So, you think it's cold outside?

The streets of Shenyang after snowfall

We have a storm moving in today, here in Southern California.  Temperatures will plummet 20 degrees... to the 50s (F).  However, my nephew Daniel, who lives in China, wins for being the family member with the most to complain about regarding the weather!

I knew it was cold there, but was unprepared for the pictures he sent of the temperature gauges showing record low temperatures.

December 22nd and the high is only minus 17 Celsius or minus 18 Fahrenheit
Low of  minus 32 Celsius/minus 25.6 Fahrenheit

BBBRRRRRRRRR!

Not much of a change from December 7th!

Shenyang after dark

The largest city mall with its Merry Christmas sign!

On the way to work

Shoveling that white stuff

Not too many pedestrians out and about

People going about their daily lives in the cold

Streets o' slush

The car - third snowball to the left...
or, in this case, only snowball left in the lot

With temperatures like this, it takes some planning to take the kids outdoors.

Aye Captain!  Ready for deployment!

Our little munchkin, Livia, all bundled up in red looks awfully cute.

Fred flashes us a smile from the depths of his snow parka.

Ready for lift off - all systems go!

The City in snow

It's pretty cold here!

Daniel took this photo on a lonely stretch of road outside of town.  I feel sorry for the poor doggy, however, he looks like he's fine.  I'm sure he's heartier than I.

A doggy on a lonely stretch of country road

Now, aren't you feeling better about the snow and ice in your neighborhood?

And for all of us living in sunnier climes... well, quite frankly, this is why.

Enough said.

Holiday Party

'No toona?  Wat kinda party is dis?' Jack's brother Piper complains

Every year my large and boisterous group of friends chooses a Saturday in January, when all other commitments are over with, to celebrate Christmas at leisure, and in grand style.

There are always lots of presents, lots of good food, a bit of mayhem and about 20 conversations all going on at once.  

The noise can be deafening.

It's an all day event and, for me, the fun factor is extremely high.

Some of the loot!

I love my friends.  They are intelligent, witty, kind and interesting.

Having the whole day to visit and enjoy each other's company is a treat that I look forward to all year long.

Good conversations.  Good stories!

Did I mention lots of food?

We had a wonderful meal with beautiful tenderloin steaks and swordfish steaks cooked to perfection on the outside grill, and all the fixings.  It was hog heaven.

At one point, I noticed we had "funeral potatoes" and several vegetable casseroles and quipped, "we're just one green jello short of the complete [LDS] Relief Society experience."  Then I heard a voice from the couch declare: "I brought a lime jello mold".  Sure enough, Jackie's jello was soon brought out from the kitchen in all its glory.  I couldn't stop laughing, even after someone else proclaimed a church dinner would never include expensive steaks!

Besides the dinner food, the tables were loaded with snack foods of all kinds - both sweet and savory.  To my surprise, there was also dessert later on, featuring Macadamia Nut pies and Rainbow cake from King's Hawaiian Bakery (a real treat!) and some to-die-for raspberry cupcakes Joyce had made.

The cupcakes had edible glitter on them.  Seriously.

Edible.  Glitter.

It was very cool.

Maura wasn't sure what these were.
We assured her they were kitchen tools

Nobody went home hungry, that's for sure!

Santa was VERY good to all of us this year

I  think we must have all been good little girls and boys in 2012.  If the living room floor shown here is any indication, Santa sure seemed to think so.  And that was just part of the haul - the rest of it was to the left of this picture.

Our little tree

In addition to all the other fun stuff, someone had thoughtfully provided Christmas Crackers.

A Christmas "Cracker" 

I haven't had Christmas Crackers since I was in England for Christmas many years ago!  They are a tradition in England and a few other countries as well, I believe.

Pull on the ends of a Cracker and you get a loud POP! (or Crack!)
Inside are paper crowns and goodies

So, we all had crowns, which we had to wear, a slip of paper with some jokes, and some funny little toys.   I got a packet of miniature screw drivers in mine.  We all read our jokes out loud.  It was fun.

Queens for a day

Paula and Joyce had produced a video slide show using pictures from all our gatherings and birthday parties for the last couple of years. They forced everyone to sit down and watch it.

It was wonderful.

It reminded me what a blessing good friends are in life.  We sure have a lot of fun together.  We laugh a lot.

Divvying up the spoils

I know you can't necessarily tell from these photos, but the house was full of people.  It's just that a huge bunch of them are camera shy and go nuts if I point a lens in their direction.

Jackie (thankfully!) is not one of them. She has a great sense of humor.  I love the hat she wore.

A 'Chip' hat from Disney's elegant  - and toasty warm - Chip 'n Dale collection

I love my friends.  What a great Christmas this has been.

The Lights, The Lights, The Lights!

My apartment building ablaze with lights

I'm sorry to see the Holiday Season go.  If for no other reason than that everything is prettier at Christmas time!  This included our little apartment complex.  All the neighbors entered into the spirit of things with lights this year!

Here are some of the photos that my neighbor Ray took on Christmas Eve as we were out admiring the lights of our home town:

I'd like to know how someone got up there to do the big tree in the back!

These beautiful angels ran along the entire wall surrounding this property.

Detail of the display from the photo above.  I think it's beautiful.
My only criticism is that Baby Jesus looks cold.

This street was declared by all to be the favorite!

I think we need to come up with a holiday at the end of January, so we have an excuse to leave the lights up until then...

Come on, everyone!  Let's think of something!

Returning With Honor

Elder Nils home again!

 Two years can go by pretty quickly.

