Archive for December 24th, 2012

Candy Cane Lane

December 24, 2012

As we have for the past several years, we had Christmas Eve dinner with the Shannons. This year we were joined by the Steiners as well.

Since we had the three girls present, after dinner we put out our boxes of toys for them to choose from.
Several have found a new home. Horses (not the little ones with the stable – we kept those), games and puzzles. We even tempted the adults with a few pieces.

Don’t worry, Goodwill still gets a boxful, along with a bunch of clothes, and some other odds and ends.

And then it was off to Candy Cane Lane.
Always good for a holiday stroll, this year was better than most as it was dry!

1 CCLane

The gangs all here, and some are pictured.

2 CC Gang

There is always a theme to the centerpiece – this year it is the Nutcracker.

3 CC Centerpiece 4 CC Centerpiece 5 CC Centerpiece

Here are some of the decorated houses. Any time you see a sign, it says “Peace”.

6 CC sites 7 CC sites 8 CC sites 9 CC Sites 10 CC Sites 11 CC Sites 12 CC Sites 13 CC Sites 14 CC Sites 15 CC Sites 16 CC Sites 17 CC Sites

Our favorite over the years. In the past this list actually had a naughty and nice side. We thought it was funny because one of Carl’s brothers name appeared on the right (naughty) side. Now they have removed the decision, and added some more up-to-date names.

18 CC List

We walked through, but several choose to drive through. As a regional draw, this is the normal site on Christmas Eve approaching to drive.

19 CC Car line

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Zappa

December 24, 2012

ZAPPA.

Frank is gone, but Dweezil is doing a tour of his fathers music.

We attended the concert was at the Neptune Theater last night. The Neptune was a movie theatre and has been converted for all sorts of live shows. It is also less than a mile from our house. So we walked. In the rain. (Rain = steady, wetting stuff from the sky. As compared to showers = intermittent wetting stuff from the sky.)

Carl found an umbrella recently unearthed in our cleaning spree. It worked (for one anyway). An older Mariner’s version, perhaps from Griffey’s first year. Advertising by Nalley (Nalley Valley vegetables). I am not sure if Nalley still exists as a brand.

We sat in the balcony. This was where most of the seats were located. There was a VIP section on the main floor, and the rest of the space was for standing/dancing/etc. We decided we would enjoy the show more from a seated position. The view was good, and the show was great. Notice the number of grey hairs in the audience. We were not the only ones looking for a seat.

The Neptune

The Neptune

Close-up of Neptune

Neptune

Neptune

Neptune’s eyes watching every move from up high.

Eyes up high

Eyes up high

The musicians were all very talented, Two in particular played any number of instruments and sang, often in the same song with barely time to breathe in between. In one song Scheila Gonzalez was playing a saxophone/flute/keyboards and singing vocals. In the same piece Ben Thomas was playing trombone/trumpet/shaker thing/tambourine and doing vocals. The other musicians were equally talented, but most kept to one instrument.

The Band

The Band

Carl and I saw Frank in person about 25-30 years ago. I think I enjoyed this concert more. I say “think” because my memory of the long-ago concert is a bit fuzzy. Carl thinks it is because they did a broader assortment of music.

Yesterday was supposed to be a day to make great progress on the weekend project.
As it turns out progress was made elsewhere.

I think the physical nature of the previous day made me look for a slightly less physical aspect.

Toys became our main focus.
We chose some that will stay, and many more that will go.
This was more mentally taxing, with a bit of physical thrown in.
There are so many memories with some toys, and yet they don’t really need to live with us any longer.
We did tend to save classic, or just special toys.

And I got to play with a few while making sure they were still whole and operational.

As we get to spend part of Christmas Eve with some of the younger set, we are planning to have a “hand-me-down” Christmas, and let them make as many choices as they want (or their parents allow) from our to-go pile.

Hopefully this will be enough, because there is plenty to choose from.

Today was garbage/recycle/yard waste day.
We filled our garbage and recycle bins with detritus from the last few days, and then proceeded to fill 3 neighbors’ recycle bins and 1 neighbor’s garbage. We also tipped these service people as they were tipping our bins.