…MERRY CHRISTMAS XANGA…

 

Follow the Link to Visit and PLAY the
Weekly Photo Challenge

 

this week, for Dec. 11 – Dec. 17, 2009
“the Christmas Season through New Years” suggested by PhotoGraphics 

 

..PART 3..
…Christmas in Downtown Cincinnati…

After our failed attempt to capture Christmas while candy shopping in Cincinnati, we made a special trip to town in the late evening of December 15 for Photos.  We drove familiar roads from Loveland into Montgomery then to Reading in hopes of catching the stained glass window of the church I attended as a child, lit with the lights from inside the church.  Once again a failed attempt so back to the interstate I-75 to continue our drive into Cincinnati.  The evening was a joy filled experience with so much beauty, shining reminders of Christmas but it included a bit of sadness at the same time.

 

1- For the most part, the streets in downtown Cincinnati are directed as one way streets so there is always some confusion driving there.  I’ve never memorized into my mind the map of streets (my mom knew them all) so always have to hunt and peck my way around.  I can get anyplace, just not in a straight bee line.  There are a lot of walkways over the streets taking shoppers from one store to another but what street we are on in the above moment is a mystery unless I decide to go back to town and make sense of the corner buildings in photos.

 

 

2-Fountain Square is the center of town.  It is home to the Tyler Davidson Fountain which was dedicated to the city in 1871.  Read HERE at Wikipedia for more information.  You see in the above photo, the square lit for Christmas.  The annual tree lighting was the day after Thanksgiving on the 27th of November and hundreds of people witnessed the event of the sixty foot tree with its 20,000 lights and a five foot star at its top, joyously lit for the season.  Read  more on the event and see a video with the excitement HERE.  There have been, in the past, ice rinks kept on the Winter time square but I did not notice anyone skating while we drove so I don’t know if it’s done anymore.  *** AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO myself, there is a large ice rink behind the fountain in use by lots of fun loving, energetic people who are enjoying the Christmas festivities on the square, unseen from the cars driving by.  We who are trapped inside cars for photo taking miss a lot but thanking the Cincinnati Newscasters for a fun update on the square.

 

3-  In this photo you see the fountain caressed with the soft lights of Christmas.  Its very top is darker in the image so not easily seen in the photo.  I wasn’t sure I had sucessfully taken any pictures of the fountain as in the car when it’s dark and we are in moving traffic I miss a lot of shots I’d like to take.  I got lucky and discovered this one among my photos taken that evening.

 

 

4-  This is Garfield / Piatt Park and another Wikipedia link for you, HERE.  It doesn’t show off well in my photo but it’s a lovely little spot providing some green in the city.  I am not sure but think the arbor lights may be lit evenings, year round, not just Christmas.

 

 

5-  Macy’s is fairly new to Cincinnati and I’ve never shopped there.  The building shows itself off with lots of windows and the colors are perfect, surely planned for Christmas.

 

 

6-  This is the sad part of this entry, the John Shillito building.  It was, when I was small, the place to shop in Cincinnati.  The windows you see are quite large (a large car could be parked easily in any of them) and they completely surround the building, or did.  My mother brought us here to see Santa and to see the displays that filled these windows at Christmas.  I can recall freezing while standing and watching but it’s a really good memory.  Those window displays were the best I’ve ever seen in window animation.  Everything from Lionel trains to rocking horses and dolls and teddy bears plus everything a child could want in any toy to expensive clothing filled the store windows.  I realize cities change but the loss of Shillito seems to me to be a bit of history gone.  The store changed hands going from Shillito’s to Aires to Lazarus and ??? and I’m not really sure of the sequence as I couldn’t keep up with the changes.  The building is now called Shillito Lofts and I believe it is, or will be, city dweller apartments of a more expensive nature.  The apartments will be a plus for renters as it is near the center of town and sits only a stones throw from fine restaurants, the Riverfront and baseball and football and the art and natural history museums the Cincinnati Symphony and Opera and Ballet and the Findley Market which is also historic to Cincinnati so one more link for you HERE.

