I find it somewhat amusing that a lot of folks start counting the twelve days of Christmas prior to Christmas Day. The twelve days of Christmastide actually START on Christmas Day and extend out for twelve days.
Today... is the 12th Day. Amidst shots of tequilla and phone calls to loved ones, we are slowly dismantling our tree so that we can have it out on the curb in time for trash collection early tomorrow morning. In celebration of our beautiful tree (my darling son INSISTED on using his allowance monies to help buy a really really BIG tree this year, such a sweetie...said contribution was slyly applied towards his mutal fund ~_^ for being so contributory) we are dismantling it gently and celebrating the ones we love. As I am experimenting with light, albeit clumsily, I took a flashlight and Ozzie (my camera) and set to taking some snaps of this years batch of Christmas ornaments.
I have a lovely collection of ornaments, which I have been carefully collecting over the past twenty years or so. Gold and White and Red with flashes of Green, it's a lovely collection and each ornament is treasured. Every year I have added to the collection, carefully selecting just one more ornament to compliment the selection. I've never gone completely mad with my spending on an ornament, but there are some very lovely ornaments in the collection. This year, I never really got a chance to go out and find that perfect ornament. I trusted in fate that the perfect yearly ornament would somehow find it's way to us. I was simply too busy and didn't have the extra time to go off on a hunt for the perfect 'one', despite my best efforts to do so...
...then, one day, I came home to find two new ornaments on our tree. Two darling little japanese dolls, reminiscent of the ones my mother first got for me on a trip to this very City, back when I was a child. I had begged her to bring me a gift when she had traveled to the City (San Francisco) to visit with her long time friend and pen pal on an annual meeting. Upon her return, she presented me with a tiny box, in which two small Japanese dolls were nested, a male and a female. They were stacking dolls, and within them each lay nested several more tiny, painted dolls. When I walked past the tree, one day, I suddenly noticed an ornament that looked almost exactly like the male doll, save its little coat was red. Upon closer examination of the tree (I am exceedingly anal about my collection and know each ornament intimately) I noticed a second little doll, somewhat more feminine, but also dressed in red.
My dear sweet Boy's (my boyfriend) mother had gifted them too us...and two more perfect ornaments for this year's tree I could not imagine. We have loved our adventures in this marvelous city and the flavor of the far East does inspire us even now.
So as we pack away our Christmas treasure, to await next year's celebration, I bid you all a wonderous New Year filled with miracles and good fortune.
...and for this day, I bid you a fond goodnight.
xox
M in the studio with the other Omega Boys and the gentleman running the show. It was very educational. Eventually, they asked us parents to come into the sound booth too... 
As much as I love our bedroom... I find the lighting in this one particular room of our house to be absolutely horrid. You can't take a picture in there for anything. But here I was tonight, trying to take pictures in a bloody dim room... with no flash, because, y'know... I hate using a flash. 
Over the past summer, by boyfriend and his son constructed a wonderful 'dining temple' for our living room. Our current decorating theme has taken a world travelor flair and our living room theme was inevitably Thai after finding a beautiful antique, hand carved, Thai table in the window of a little shop down the street. Adorning the front of our magnificent loft, is a set of panels which, when assembled, form a giant curving arch of swirling and spiraling leafy shapes. 
Just enough time for one photo... old, antique pocket watch taken with sepia filter.
Anyone who knows Mike and I, knows of our love of all things chocolate...especially dark chocolate. Upon moving to San Francisco, we discovered a small chocolate shop in our local mall, wherein the chocolates are on display like jewels in glass cases. As my eldest and I were out doing a little birthday shopping, we decided to stop on in and she was allowed to select her own custom box of chocolates. 
A year ago, on my daughter's birthday... we adopted Ginger. We only know that she was found in Richmond, CA... that she had recently had a litter of puppies, and that she had subsequently been abandoned. A dogwalker found her, filthy and starving and took her in. Her landlady... a good woman of my acquaintance showed me pictures of the little girl and once I showed them to our family... well... we were hooked. How could we NOT give the poor little thing a home. she was just a pup-pup after all... what evil could she have done that would have resulted in her not having a home? 
Our family's good friend N stopped by for a visit, and as she happened to be sitting about and has a lovely smile... she became my photo for the night. I just love how she has such fashion flair and can wear such bold colors! She's always just gorgeous!
I love things that are green. Green is my favorite color. It represents, to me at least, all things that live and grow. I grew up living in a rural environment full of living green things (a vineyard) and often imagined that a city must be choked of all things green. 
My subject tonight is my great-grandmother's wedding ring. I knew my Great-Grandmother, Anna. For many years, we would go to Greatgrandma and Greatgrandpa's house for Sunday Dinner, a very big deal to my large, traditional Portuguese family. When I graduated from college, the ring became mine, as my Great-Grandmother had long since passed from this world, as had my Grandmother. 
