It's All A Blur

I know I've had a busy weekend when I come downstairs in the morning and am surprised to see the Yule tree decorated. I know I must have had a hand in that, but with my head cold and packed minutes of the weekend, well, everything seems not only full, but a blur as well. Thank goodness for the camera, or I might not remember anything that happened.

Saturday began with Olivia's final photography class for the fall and art show at MECA.

Art show photos courtesy of Olivia Bradstreet Photography. Find her here or here.




She enjoyed her class and she learned much and is looking forward to continuing with classes at MECA. We're proud of the work she did, and she receieved some very positive feedback from her instructor and classmates on her work, which has to feel good to her.

In the afternoon and just as the first real snow of the season began to fall, we went in search of our Yule tree at our favorite tree farm. It was rapidly approaching sunset, the snow was flying, the cows were lowing, it was brisk up on the ridge and it all felt, well, finally and perfectly like Yuletide.









So, with the tree strapped to the roof of our van, we made a couple of quick stops, zipped home, changed and were back out the door again, this time so the kids could meet up with their choir and sing the anthem at the Pirate's game.



Portland was covered in sticky snow, the city trees glowed with color and it was late--time to get us home and in bed, to nurse our head colds.



One final load of laundry out of the dryer, coats hung, a last tidy, and midnight photos snapped as the snow continued to blanket our garden and street, before it was bedtime for me.



Sunday morning and the garden was a wonderland of snow, as the song goes. It was time to get our snow covered tree off the deck, bring it inside to dry, get the boxes and boxes of lights and decorations down and begin the all day process of trimming our tree.




The only way to get it all done was to divide and conquer--Alex put on all 1400 lights, I made a lasagna and two loaves of garlic bread for dinner, the kids did their geometry homework and eventually, the tree was ready for ornaments.



So we put on a movie ("Don't throw me down, Clark") while we opened boxes, parted tissue paper and unwrapped each treasured ornament. Somewhere after the movie and around 11pm, the kids faded and off to bed they went, leaving Alex and me with another 100 or so ornaments to place on the tree. Somewhere along the line, it all became an out of body experience, so much so that, as I wrote, I barely recollect finishing the tree. Now that I'm looking at these photos, it's all coming back to me...a little blurry, maybe, but yeah, I think I remember.