Twenty Four At Heart

To Me This Says "Winter"

On New Year's Eve, I was bound and determined to capture a photo of the Blue Moon rising over the mountains.  I dragged out my tripod, and lenses, and was all set to shoot a good thirty minutes before I expected to see the moon.  As it turns out, the moon was covered in cloud cover until later in the evening (when I was off partying.)  I got some nice eerie shots of the moon lighting up the clouds and mountains, but not a fantastic Blue Moon shot. 

It wasn't a total loss though.  Sometimes the best photos end up being the ones you weren't expecting to take.  While I was waiting for my Moon Rise I started snapping the sun setting.

To me, this photo says "winter" in the most beautiful way.

 

© Twenty Four At Heart

Happy Twenty Ten!

I rang in the New Year with some old friends last night.  To be honest, I'm still a little fuzzy-headed this morning.  As I recall, one of our male friends celebrated at midnight with a pink party hat strategically positioned on the lower portion of his body.  (I never realized how phallic an improperly positioned pink party hat can be!)  When I hugged him at midnight he said, "Be careful, I might poke you."

And he did!

Happy New Year to me?

Wishing each and every one of you a wonderful, healthy, happy, fun, Twenty Ten!

© Twenty Four At Heart

A Winter Walk

Last Monday I felt a strong need to break out of holiday couch-potato mode and enjoy the beautiful day.  The holidays are great, but at some point I felt like I turned into one gigantic Christmas cookie.  I was seriously concerned my clothes might never fit again.

I'm sure all of you are svelte, and skinny, and exercised like maniacs during the last few weeks.  I'm sure you also lived on celery sticks and water while I gorged on cow(s?) to the point of mooing in my sleep.

Also?  I might have consumed a See's truckload little bit of chocolate during the holidays.

(The See's family is part of my family tree so you really can't hold me accountable for this particular weakness.  I'm genetically predisposed to consume See's candy.)

Surprisingly, I was able to fit into a pair of pants so I could leave the house.  Shocking, isn't it?  

They might be those stretchy kind of pants, but let's pretend they're not.

There's a man-made lake in a neighboring city.  My long-term readers have seen pictures of it before.

 

The perimeter of the lake is exactly one mile in length.  I decided I could accomplish two tasks at once by walking around the lake a few times and shooting photos while I was at it.

I walk around lakes a lot for exercise.  This isn't the only one within driving distance of my home.  There are always a lot of other people out walking/running/biking around the lakes.  

The mountains are beautiful this time of year.

By the way, the picture above is of Saddleback Mountain. 

While walking, I realized it really looks like winter right now.  (Well, the Orange County version of winter!)  Some of the trees have lost most of their leaves.

There were a lot of birds/ducks/coots/geese swimming in the lake too.

I was looking for an opportunity to play with my Lensbaby Composer lens.  I've had it for awhile, but I haven't had that many opportunities to use it.  If you aren't familiar with Lensbaby, it's a camera lens which allows the photographer a lot of creativity while shooting.  I'm far from an expert with mine, but it's wonderful for going completely creative-crazy as a photographer ... as I did with the flowers-gone-wild shot below.

More often, I'll be using the Lensbaby simply to show motion in a creative way.  You can see an example in the picture of the birds eating below.

My favorite Lensbaby photo so far, is my final photo of this post.  A lady, walking her dog, came by and scared the birds.  Instead of flying, they began running for the lake to escape her dog.  It was a humorous sight and a perfect shot for a more creative lens.

Wishing all of you a very happy, and safe, New Years Eve!

© Twenty Four At Heart  

My Gift to The Torturer

Every holiday season I give a gift to The Torturer.  Originally, when I began this tradition, I thought it would be one gift ... one year.  You know, a nice gesture to let him know I appreciate his efforts with my car accident recovery.  This holiday season marked my fourth (!) holiday season as The Torturer's patient.

Yes, my life is pathetic.

The Torturer and I joke that many years from now he'll hobble out in a walker to care for torture me and I'll still be there trying to escape needing his torture care.  

It's not funny, but at the same time - it is.

By the way, if he didn't love being with me so much he would have gotten me 100% recovered by now so he could be rid of me.  

Don't ya think?

Anyway, over the years I've given some very nice gifts to The Torturer, in spite of the pain he inflicts on me.  This year, however, I gave him the best gift yet.

Now, whenever he tires of hearing me bitch  complain  whine  whimper in pain, he can tune me out easily and carry on with his job of getting my arm to work and my body free of pain.  Of course, I've already informed him I might want to use a pair of his ear plugs every day  once in awhile too.  There could be a lot of benefits in not being able to hear him  giving me rules about what I'm allowed to do   bitching at me   nagging me  providing me with helpful advice.

© Twenty Four At Heart

The Saga of the Red Cup, Part III

Back in October, I took a marital spat public when I wrote about my favorite coffee cup.  It's a very old, red, Starbucks travel cup and it has to be hand washed because it's not "dishwasher safe."  I've had it for years, and I'm emotionally attached to my red coffee cup.  Briefcase always washes the dishes when he's home, but for some reason, he refused to wash my special cup.  He'd just leave it sitting in the sink rather than spend time hand washing it.  If you never had the opportunity to read my somewhat humorous post on our spat, you can do so by clicking here.

In November, I wrote a sequel to my initial post.  Briefcase came home from a business trip and surprised me one day with this:

 

I thought it was the end of the Red Coffee Cup saga, but I was wrong.

This year, for Christmas, Briefcase gave me this:

 

It's a new Starbucks coffee cup.  It's ceramic, unlike most of the Starbucks large travel cups.  Because it's ceramic, it keeps my coffee very hot which is what I love about my red cup.  (Sadly, although I still have my red cup it now has a crack in it and, after all its years of service, it really does need to be retired.)  

