Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Creamer's Field Christmas Tree

Creamer's Field Barns

December 20, 2010

That beautiful old Spruce tree made a lovely Christmas tree.  Sadly, because of damage from bark beetles, it had to be cut down last October.  I posted this photo and others, along with the story of the tree, in January.  You can read about it HERE and HERE.  For those of you who may have wondered, a new tree was planted in front of the farmhouse this summer.  While it's a very nice tree, it will be many years before it reaches the size of the old tree, as you can see in a photo I took on October 27th.

I am linking up with Amy's Barn Collective #11.

Merry Christmas!

Check out my calendar giveaway in my last post.  The drawing will be on New Year's Eve, so if you haven't already commented to be in the drawing, you can comment on this post or the last one.

Invasion at the North Pole

Every year at Christmas I set up my North Pole village.  Over the years it has gotten quite large and has portions in the living room, dining room, and entryway.  Yes, I realize it has reached the point of being an obsession!

And every year on Christmas Eve an invasion occurs, orchestrated  by my daughters.  Past invasions have included dinosaurs, army men armed with bazookas, giant Barbie dolls, zoo animals, rubber ducks, and even the Occupy movement found my village last year.  Can you pick out this year's invasion in the photo below?  Click on the photo to enlarge it.

You'd be correct if you guessed feral cats.  Below one is ready to devour a gingerbread reindeer.

The cats invaded the ice park, ski slope, and skating rink.

They seemed to particularly enjoy the food court.

They investigated the coal mine and the construction zone.

The elves were a bit concerned, and had to call the big guy for help.

The invaders have never been the same, going back about 20 years.  I think it gets harder every year for my crew to come up with new ideas.  This year's was fun!

Christmas Trees

Christmas Day was a sunny day and although the temps were still below zero, after a long spell of 30 and 40 below, it felt quite pleasant.   

When I glanced out the window at about 1:30 in the afternoon, the sun was making the trees glow.  With our low sun angles at this time of year the sun effects can be very dramatic.  This tree almost appears to have a star on top.

On Monday we had 3 hours and 43 minutes of daylight, but we're gaining daylight now and we've gained close to 2 minutes already.

It was the perfect time to test out the new lens I had unwrapped in the morning--a Tamron 18-270mm.  I've had a Canon 70-300mm lens for a while, but that left a big gap without changing lenses.  I normally have just used my little Powershot to cover things up close, but now hopefully I can get by with just the Canon Rebel XT.

I'll have fun experimenting at any rate!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

The Creamer's Field Christmas Tree

In front of the old farmhouse and dairy barns at Creamer's Field is a large white spruce tree.  It was transplanted in front of the Creamer farmhouse in the early 1930s when it was about 10 feet tall.  It is now about 70 feet tall.  

Each year the lighting of the tree occurs in the first week of December.  A caroling party is held and cookies and hot cocoa are served.

I took these shots this afternoon at 3:30.  Sunset was at 2:38, but we have a long twilight, so it wasn't completely dark.  Our sunrise today was at 10:56, giving us 3 hours and 42 minutes of daylight.  Another minute or two of loss will occur over the next couple of days as we reach the solstice and the shortest day of the year.

Double crowns are a regular feature of tall spruces.  They tend to lose their old crowns and continue growth in a new direction.  This white spruce recently had the larger of two crowns removed to prevent additional cracking.  The tree had previous crown damage.  At about the 20 foot mark the trunk takes a big bend.  The crown was broken in the early 1940s.  The story goes that it happened while the tree was being trimmed for Christmas.  I posted photos of the barns and the tree last year when there was a full moon.  You can see those by clicking HERE.  

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You'll find more lovely old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm. 

Christmas Photo Shoot

Today my daughter and I wanted to take some photos of my granddaughter Sydney in her new Christmas dress.  Sydney wasn't enthused about the idea, and when you're 2-1/2 you are a master at the fine art of being uncooperative .  First she didn't want to put on the dress, and it took us a while to convince her to do that.  She loves party dresses, by the way.  Then she was more interested in playing with the reindeer bells that I have on my tree, and doing anything else but posing or smiling.

However, the promise of a treat caused her attitude to change.

She loves chocolate, and the anticipation and the savoring sweetened her right up.  Sometimes you just have to resort to a little bribery negotiation.

So, after a rocky beginning, I think it was a successful photo shoot.

