Let it Snow!

Here is the view out my kitchen window. We had a very wet snow, so it all stuck to the tree branches and shrubs, power lines. Very pretty. Finally, in Colorado, winter is here!

Candlelight Walk

Okay, so I wasn't with it enough to remember to bring my camera to the Candlelight Walk and Tree Lighting Ceremony. So we burned the candles at home with dinner :-)

The City of Littleton lights a big tree with colorful lights every year, and has a procession, aka the Candlelight Walk, down Main Street, with all of the street lights out, lighting the trees along Main Street as Santa goes by on a truck. At the end of Main Street, a child is picked to "throw the switch" to light the big tree. It was beautiful, and as an added bonus, it started to snow right after the big tree was lit.

Here is my fairy girl, working on an art project:

Here we are preparing Thanksgiving Dinner. We invited Great Grandma over for our feast.

I am thankful for my family.

This week

This has been a short but sweet week. We enjoyed two early Thanksgiving feasts with friends (thanks, lovely friends!), two quick days of school, and then a holiday break.
First of all, I have been making small pillar candles for a holiday gift exchange. Each of seven of us crafty moms make 35 items, which we then redistribute and each of us gets 5 items made by each mom. We can then create gift baskets of handmade bath-type items. Robin and I packed ours up last night to send off to Pueblo and Kansas City. I think I will use my gift baskets for teacher gifts this year, rather than doing the "put in some money to buy a gift card" gift this year.

My candle pouring process is pretty basic, I used natural beeswax, and recycled items from around my house for molds.

Yesterday we spent the day at Littleton Historical Museum with friends.

Pioneer kids:

I found this doorway an interesting place to frame pictures - Elise was sweeping the classroom, and the rest were just enetering the classroom. Fun!

Climbing on the straw bales, always entertaining!

Looking for fish in the pond:

Last weekend I had some extra energy, so I rearranged part of my living room to make an"Art Room" for the kids. It just the area behind the couches in front of the back window. It gets great light, and is mostly unused space, so I decided it would work perfectly. We can store some of our art materials under the fish tank (behind the orange fabric).

Christmas List

Germany Trip November 2008

Hi All- Loelle here, posting a bunch of pictures from John's trip to pick up his car. All of this is second hand info, so don't blame me if there is something incorrect in here. If you want the real scoop, talk to John :-)

First full day in Germany, John and friends went to pick up his car. The BMW factory gave them quite a welcome. Your new car is put on a pedestal, literally, spun around and shown off. John said it was worth it for the trip alone to BMW Welt. (BTW, John's car is the silver coupe - the only silver one that day.)
A fancy-dancy building.

Here are Paul and John B sitting in the new car:

Here they all are having lunch at BMW Welt.

A BMW race car out front of the factory:

An engine? A special engine? The engine in John's car.

Walking around at night in Munich:

Dinner with musik!

Back the next day for the actual "pick-up":

Proud new owner:

Rear shot, the factory in the background:

Driving on the autobahn, the real reason for going.........

(I am told that John B took this, not the driver!)

Driving in the Black Forest.

Peeking in the Porsche factory the night before the tour (no pics allowed in the actual factory tour!)

Porsche Museum:

A 911 cut-away:

All sorts of race cars......

Another cool building, and many cool cars!

Another engine, special again no doubt.

Mercedes Museum?

Driving at night in Stuttgart - the new PanAmera, in disguise out for a test drive?

There it goes........

Out for dinner in a lovely resturant. John, Paul, Ringo.. no - John, Paul, John and Mike.

Food was predominantly meat-based, with a few potatoes.

Ahhh! A vegetable!! Who put THAT there?

Amsterdam was the last destination, after leaving the car in Munich for it's boat ride.

Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam:Boat ride on the river-

Bike riding in Amsterdam (John B and Paul?)-

John was amazed at all of the people riding bikes. They have so many bikes there, that they have a barge to park them on:

Whole families ride one bike at a time!

Flower markets, of course (I had to put these in, it *is* my blog after all...)

Look at all these bulbs!

Last but not least, the red light district. This photo is beautiful - apparently this is a tourist area - families walking around, swans in the river.