Of course, being ceramic means this cup is more breakable than many of the newer Starbuck travel cups, but it keeps my coffee very hot which is my top priority in a coffee cup.  

Yes, I'm the annoying person at Starbucks who always asks for my coffee to be "extra hot."

Briefcase is happy because, of course, he bought a dishwasher safe cup.  That's right - no more hand washing my coffee cup.  

I'm predicting this will be my most-used gift this year.

How about you?  Did you receive a gift this holiday season you'll be using more than others over the next year?

** No Starbucks coffee cups were harmed in the publishing of this post.

*** Starbucks is not a sponsor of Twenty Four At Heart, although they really should be.

© Twenty Four At Heart

What Are The Holidays Like At 24's House?

I received a few emails from readers wanting to know how I celebrate the holidays.  It always shocks me to think anyone cares what the hell I'm doing. 

And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

I forget many of you are reading from other states and/or countries and are naturally curious about how my lifestyle here in Orange County might differ from yours.

My family celebrates Christmas.  We do, however, have people in our extended family who celebrate every holiday under the sun this time of year.  We are an eclectic group and I love that about my family.

Although I grew up here, we no longer have family close by.  Briefcase grew up on the east coast and came west for me.  (Someday I'll write a post about that.)  Holidays in recent years are usually spent with just our nuclear family: Briefcase, myself, and our three kids.  Usually our extended family comes to visit either right before, or a week or two after the actual holidays.

This year we spent Christmas Eve Day just hanging out at our house.  A lot of our time was spent by the pool because it was a beautiful day.  This photo of our pool is one I took several months ago:

 

We didn't go swimming this Christmas (although we have in years past) because I hadn't bothered to heat the pool and the water was too chilly.  Instead, some of us napped in the sun, some of us read, and I was in and out of the kitchen preparing a nice dinner for Christmas Eve.

I was also pretty drugged up due to the after effects of my fender-bender last week.

We always go to church on Christmas Eve.  This year was the first year we've ever not gone.  To be honest, I was hurting pretty badly (in addition to being in a drugged up haze.) I knew I couldn't sit through the service this year.

With help from everyone in my family, we did manage to pull off a more formal Christmas Eve dinner.  We usually have our nicest meal on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas day.  First, we had a few appetizers to choose from.  I fixed a prime rib for our main course.  It was served with au jus, a sour cream/horseradish mixture, a potato casserole and a spinach/artichoke heart casserole.  Dessert consisted of a delicious cheesecake.

Lots of calories all in one meal! 

(I've been living in sweats ever since - I don't dare try on my jeans until I've exercised for a week straight.)

We ate in our dining room vs. our usual meals in our kitchen nook.  The table was set with a nice tablecloth, candles, etc.  We had some very nice wines to accompany the meal.  I couldn't drink because I was on pain meds, but I hear the wine was great. 

After dinner we simply enjoyed family time together.  Now that my two oldest kids are in college, it's a celebration whenever we are all home together.  My eldest son acted as DJ and kept the tunes coming all night.  There was a lot of talking, reminiscing, and laughter.  It was a nice, cozy, low-key evening.

My youngest son is 14, but he still gets very excited about Christmas.  He woke the rest of the family up on Christmas morning to "come open gifts."  We spent our morning exchanging gifts and oohing and ahhing over them.  Even our dogs found a gift left behind from Santa.

I fixed a very nice brunch after we had finished opening gifts.  (Again, with everyone's help since I'm pretty sore these days.)

We talked about spending the afternoon at the beach, but we were feeling too lazy to go anywhere.  Instead, we spent more time on Christmas day hanging out by our pool and enjoying family time.  My sons spent a portion of the day trying to "beat" an X-box game they received as a gift.  

Pretty boring - but blissful at the same time.

After having prepared two big Christmas meals already, I usually go "easy" on the cooking for Christmas night.  Briefcase threw some steaks on the grill, I made a homemade Caesar dressing for salad, and I also assembled one of my family's favorite potato dishes for dinner.  Homemade Christmas cookies and peppermint ice cream, topped with hot fudge, finished off the meal.

There were one or two gifts we exchanged which you might be interested in.  I'll tell you about one of them in tomorrow's post.  Overall, I have to say it was a quiet, mellow, Christmas this year.  It was also a very nice one.

How about you?  Did you have a nice holiday, regardless of what holiday you celebrate?  Was it hectic and chaotic?  Or slow-paced and casual?

© Twenty Four At Heart

A Thank You & Quick Update

I hope everyone's been having nice holidays.  It's hard to believe 2010 is looming just a few days out.

I want to thank everyone who has emailed/commented or tweeted me with well wishes since I was rear-ended last week.  Honestly, I consider myself so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life as a result of Twenty Four At Heart.  

You guys are awesome!

I'm doing fine.  I'm sorer than normal but it could have been so much worse.  I credit The Torturer for immediately packing me in ice and my doctor for getting me on some powerful anti-inflammatories immediately for making the whole ordeal less painful than it would be otherwise.  It's ridiculous to think I need medical care for a minor accident, but at the same time - I'm very lucky to have people in my life who understand what I need in a situation like that.  

I think I'll be back to my version of "normal" in another week or so.  

Let's hope.

My family had a very nice Christmas.  We did less than normal, activity-wise, since I was in a bit of pain, but it was nice to keep the pace on the slower side.  Now, we're just enjoying a few lazy days hanging out together as a family.  I love it.

I have a few more things to share with you regarding our holidays, but I just wanted to post a huge thank you to everyone today.  I appreciate the support, concern, and well wishes more than you know.

Big hugs to each, and every single one, of you!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a wonderful, and heartwarming, day. 

© Twenty Four At Heart