Sydney wasn't saying what she thought of the photo shoot and the photos.

New Mommy at Christmas

Christmas Day saw many new mommies hugging their new babies for the first time. My granddaughter Sydney gave her new baby some tender care. (Well, she was attempting to brush the baby's hair with a plastic pair of pliers, but the intent was there!)

And like all new mommies, there were many hugs for the sweet little baby.

Christmas is the perfect time for a new baby to arrive!

Merry Christmas

Here in Alaska we are the last place in the world to celebrate Christmas. The International Date Line runs west of Alaska, and in Russia and Australia Christmas Day is almost over, but here it is just ready to begin. Wherever you live, whether Christmas is over or just beginning, I wish you all the blessings of the season.

Christmas at Creamer's Field

This afternoon while I was out shopping I stopped at Creamer's Field to take some photos of the Christmas tree in front of the barns. An added bonus was the rising moon behind the barns.

Looking across the fields, the moon shone brightly, creating a beautiful winter scene.

Sunset today was at 2:39, but we have a long twilight time, and as you can see it wasn't dark yet. We will lose one more minute of daylight, and then after that we will begin the journey from the longest night to June's midnight sun. Check out Trish's blog Barn Charm to see barns from around the world.

Santa's Long Day

The toy deliveries are all done! It's been a long day for Santa. Christmas first comes in Russia, and that's where he began his deliveries. For the next 24 hours he traveled across the globe, stopping at the houses of all the good little boys and girls. He finally drove his sleigh to Alaska, where Christmas comes last. The last delivery was made, and then Santa steered the reindeer back to the North Pole. There was much celebration when Santa and the reindeer landed at the North Pole. Then Santa settled into his hot tub with Mrs. Claus for a little much needed relaxation. A helpful elf brought a pitcher of hot chocolate, and Santa gave a big sigh of relief. Everything went off perfectly once again. The next week will be a time for a little R&R for Santa and Mrs. Claus and all the elves and reindeer at the North Pole. Then it's once again back to work to prepare for next Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all from our house to yours!

Discovering the Christmas Tree

I got our tree up early this week. Every year I pick a theme, and this year it is snowmen. My granddaughter Sydney came over to visit, and she had her Christmas dress on so we could take some photos of her. She is eight months old, and all this is new to her. The tree was fascinating.

Oh, I like this little snowman.

And look, there are more up there.

Nobody saw me grab the snowman, did they?

I really didn't touch it, Mama.

I'll wait until later when no one is watching me!

For Sydney everything is new and intriguing. There is so much to learn about. The greatest gift we can receive is to see Christmas through the eyes of a child.

The Great Christmas Caper

Debbie of Happy Days posted about starting her Christmas shopping and wrapping presents to keep her kids and grandkids from peeking before Christmas. I promised her a story of my experience on a Christmas about 40 years ago.

I was a young mom with three little boys, Brian, Darryl, and Jeff. Jeff was the baby, Darryl was two years older, and Brian a year older than that. The year of their Great Christmas Caper Jeff was too young to take part. Hey, Jeff, here's one time when it paid off to be left out of your big brothers' antics! I think it was the year they were two and three, but it could have been the next year. 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring--oh, wait, that's a different story!

It was the week before Christmas, and I had worked hard to get the tree decorated and the presents all wrapped. My boys were nestled all snug in their beds, or so I thought. Very early in the morning I woke to the sound of rustling paper and squeals and giggles. I crept out to the living room, although I already knew what was going on. My little darlings couldn't wait for Santa to come. They had snuck from their beds and the Great Christmas Caper was on. They couldn't read, so didn't know which presents were theirs. Their solution was to open everything, Grandma's present, Great-Grandma's present, etc. They ripped the paper off everything until they found lovely toys just for boys. Oh, the joy of it all! They were in heaven, playing with all their wonderful presents. You can imagine the chaos they had created.Now, here's the dilemma. Do you let them have the toys and just say, oh, well, or do you take some other action? I don't know if I made the right decision all those years ago, but I wrapped all their toys up again, put them under the tree, and made them wait until Christmas to have them. They knew what was in each package, and I think the wait until Christmas was even harder for them than if they hadn't known what was in the boxes. Those sweet little imps are all grown up now with children of their own, but I still vividly remember the sinking feeling I felt when I woke up and heard them playing so happily in the midst of their Great Christmas Caper.