 

 

7-  This is the business district of Loveland, the little city my husband and I call home.  Most buildings aren’t more than two stories so it isn’t as grand a spot to show off for Christmas as is Cincinnati or larger cities but it has a nice historic feel and a quiet countenance I appreciate.  There are nice little shops and the bicycle trail and a canoe livery in the historic district.  Festivals are held in the parks and the parks are very nice.  There is a lot to be said about smaller towns and villages.  I could never have been a big city girl.  Merry Christmas Loveland.

 

Christmas entries Part 1 HERE

Christmas entries Part 2 HERE

Have a beautiful Christmas Xanga

 

 

Follow the Link to Visit and PLAY the
Weekly Photo Challenge

 

this week, for Dec. 04 – Dec. 11, 2009
“the Christmas Season through New Years” suggested by PhotoGraphics 

 

PART 2
A Quest for Christmas Photos

After Thanksgiving, our plan of attack included a trip to at least one of two candy stores.  We opted for Minges in downtown Cincinnati in hopes we would get good photos of Christmas decorations in town.  The candy purchase went well but lit displays weren’t.  I took lots of photos of the city but Christmas lighting necessitated a night time return trip.  We decided a photographic foray into the wilds of Loveland to photograph favorite homes and anything else concerning Christmas would be good.  Remembering my photos are taken for the most part from a moving car I hope they don’t appear to poorly on your monitor.

 

Beginning with one of the Christmas Tree lots in the area we see a blow up Frosty waving in hopes of bringing in business.

 

Frosty did his job well as trees appeared, loaded on tops of cars headed to various homes for the decorating activity.  This particular tree was threatning to fly off the top so we followed a while just in case he got into trouble with a run away tree.

I love a Gazebo and the Loveland Historic Society always decorates inside and out to brighten their buildings for the Christmas season.

This home sits next to a park we enjoy.  It always takes my eye and I have a lot of photos of it in all weather conditions.  Decorated with green wreaths with red bows it makes a wonderful display that really sets it off with a look of the old South .

This is a wonderful big home my mother always wished she could buy.  It’s been sold several times in the years we have lived in Loveland and I’ve never gone into it to see what it’s like inside.  That’s a bit disappointing when I think about it.  For Christmas it is always wrapped with greens and hung with wreaths.  It’s a beauty of an older home with a wonderful porch that wraps around most of the house and the telltale signs indicate there are children living there now who enjoy it.

This light display is actually in Reading where I grew up.  The beautiful blues in the lights caught my eye along with the rest including the angel heralding in the birth of the Christ Child.

Either an old fire house or a school house and it sits either on or next to the King’s Island property.  I would love to have this building for myself.  It actually is not decorated, I applied the wreaths and ornaments to the tree with Paint Shop Pro.  It and its wonderful evergreen tree needed some Christmas.

There are Nativities in many places, especially in church yards.  Our little town like others has removed the Nativity scene from the city/government lot where it used to sit .  Loveland’s Creche now sits across from the Loveland city buildings in the old train station.  This particular Nativity in my photo sits in the bank lot in Reading. 

A familiar scene to me, the night drive into Loveland, down the hill and towards our home approximately 3 miles distant.  The flying car and reindeer with Santa are actually a changing display at a home about a mile forward.  I decided to remove thm from their actual position with Paint Shop Pro and fly them into the night at the entrance to Loveland.

I have many more photos for Christmas.  I’ll add another entry with scenes from downtown Cincinnati including Fountain Square with it’s Christmas lights.  I’ll continue to seperate photos into halfway organized entries as they happen.

See my Christmas entry part 3 HERE.

See my Christmas entry part 1 HERE.

Have a great week and Merry Christmas to all.

