I'm on a CD!

So, yesterday I went to a "recording studio" (more like a room in our church where our music director has setup a little studio) to play some hymns on my bagpipes. 45 minutes and four takes later, our music director had the finished track.

He and his wife are getting ready to release their second worship CD, and he thought it would be an interesting twist to have bagpipes at the beginning. They released their first CD (rythmofworship.com) several years ago, and have been working on this new CD for the past year. I'm pretty excited to be featured on a CD!

I Bought an Ancestor for $1

Greta and I popped into the thrift store again the other day. She was looking for vinyl records (!) for a friend, so I made my usual circuit of the store. I found a really nice tablecloth for our dining table fully extended. Then I found some old picture frames. One I liked especially because of the wood; it looks like mahogany. This isn't a shabby old frame to paint, like I usually buy. It's quite nice. But it had an old photo of an old guy in it. When I got home and took it apart to wash the icky glass, I looked the old man over more carefully. Who would donate their grandpa to the thrift store? I felt sorry for him, so I decided to adopt him. I tentatively named him George since we have quite a few Georges back in antiquity. That's how I came to buy an ancestor for $1. What a deal.

Merry Christmas!!

Santa Lucia

While Chuck tries to untangle himself from gift wrap, ribbon, and tape (especially tape), I've been busy in the kitchen preparing our Santa Lucia dinner for tonight. We know we're all off on the date and all that, but we don't care. This is our one nod to our Swedish heritage during Christmas, and we celebrate on whatever December date that is convenient. It happens to be Dec. 23 this year. We will enjoy Swedish meatballs, ham, cheeses, limpa bread, hardtack, smoked salmon (we always have seafood, but what form it takes changes from year to year), potatoes, some veggies, and dessert-to-be-determined. Lingonberries were scratched from the menu because the only store that sells them is too far away. Anyone care to join us?

The girls used to always dress up in white dresses with red sashes, with candle wreaths on their heads while they served our dinner (photo from 1991). But Greta is feeling a bit "too old" to do it now. Ahhh, the end of an era.

I just finished baking the hardtack, also called flatbread. Here's a picture of some of it. The recipe makes tons. You can also see the rolling pin in the photo, which I use only when I bake hardtack. It was handed down through the family, originally HAND CARVED by a greatgrand in Sweden. All those identical little bumps were hand carved, in a circle, by a very, very patient man.

I Am a Real Artist Now!

I am no longer a starving artist! I just sold a painting. The last semester of my senior year, I painted several ballerina paintings, using a ballerina friend as my model. She asked me a couple of days ago if I would be willing to sell her one, because she and her mom wanted to give it to her dad on Christmas. I gave it to her instead, because I had promised her a painting in exchange for modeling for me. Well, the very next day, she called me again to tell me that her dad wanted to buy a painting for her mom! So I sold my very first painting.

The Wrap-Up

Christmas was easy this year, lots of people wanted things that were available off the Internet. Ahh, the ease of clicking over to various vendors, make the order, with an instant confirmation sent to my email box. And then I can track the package as it makes its Christmas pilgrimage from the vendor to our house. The route can be amusing, especially on ground shipping.

The hard part of Christmas for me has always been wrapping presents. Look at the red package with the green bow on the upper left. Neat, huh? Adie wraps presents that look like that. Mine, well, in the South there is a name used to describe someone who does not have finesse, who is rather uncouth -- Bubba. My presents look like presents from Bubba. I'm as talented as an orangutan. I can't cut wrapping paper straight, I misestimate the amount of paper needed to cover the gift and have to patch with more paper. Then ribbon. Adie and Greta can make such wonderful bows. I could describe one mathematically, but to implement one with my hands is another story.

Adie has been patiently trying to teach me how to wrap. I learned a little trick this morning from her. The presents I wrapped today look a little better. Bubba Christmas presents after a week at finishing school. They still look like Bubba wrapped them, but slightly better.

Three Things

We made this list just for fun so that you could learn a little bit about us.

Three things that taste great:
Dad: prime rib, dark chocolate, cheesecake
Mom: guacamole, chocolate ganache, artichoke dip
Greta: chicken parmesan, caesar salad, artichokes
David: seafood, chocolate pie, avocados

Three things at home that I hate doing:
Dad: picking up after myself, yard work, puttering in the garage
Mom: tearing up lettuce, scrubbing the shower, vacuuming the stairs (That's why we don't have any!)
Greta: pulling weeds, boring homework, answering the phone
David: dishes, vacuuming, school work

Three things that are scary:
Dad: anyone who wants to date my daughters, first day of work after the New Year, taxes
Mom: dreams about falling, public speaking, the sound of screeching brakes in the next lane
Greta: alone in a dark place, big spiders, centipedes
David: black widow spiders, public speaking, ?

Three things I want to try some day:
Dad: sky diving (over my dead body!), fly an airplane, spend a million dollars in one day
Mom: jet skiing, write a book, ?
Greta: sky diving (over my dead body!), eat goat meat, buy a wedding dress
David: sky diving (over my dead body!), scuba diving, fly a plane

The joke is that the whole family will make reservations to go sky diving the day Mom dies. "Yipee! She's gone! Now we can go sky diving!"

Internet Christmas Carols

Okay, I love Christmas music. We have lots of CD's with great Christmas music. But I've heard them scores, if not hundreds of times. While they're great, I'd like to hear it a little differently. O Holy Night sung by Pavarotti is great, but not if I've heard it 150 times. In the past I'd go buy a new Christmas CD. But I'm getting to be a tightwad. I go to the local public library to get movies. I can't stand buying CD's unless I've heard them once, completely through, and know that I like it.

