My Life, my photography, my passions
The tradition in our house is to open presents on Christmas Eve, 12:01 am to be exact. Long story, and since I have so many pictures to update on my 365 project it can wait until another time. Another tradition is the Santa Hat. In order to open a present you have to wear the Santa Hat. It gets passed around and one person at a time opens a present while everyone watches.
This is my daughter, modeling the Santa hat, her new snowflake necklace, and a wonderful Christmas smile.
I loved ice skating when I was young. During the 1970’s in Connecticut the best skating was outside, a field would ice over and all the neighborhood kids would gather with skates and hockey sticks. Cities and parks would sponsor outdoor skating rinks by flooding fields and bonfires would be lite to keep skaters warm.
It was wonderful. I learned to skate with my Dad. He skated backwards and held my hands. Didn’t matter if the ice was bumpy, or cracks made one fall down. It was the whole experience. Even when it snowed, then shovels came our clear the skating area. Always thought figure skating inside was cheating in a way, although I liked the smooth ice, it’s just not the same.
This rink at Eugene Mahoney State Park in Ashland, Nebraska combines the best of both worlds. A prepared, maintained surface gives the luxury of skating on “good” ice, while the open air pavilion maintains the natural feeling of skating outside. I taught my daughter to skate here and it’s a annual tradition around Christmas to spend a few hours on the ice. The park is located halfway between Omaha and Lincoln and we are very lucky and fortunate the park is so close, skating in the winter and swimming in the summer.
New England Clam Chowder is one of my favorite soups, normally I open a can of Campbells Chunky soup, but since I’ve had success in making homemade soup I thought I would give it a try. Yes the recipe is below. Some of my favorite recipes are from Taste of Home and rarely do I follow a recipe to the letter and this was no exception.
The result was wonderful and was given the thumbs up from my friend Beth and my daughter.
Nebraska Clam Chowder
In a large saucepan, combine the above ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce hear; cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. In a small bowl, combine flour and cold water until smooth. Stir into potato mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce hear. Add clams and cheese; cook and stir until cheese is melted. Stire in milk, heat through.
Yield: 9 servings
Feel free to add more potatoes, onions, chopped carrots, cheese, other seafood, or dill according to your taste. Soup is wonderfully forgiving and invites creativity. If a thicker soup is desired use more flour or cornstarch.
I might have missed the lunar eclipse on an early December 21st, 2010 if it hadn’t been for a plate of cookies. I called my friend and neighbor, only to learn she didn’t get off till midnight (she’s a nurse), but to bring them over afterwards for the eclipse party.
I’ve always wanted to see the full eclipse of the moon on a clear night. This year it happened. We stood in the driveway and watched it slowly disappear. I tried various settings on my camera but liked this one because of the glowing orange shadow.
A PhotoShopped moon combination in many stages appears on my Flickr account.
Today was a day spent behind the computer, so I took the camera to my decorations and started experimenting with camera settings. There is an alternative motive. My living room is so dark and my normal Christmas Eve photos don’t turn out how I would like, so I have to figure this out in the next few days.
Seeing how I was a few days behind in my postings I figured out how to automate PhotoShop actions to save some time. I still tweak a little, but automatically adding adjustment layers, sharpen filters, and resizing saves SO much time.
