Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

December 31, 2015

Christmas' Last Gasp & Happy New Year!

The last of the Christmas pics.  I just love how the outside lights look in the rain.  Since I was planning on taking everything down between Christmas and New Years, I had to take the opportunity to shoot them.

These two were through the kitchen window.


We had the kids over for Christmas Day and we did munchies and deli sandwiches.  I also baked up some Italian knot cookies and I was dying to try these brownie trees.  They came out pretty good!

I should've taken a pic of the table with all the food on it but I was so busy putting everything out and everyone was digging in so all I got was a pre-visit picture of the Christmas crackers, cards and scratch tickets.  No one but me ever heard of crackers before, but they seemed to enjoy them, and we all wore our paper crowns the rest of the day.


Later that night, I went back outside to take a couple of pics of my neighbour's laser lights up in the trees.

This is with the brightness boosted quite a bit, as it was roughly 8:00 pm when I took them.

Another house down the street had them as well.

Couple more pics of the kitchen window.




I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Years Eve!  I always attempt to stay up for the ball dropping in New York but the past couple of years we were well on our way to sleepydreamland by 11 pm.  Gone are the days of all night Dead shows at the Oakland Coliseum! 

Happy New Year!

10 comments:

  1. Didn't know Christmas Crackers? How odd. They are not as good as they used to be when I was a kid though. Interesting effects with the lights. Happy New Year's even if you sleep through it.

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    1. Well unless the kids watched British holiday specials or movies, they wouldn't know about them. They aren't real up on stuff like that anyway. When I told Val I got 'Christmas crackers' she thought I meant some kind of food. Happy New Year!

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  2. Italian knot cookies? What are those? Sounds exotic and yummy.
    Happy New Year, JoJo!

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    1. I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of them. Just a sweetened dough that you roll into about a 6" rope about a half inch thick, then you knot it and bake. Ice with confex sugar mixed with water, and use sprinkles. Happy New Year to you too Robyn!

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  3. Hi JoJo,

    How about this? I'm typing from the next year! Thanks for sharing those remaining Christmas photos. Some of them are real trippy....

    A peaceful, positive New Year to you and your loved ones.

    Gary, typing from 2016 in lil' ol' England :)

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    1. Thanks Gary! A peaceful new year to you as well!

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  4. Lovely camera effects with the lights. Crackers must be a British thing,we have them every year here. Happy New Year!

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    1. You can get crackers in British specialty stores or from catalogs here but yes, it's definitely a British thing. I happen to love them. Glad the kids enjoyed it. I was afraid they'd think it was dorky or something. lol

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  5. Those Christmas treats look delicious and I love your pictures of all the Christmas lights. Every year, it always bring a smile to our faces when we drive around the neighborhood trying to spot all of the pretty lights on different houses.

    Wishing you a new year rich with the blessings of love, joy, warmth and laughter.

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    1. Thank you Dee! They were delicious! A very happy new year to you as well!

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