December 11, 2009

• Weekly Photo Challenge, “PART 1- the Christmas Season thru New Year”

  
  

   

   

  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…

  

   

  • 11:28 pm
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