. I bought floodlight holders and bulbs and hooked them up to light the wreaths. Hung the large lighted wreath that Ken Aulen gave us years ago and stood back to enjoy my BRIGHT creation. Evelyn thought it was too much, but she said today it's growing on her. We'll see if the floodlights make it till Christmas.

Enjoyed dinner at Macaroni Grill before heading to Music Hall for the annual Cincinnati Pops holiday show. 

Snapped this picture of folks gathering in the lobby for one of three sold-out shows featuring Amy Grant. It was a different holiday show than the casts of thousands Erich Kunzel always gathered. But the symphony was excellent, as always, and it was refreshing and gratifying to see Amy Grant perform. She told us she's 52 years old now; she's been traveling since she was a teenager. She still has the figure and the pretty good looks of a much younger woman, although her voice is weak on the high notes. But no matter--she comes across as down-to-earth, without pretense, and she offered a testimony to the Lord as she sang her best-known contemporary Christian hits, mixed among Christmas standards, all accompanied by her top-notch combo and two young  back-up singers, one of them the daughter of her husband, Vince Gill. In the middle of her concert, she called Vince to center stage and talked him into singing a song, accompanying himself on her guitar.

SUNDAY

I played piano in the Classic service. The bell choir played Christmas carols at the blended and the classic service today. Snapped their picture from the piano bench.

Afterwards, Evelyn and I stopped by the house to pick up a couple of coupons we had left there. Ate lunch at Panda Express--our first time to try it since it opened this summer. Picked up a picture frame and some other stuff at Kohl's, and then headed home to get on with the day. I went to Kroger's and then decided to take advantage of the mild temperature and dry afternoon to do some yard clean-up. Decided to set up our "gumdrop tree" on the deck where we'll enjoy it even though it's not out in front this year for most of the neighbors to see.
Jennifer called, and we had a nice visit with her before our usual Sunday-evening routine of "60 Minutes" and supper.
Now it's back to work for two solid weeks till more than 10 days off for Christmas and New Year's!

Giving's Fun--Getting, Too!

Don't you just love getting Christmas presents in the mail? Especially when they're fragrant and green with red berries and a tartan bow and variegated holly? Isn't it great to have a fresh and beautiful reminder of friendship and partnership as well as the Christmas joy that underscores the gift with meaning more significant than the value of the gift itself?
That's the kind of gift that came to Evelyn and me today from a valued friend and colleague. It's beautiful, and it will be a centerpiece on one or the other of our tables throughout the Christmas season. And this picture will remind me of my friend's goodness and generosity for years to come.

Had a pleasant evening. Visited Dave Wick at Bethesda North where he had surgery today. He and his good wife seem pleased with the outcome, and he's hoping to be home tomorrow.
Then I went to the Healing Center at the Vineyard and worked with Evelyn's GED students so she could go to a ladies neighborhood party tonight. I really enjoyed the two gals I met there. I may have done them some good, I'm not sure; but I really had fun talking with them and hearing their stories. Here are two hard-working 50+-year-old ladies who are committed to getting their GEDs. I really hope they do!

Find the Mark

Took two carloads of my coworkers to lunch today--all of them colleagues in our magazines work at Standard Publishing. Forgot to ask the waitress to take our picture, but I got the folks to pose for a picture outside the restaurant, Ferrari's Little Italy in Madeira. Then one of them, our Creative Services Director, Mark Haas, told me to jump into the frame and he snapped a second picture. He offered to Photoshop me into the first picture, but it's easier just to post both pix here. :-)

The lunch was a fun and tasty interruption to a productive planning day Paul and I enjoyed. Tomorrow I'm going to try to follow up on all of the ideas and assignments I've jotted down as a result.

The Best Part of Christmas?

Don't you love Christmas gifts? Especially when they arrive in the mail in a BIG styrofoam box? And when you open 'em, they're full of FOOD?! Steaks and pork chops and twice-baked potatoes and stuffed sole (and, oh yeah, there were hamburgers and "gourmet franks" in there too!).

Evelyn's brother and his wife sent us these goodies for Christmas, and we're having fun deciding when to eat them.

Needless to say, this was the most exciting part of the day. But the rest of the day was fairly productive. My desk is straight, and I have a long list of decisions to make and plans to finalize with Paul Williams when he shows up in the office tomorrow.

I'm taking the magazine people out to lunch, along with Mark Haas and Jared Alexander and Matt Lockhart--it's a Christmas celebration. And like the best Christmas celebrations, it's going to involve wonderful food!

I Wish it Could Look a Lot More Like Christmas

It happens every year about now. My to-do list is overflowing with important to-dos, and none of them has anything to do with decorating for Christmas, stringing lights outside, putting up the tree, or arranging greenery and candles on the mantel. Evelyn and I both have the bug to put away the gourds and scarecrows and pull out the snowmen and Christmas china. But, no time yet to get at it.
I did stop by Lowe's on the way home from church yesterday, though, to see what they were offering for illuminated outside decor. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed--nothing there struck my fancy. But I did snap their lighted Christmas tree display before I left.

Had a productive day at work today--some correspondence about our cruise/tour next summer, read the last half of a Lookout proof and the first half of the Christian Standard January proof. We had our last art meeting for the February issue, and I got out of the office right after 5:00 to run three errands on the way home. I thought, as I was getting home about 6:40, that I was having my Saturday afternoon on Monday evening. Went to the dry cleaner, the grocery, the pharmacy in the grocery, and the gas station. Discovered that it had been awhile since I had cashed in my Kroger's gas points. I had 700 of 'em, which gave me a discount of 70 cents a gallon on my gas. Here's the evidence. I got my gas tonight cheaper than anytime I can remember.

Purdue for the Holidays

I had heard the Purdue Glee Club several years ago, an energetic powerhouse of a male choir that presented one of the most engaging musical shows I'd ever seen. So when Joan Maxwell told us the church's Evergreen group was going to Purdue for their annual Christmas show, I told Evelyn, "Let's go!"
I could have only imagined what a wonderful program it would be. Today was the day. We left the church about 7:30 a.m. for the three-hours-plus drive to Lafayette, which gave us plenty of time to go to the restroom after we arrived and be at the doors when they opened at 11:30.
As soon as we entered the theater, we were serenaded by Christmas classics played in an upbeat style by a versatile theater organ. Then came time for the show. The first half--about an hour--was a tour de force of singing and dancing by the school's several different choirs in a musical revue that's worthy of Broadway. It's hard to imagine that Purdue doesn't even offer a music major and all these students are volunteers. The act ended with the stage full of all the singers, more than 200 of them, and the arrival of a flying Santa as the finale.
Then came the second act--with all these hundreds of singers arranged in silver robes on risers in a massive choir to sing another hour of sacred Christmas songs. You won't hear a more Jesus-centered, God-honoring program in any church this season. It was thrilling and remarkable.
It's difficult to describe the impact of these always-smiling, moving, performing singers. When they used choreography, it was perfect. When they were moving freely, each singer expressing his own personality, it was engaging. When they stood perfectly still and sang a capella (only once or twice in the whole concert; the rest was accompanied by a top-rate live orchestra), their performance was perfect.
(For a clip of last year's show, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leXQrGQCWFU, which gives a better idea of the impact of these performers.)
We ate dinner as a group before leaving Lafayette and enjoyed happy conversation with the 51 others on the bus, all the way there and back. It was a great day. And we got home in time for me to report on it here!

 I snapped this picture of the stage as guests were arriving for the noon show today.