Well, the Internet should come to the rescue. I googled "internet radio christmas" and got a lot of URLs. Lots and lots of choices, this looks promising! I see country Christmas. Yuk! I'll bypass that! I see traditional Christmas. Okay, that looks promising. I click on that and get "Jingle Bell Rock." Traditional? I suppose for many of us aging Baby Boomers that's traditional. I look for more, I see classical Christmas. Now that's more like it. I click on that and I get "White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby. No, that's not what I wanted. I want real classical Christmas. I find another link, click on that. It's Bing Crosby again. I do another google search on Christmas carols internet radio. More URLs, I click on a broadband Christmas link, but soon discover to listen I need to pay for a subscription. I click on another, classical Christmas, and it's Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas". Arrgg!

Then Greta enters the room. I tell her of my frustration. "Oh, go to Pandora." she says. I like to think of myself as an Internet savvy kind of guy, but I never heard of Pandora. "What's that?" I ask. Both David and Greta are incredulous, "You haven't heard of Pandora?" Well, I once again am getting an education on the Internet from my children. Greta told me about Pandora (http://www.pandora.com/). It asks you about the music you like. I put in, "O Holy Night Pavarotti." It gave me a list of possible music, I picked one that looked good, and it picked exactly the Christmas music I wanted. No Jingle Bell Rock, no Bing Crosby. Hurray!

Christmas Baking

I did a little baking for Christmas this year, but most of it has disappeared already. I wonder what happened to it all? I baked a big batch of gingerbread boys, and I gave them all smiles, but they all ran off. I made fruitcake, which Chuck always says he hates, but he ate big hunks of it this year. It's gone now. Maybe I'll make another loaf. I made Springerle with anise seeds, and a few are still around. Every year I make it, the designs on the tops seem to melt into the dough. I want the designs to stay clear and crisp; don't know how to get 'em that way. I just took a pan of Kringle from the oven so we haven't even tried it yet. It's a new recipe so we don't know if we like it or not. I hope to make fudge in a day or two. And later, when the Christmas shopping is all done, I'll make a few other kinds of cookies, like shortbread and decorated sugar cookies. Here's a picture of my boys who ran off:

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Last day of classes was yesterday. It was rather anti-climatic. I had spent three months with the same twenty-one people, but after our final, everyone stood in a group discussing the test, then started drifting away. It felt like any other day. There were very few goodbyes. Since we are all art majors, I will be seeing them again next semester: we have one class together again. It still feels surreal, though. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that I have no school until January 5th.

On a happy note, I got an A on a project I was expecting to not do very well on. For 2-D, our final project was to create an art piece dealing with a social issue. It had to include information, a website, and a tangible object for the viewer to take, with the website attached to it. I chose selective abortion, the practise of killing children based solely on gender. It is widely known that this is practised in China and India, but most people do not know that it happens here. My take-aways were pacifiers I painted black with red ribbons that had the websites written on them. My professor, though pro-choice, really liked my piece. The problem, however, is that I work too lightly. I had painted Chinese characters on it, but from several feet back, the characters were hard to see. A problem like that could have brought my grade down a letter or two. My professor was gracious enough to let me paint them thicker while everyone else was giving their presentation. The result: a 90 from a professor notorious for hard grading.

Christmas Boxes

I just got home from working at Samaritan's Purse warehouse. Samaritan's Purse is the charity that runs Operation Christmas Child, where ordinary people pack shoeboxes full of gifts, which are then shipped to third world countries and distributed to needy children. I went with three other ladies from church, and we were assigned to the checking line. Standing at long worktables, we opened each box, checked the contents for improper items, added filler toys or candy to boxes that were too empty, then taped them closed and sent them down the conveyor belt. Some of the improper items we might find were chocolate (it melts), snakes (they are worshipped in some cultures), weapons, liquids, breakables, and food (Customs always confiscates it). Some toys, such as action figures, include weapons, so the weapon had to be removed if possible. If not possible, then the whole toy had to be tossed. This was the third year I've done it, and it is lots of fun, although tiring. By the time we left at 5:00, over 19,000 boxes had been processed in our center in one day!

Costuming

I am interseted in working in costume design when I graduate, so when I was asked to be in charge of the costumes for our youth group's Christmas play this year, I eagarly took the job. One of my friends was directing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and the cast came from our youth group. Most of the costuming is simple; the cast wears Chistmas-y/wintery clothing, so I just had to let the actors know what types of clothes to look for, and what colors were acceptable. They looked in their closets and thrift stores for what I specified, then they brought the clthes to me so I could approve them. I organized all the costumes, bought a couple of bathrobes and shirts, and made the angel and Mary costumes from bedsheets.

During the performance, I directed the dressing rooms: making sure the costuming, makeup, and hair ran smoothly, that the first people on stage were ready first, and also helped with the makeup. Backstage, I had to dress nine angels, three wisemen, five shepherds, and Mary and Joseph in three minutes. Though it was hectic, I know this is something I could do.

Sick at Home

Some vacation. Finally, after a year and a half of working my tail off, I get some vacation. So what did I do? I got a cold last week. Spent much of my vacation in bed. Adie, as a result, had to work more to take care of the household.

But, we did squeeze in some time with family. Paul and Diane, along with my Dad, flew in from California for Thanksgiving and for David's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. We got to see other family and friends at David's Court of Honor and the dinner afterwards. We had lots of additional fun with Heather and Jared and Jared's parents. We got to go to Karen and Bill for the Saturday after Thanksgiving and see more extended family. All of that was great fun.

But I can't complain. While my cold was bad, mine and my family's overall health is good. We have a wonderful family, both our immediate and extended. It's great getting to know our new side of the family of our son-in-law.