end of holiday wrapup

Since I did not post in December, I never posted any pictures of our Christmas decorations.  This year I decided to go completely LED for outside lights, which caused a minor kerfuffle as it turns out that there were three different types of LED icicle lights, and finding enough sets of my chosen color took several hours and three stores.  We persevered, however, and now all lights outside except the rope lights outlining the sidewalk are LED, which gives a very pretty and "icy" effect.  This picture was taken the night we put up the Christmas lights, just after Thanksgiving was over.

 

We went to get a tree the second Friday in December, as we're always gone the first weekend to a flyball tournament.  This year we chose to go to a cut-your-own tree place in Woodinville, which is much closer than the farm out on I-90 we've used in the past.  The tree we got was very pretty, and the back of the truck still smells like fresh pine needles, which is a welcome change from the smell of stale tennis balls!

I did not buy any new ornaments this year, but we got two cute ones that are clear globes filled with "snow," tennis balls, and bones from the Christmas tournament.  And my best friend bought me the 2011 Swarovski ornament for my present - I am so thrilled, as I've always wanted to get one of these.  It's so pretty that I decided not to pack it away with the rest of the ornaments, but instead got a suction cup hook and hung it on the window in my office so I can enjoy it for the entire year.

The Christmas/holiday cards that we received this year were taped on the fridge, where they were easy to see and enjoy for the holiday.  They're still up there, as a matter of fact, although I will probably take them down this weekend.  The furthest-traveled card was from my college roommate who lives in Finland!  I do like sending out cards and letters every year, but this year we sent out about 60 cards and only received about 1, so that does make me a little sad.  I may trim down the list that we use next year to those who reciprocate or at least indicate that they have received and enjoy the cards.  There's quite a few families that I send cards to every year that we haven't heard from in several years, so maybe it's time for us to stop sending them cards as well.

Random question of the day - what on earth is causing my new(ish) smartwool socks to not only fade in the wash,  but to turn PURPLE??  The three pairs below all started the same color, the pale spring green of the top pair (anklets, so I haven't worn them since it's cold outside).  The second pair is showing some fading, but the third pair came out of the laundry purple this week!  Nothing else in the laundry was purple, and nothing is showing any sort of dye effect, so I think this is some weird chemical reaction with the dye.  I'm not particularly thrilled about it, though, it's not even a particularly nice shade of purple.

I made another egg pie this week, using up the last of the broccoli from the holiday food stash, along with some thick-cut bacon, local heavy cream, Tillamook cheese, and various seasonings.  This was the first time I'd tried broiling bacon in the oven, and it worked surprisingly well, although the cooking seems to speed up at the end so I ended up with some burned bits on my bacon.  No worries, however, as I had plenty for the pie and the dogs got to have burned bacon bits with their own dinner, so really everyone was happy.

Finally, there have been some really lovely sunrises the past few days, which I see every morning at work since I'm here before dawn pretty much all year.  The colors yesterday were especially pretty, although my cell phone isn't the greatest at trying to zoom in to frame a good shot.