 

 

 

Follow the Link to Visit and PLAY the
Weekly Photo Challenge

 

this week, for Nov. 27 – Dec. 03, 2009
“the Christmas Season through New Years PART 1″
suggested by PhotoGraphics

Our Christmas season always begins withThanksgiving. Each year on the fourth Thursday of November we celebrate the survival of ancestors who traveled dangerous waters, for months at a time, to achieve freedom to worship as they chose.  The day might include different patterns of thanks in different households but it usually ends with a table spread with a bounty of foods.  The food is often a picture worth taking as it can include food items we see only in times of celebration.  Thanksgiving is most definitely the beginning of our Christmas season.  Sometimes John and I celebrate by ourselves.  We don’t cook as much but we cook as festive.  Most of the time we wend our way to Rockford, Illinois to be with my sister Bunny.  In going there, a bit of Christmas finds it’s way to and from in the form of packages carried either way.  We are blessed with a loving family.  It’s small but enough and each visit becomes more important as the years hurry by.  So, as our Christmas begins with Thanksgiving, my posted photos take you, in installments, on the drives that are a part of our Christmas adventure for the Weekly Photo Challenge, this year 2009.

 

1-  There is a feeling in the look of the skies, the temperatures, and the surroundings when it’s time for Thanksgiving.  Our Thanksgiving drives to Rockford are always drippy with rain and dark with clouds just as it should be.  Every Thanksgiving drive I take photos of the same type of atmosphere. 

 

2-  It’s the middle of the day and the homes in farming areas are dark.  Chores are never ending and the look is as if no one is home. 

 

3- Trees are bare, grass is golden and field corn is waiting for harvest for Winter feed storage.

 

4- Dark catches up with us even though we had a fairly early start.  We left at 10 in the morning, making few stops.  This photo was taken at 5:00 p.m. Illinois time.  It’s the first time I caught a night light on the Wind Farm.

 

5-  A view of Thanksgiving / Christmas in Loves Park, the area Bunny calls home.  A lot of Christmas lights are sparkling happily on our arrival. 

 

6- The only photo of the snow that was on the ground on Thanksgiving morning (the white patches on the deck).  Most had melted before I was awake and moving.  After some photos, my job for the day is to make the dressing for our meal.  I made it, we took it, to Bunny’s son’s home where we gathered for the Thanksgiving feast, and it was eaten along with Turkey, Ham, Sweet Potatoes, Scalloped Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Turkey Gravy, other veggie dishes, a couple of Cranberry desserts, pies, cakes, and drinks.  And I’m faltering here trying to remember it all.  I can only say it was more than enough and I’m glad I didn’t have to do the clean up.

 

7-  Already Monday and after a day of travel to get here, 4 days of visiting and doing the fun things sisters do, we head home making a favorite stop at the Wind Farm in DeKalb.  It’s a gorgeous day with blue skies.  I love this place with it’s high rise blades moving with the winds.  I find them to be a God sent revival of natural and clean power.

 

8-  I visit a group of trees along the road at the wind farm.  Hedge Apples are a part of my growing up.  Anywhere you find them growing you know there were, once upon a time, hedgerows made up of them to keep livestock in.  The green balls are heavy, sticky, not edible except for bugs and supposedly they keep spiders out of your house if you put a few of them in rooms.

 

9-  Not snowballs but just as round and every bit the size of a large one made up for snowball fights.  If a hedgeapple falls from the tree and happens to hit you on the head it could surely knock you out.

 

10-  Back home on the 30th of November we work at recuperating a few days.  We get a dusting of snow on the 6th and the 10th of December.  Rockford gets over a foot of snow a few days later and we get lots of wind but no snow.  I’m hoping the dustings we did get are a sign, maybe snow for Christmas?  Our plans are to visit Halie for Christmas in Virginia.  It’s always beautiful there but usually not a lot of snow.  Who knows, stranger things have happened and I’ll post something for each week of our Christmas to let you follow our fun and excitement!

See Part 2 of my Christmas photos HERE.

Have a wonderful week.  …MERRY CHRISTMAS…