The Family was a little silly in their enthusiasm

Friday morning our Elder Nils returned from his 2-year mission to Cueravaca, Mexico in all his earthly glory.  His family was pretty stoked.  They were waiting for him at Salt Lake International airport with smiles, signs and sombreros.

And a lot of high spirits.

Coming down to the baggage claim area

I was following along closely with text messages and then I received these photos!  When I got the one of Nils with his sister Linnea, and the simple text: 'He's Here!', I have to admit I spontaneously burst into tears.

Yup, that's me.  NO emotional control whatsoever.

Elder Nils and his sister

Elder Nils had missed his connection to Salt Lake, and ended up staying the night at the airport in Los Angeles.  The airlines kindly comped him a meal and a hotel room.  By the time I heard about all this, it was just too late to go see him, but we were able to talk on the phone.  When I asked him how the hotel was, if it was nice, he replied that compared to some of the places he had been living for the last 2 years, it was luxurious!  Then he added, "And there won't be any gunfire keeping me up at night!"

"Don't be too sure about that," I quipped.  "You're in El Segundo, after all!"

He's Here!
With Anders, Christian and Linnea

With Dad

I love these smiles.

Really, really love them.

With Mom
No, she's not happy at all!

After all the fuss at the airport, he was whisked away home to be fed and to finally have Christmas!

Our Mighty RM

I love it that he's still wearing his white shirt and name tag!  I am reminded of the old Lynn Bryson song where the refrain goes, "Every girl would like to marry - a Return Mission Mormonary!"

Okay, never mind.

Then the family did Christmas all over again!

A new shirt - a non-missionary style shirt!
Woo-Hoo!

He looks pretty happy to me.  Oh-oh.  Next up is the gift I sent  him!

Opening the gift from me

It looks like he thinks it's pretty funny.

Good.

Call him Jayne...

And so, our Elder Nils is slowly (but, slowly) getting acclimated to civilian life.

Welcome back!

Jack's Christmas Castle

On watch for the enemy on the western tower

Coming up with an awesome Christmas present for the little kitty love of my life, was a challenging task!  But after searching a while, I think I did okay.  This year, Santa Claus brought a cat castle for Jack.

It has turrets, an arched entrance, three windows and two stories.

It was a huge hit.

Jack had to check out both the top floor, and the bottom floor.  

He discovered it is a great place to play with his toys!

King of the Castle

We'll eventually have to decorate the castle with some colorful magic markers, and put Jack's name on it.  But for now, it appears to have been a terrific gift for my guy.  He hasn't stopped playing with it since he got it.

I think Jack had a really merry Christmas!

A Lovely Christmas Eve

A Sparkly Tree in abstract

Now that the holidays are mostly over (I have one more large party to attend on Saturday, believe it or not!), I can reflect on this Christmas which has just passed.  I live alone, far from any family, but I'm lucky to have good friends nearby.  This year, I spent Christmas Eve with my neighbors.  We've known each other for many years.  It was a great Christmas Eve, much as I remember from my childhood.

Some beautifully decorated cookies

 The cookies were very yummy.

An elegantly set table

 The dinner was yummy, too.

A delicious dinner

We read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and the Christmas story from Luke, Chapter 2, much as my dad once did.  Later, we went driving around our little town, looking for Christmas lights.  We were amply rewarded for our efforts.  We found some really beautiful lights!

Looking at neighborhood Christmas lights

My photos do not do this justice at all, but as soon as I get Ray's photos, I'll do another post of just the beautiful lights, so you can see them in all their glory.

Ray going for that great photo

Turning a corner north of Mar Vista, we came upon a street that was like a fairy land.  There are mature trees throughout this neighborhood, trees which bend over the roadway, and there were lights strung through the trees making a canopy of light and color.

In addition, every house we passed had made an effort to put up lights and decorations for the holiday.  The effect was breathtakingly beautiful. Again, this picture doesn't begin to do it justice.

But maybe you can get a teeny idea what it was like...

The Fairy Land above Mar Vista

It's moments like these that you just want to hug people and thank them for taking the time to make a memory like this.  It's hard work to string lights on houses - but to take the time to do the trees on an entire street is a monumental task.  Someone had to spearhead this project, and coordinate with neighbors, and take the time, money and effort to pull it off.

Hooray for all the people that do these kinds of things without any thought of compensation or reward - just to make the world a brighter place.

Happy New Year!

My brother's house in Utah on New Year's Day

It seems amazing that 2013 is already here.  When I was a kid, any date past the year 2000 seemed so remote that even contemplating it bordered on the existential.

But, here we are!

This is a photo of my brother's house on New Year's Day.  I'm running it, because photos of my house on New Year's day look pretty much like any other day of the year.  He said the high was around 21 degrees (F).  Brrrr.

Interestingly enough, the tracks in the snow are deer tracks.  He surprised a few while coming home from a New Year's Eve party.  Evidently the deer are coming down from the mountains in large numbers due to the cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls.  They're looking for something to eat, and were happily having a little New Year's Eve party of their own in my brother's front yard, feasting on his bushes.

That reminds me of an old tradition.  In Norway, people put out something called "julenek" during the holidays.  This is a sheaf of grains put outside for the critters.

A bird feasting on his Julenek

 I like this tradition, it is kind and thoughtful.  Why should humans be the only ones to feast during the cold and dreary winter?  In olden days folks would even put out bowls of porridge up in their lofts and barns - ostensibly for the nisser, or elves which lived there.

But I'm thinking there were probably a few little critters feasting there, too.

A Julenek outside an ancient stabbur at the Folk Museum near of Oslo, Norway

It's a good reminder for us all to be kind and generous to everyone in this new year.

Happy New Year, everybody!