Bake-A-Thon 2009

Last evening was the office's annual Bake-A-Thon for our doctor's. It was hosted at a teammates home that looks as though it was ripped straight out of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine. I was asked to document the event through photographs this year. Here are a few of them. I hope everyone of you have a GREAT day!!

BEST OF 2009

My Best of 2009 List:

1. Best New Artist: Michael Buble
2. Best Movie: Hangover
3. Best Restaurant: Paradiso...it's not new but I ate there once this year!
4. Best Moment: Gma's "te he"
5. Best Notable Mention: Cirque Du Soleil & dinner at the House of Blues
6. Best purchase: A 6pc Paula Deen stainless steel cookware set (on clearance!)
7. Best Song: Fight Like A Girl by Bomshel
8. Best fun: Hockey games w/fam over the Thanksgiving weekend
9. Best Album: 30 Seconds To Mars (This Is War)

L

Christmas Is Coming

You can find photo (credit) here

It was 1983 and Cabbage Patch Dolls were the hot item for Christmas that year. My mother was working a full time job during the day, trying to run a sewing business on the side at home at night for extra cash, and raising two little girls on her own. Purchasing one doll was going to be hard enough financially, but two? Forget it. It was completely out of the budget. So that Christmas she hand made my sister and I each a "Cabbage Patch" doll.

They were completely made out of cloth with knots and puckers for a nose and mouth. She even painted the eyes on and had sewn on yarn hair. (I got a real Cabbage Patch for my birthday 6 months later)

I still have her. She lays wrapped in tissue paper in my cedar chest. She wears a blue dress with a white lacy apron and without a speck of dirt anywhere one her. When my divorce was being finalized during the Christmas holiday a few years ago, my mom could sense that I was down. She told me about how she would feel a little blue on Christmas Eve when my sister and I were with Tim and my stepmother for the night, so she'd drink wine and finish working on our gifts. She then asked if I had ever really looked at the fingers of my doll. I replied that I had not, turns out ma was three sheets to the wind finishing our dolls, and gave them each 5 fingers and a thumb! We both had a real good laugh.

I am about the same age now as she was that Christmas, and I cannot phantom the stress she must have felt around the holidays. Being a parent is tough enough without adding doing it alone and with bills, but she did the best she could. One of my most vivid childhood memories was listening to the sound of her sewing machine run as I fell asleep each night. If I listen hard enough, I can still hear it.

DECEMBER 25TH

Photo: My grandfather's Bible in his native tongue. He was also a Shepard raising sheep on the farm.

A few days ago, my sister sends me this email on when Jesus was really born. Apparently there was a conversation on this topic the day I was leaving at the airport between my mother, her, and her husband. None of which I recall so I must have really been in shock? I mean while reading this email it was like finding out Santa wasn't real (thanks twisted stepsister!) all over again. I had no idea that Jesus, the baby in the manger, supposedly born on Christmas was truly born sometime in the spring. This is because Saint Luke says: Shepards were abiding in their field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Apparently Shepards only attend to their flock day and night only during lambing time, which is in the spring. Otherwise in the winter they are kept in the corrals unwatched.

Supposedly the good o' Catholics wanted to use trickery to convert Pagan's into Christianity by having the birth of Jesus Christ to co-inside with their holiday of Yule/winter solstice (day of rebirth of the sun God) so wha-la, they picked this date for a compromise.

Now that I sit here thinking about it, maybe I simply misunderstood the plays acted out in Christmas program at church as a kid? And from there on out I just assumed he was born on Christmas, rather then we simply celebrate his birth at Christmas because nobody kept good records of birth back then (and in some 3rd world countries they still don't) and somebody felt the need to put a date out there.

Anyhoos.....back to the email. I shall note it started off with: "A surprisingly number of people believe he was born Dec 25".....I was one of them. At any rate, I will still celebrate his birth at Christmas AND I learned something new, so I guess it's all good.

DEAD END

Are you happy that 2009 is nearing it's end? I'm at a crossroads. On one hand, this year was filled with many disappointments in which I had no control over. Whether it be in regards to multiple missed opportunity(s) or people coming to light on who they really are, I am beyond thrilled the year is over. Yet on the other hand I wish not to dismiss all the wonderful little things that make each day marvelous or for the great memories throughout the year that I will cherish forever. So even if people continue to let me down, the doors keep getting slammed in my face, for the times I feel I have failed and reached a dead end, I am not a quitter and the only way is up from here! 2010 is going to be spectacular because I will make it so!

Love yourself enough to do the same.

#1

PHOTO: I was surprised with VIP/Suite tickets to Friday nights game!

Photo: We made the jumbo-tron!!

A few weeks ago I was walking through the mall during my lunch break with one of my teammates. I came across one of those kiosk's that sold sport logo ed items such as fuzzy slippers, gnomes, Santa hats, and these nifty #1 finger mitts. I went online to see if I could find a SIOUX #1 mitt to order for my ma, sister, and myself for the college hockey game we were planning on attending during my stay for Thanksgiving, and although I found them, the website was not currently taking orders due to it was still being constructed. Crapola!

I asked my ma to look around at their local mall but no such luck so she suggested that she make them herself. I sent a photo of it, my sister drew a pattern on paper, and my ma went to work. They turned out GREAT! We used them at both Fri/Sat nights games. We even made the jumbo-tron!

One of the many great memories from the weekend. :O)

In The Eye Of The Beholder

Photo: KEEP THE FRONT PORCH LIGHT ON

PHOTO: SILO

PHOTO: JOHNNY CASH

PHOTO: NORTH DAKOTA

I admit, I never really appreciated the scenery I lived in growing up. It was b-o-r-i-n-g, flat, and the winters were beyond cold. Now that I take photographs as a hobby, I looked at things a little differently (although still COLD!) while I was visiting. Here are some of them. I hope this message finds you all healthy and well!