Photos of Christmas 2020

 

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in two days. To make it up to you, I will now write a super ultra long blog post. First is a photo my neighbor's son took of the "Christmas Star" (conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn) on Tuesday evening. He took it from our dock. Isn't it stunning? 

Here are some photos I took back on Wednesday evening of Christmas lights in the neighborhood, when a possum walked in front of me. (I didn't get a picture of that - too dark.)

That evening Ma and Pa Hat finished putting the days on their Advent calendar. I think this is the same one we had my whole childhood. My brother and I would take turns putting up each day. It's made of felt, so the dates and pictures just stick to it.

And here is a montage Ma Hat sent of their decorations for Christmas.

Christmas Eve was a very, very cold day, and I slept late and walked outside a bit with my neighbor, but Travalon and I also walked in the house. When we do that, we often carry stuffed animals. Here I am carrying lots of little bears.

And here I am carrying two large Christmas bears and a Christmas tree.

We went to 5 pm Mass, which we were told was almost full so you needed reservations. We had them, and so they sat us up front with everyone else who also had them. Meanwhile, the back of the church was practically empty, so I should have just said we didn't have them. No choir, but there was a cantor and a trumpet player. Afterwards, Richard Bonomo, Travalon, and I had Indian food for dinner, and then Travalon and I drove around looking at Christmas lights in Maple Bluff and Waunakee.

This picture is the Governor's Mansion.

This house makes me laugh, because the way the garage is decorated, it looks like a face!

Then we came home and exchanged gifts. I gave Travalon this polar bear (one of those adopt-a-polar-bear things), and he named it Stanley after the Florida Panther mascot. I also gave him a tripod for his camera, so he could take even better photos of birds, and a Florida Panthers T-shirt, but neither of those photos really turned out so you'll just have to imagine them.

Travalon gave me a tiki bar ornament. Here it is on our little fake tree.

He also gave me bird socks, which I wore yesterday.

And he also gave me a book about the Wisconsin River.

 

And a teddy bear of the 1908 Chicago Cubs!

Ma and Pa Hat sent some towels for us.

Yesterday I meant to go to 9 am Mass, and I got up, but somehow we didn't get there. I am trying to "pray in" all my new rosaries, but I took a break Thursday and Friday and used the two rosaries below. The one on the left is the one I used Christmas Eve, because it has a Christmas Star crucifix and a nativity centerpiece, and I prayed the Luminous Mysteries except for the third one, when I prayed the Third Joyous Mystery - the Birth of Christ. Yesterday I prayed with the one on the right, and the centerpiece is a little present that reveals the Infant Jesus when you open it, so I prayed with it closed for the Annunciation and the Visitation and then opened it for the Birth and the Presentation... but then I closed it again for the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, because it was too distracting to look at a baby while meditating on a preteen Jesus.

Then I took them back up into the loft and put them back into the mandala of rosaries I am making. (See below.) It's a work in progress. I sat in the middle for a little bit yesterday. It's so peaceful there.

Then I went over to my neighbor's house, and we did some day drinking and some virtual reality games. One was riding a roller coaster, and the more fun one was slicing cubes that came at you in rhythm to a song. She has a new fountain, and I made a video:

Rich had a very small group over for dinner, and of course he, Kathbert, and I had a linguistic discussion, which always bores poor Travalon. I made my cassata with a Mexican poundcake this year, and with Cuban rum, but unfortunately we had long since used up the Cuban coffee, so I just used instant coffee.

Today we stopped by the pond in Waunakee where there was a bird party all November and December last year, but nothing this year. Today - yes! A bird party!! But it was only Canada geese.

Then we went to Sauk and saw plenty of eagles, both sitting in trees and flying.

I thought this was a loon with winter coloration when I saw it through the binoculars, but now as I look at Travalon's photos, I think it's a female merganser.

There were a number of black and white ducks, and I'm going to say the smaller ones with gray bills are buffleheads, but the larger ones with thin red bills are male mergansers.

I don't know what's going on here - is there a spring under the ice?

We drove to Lake Wisconsin and stopped by the island in Sunset Bay.

We walked on the path to Paradise Island, but didn't go that far because it was cold. Then we took a walk in a park in downtown Lodi. Their Catholic church is kind of odd looking.

We got back to town and took a walk at Jackson's Landing at sunset.

Then we drove to Pewaukee to look at lights in neighborhoods that Travalon used to visit.

We went to a really wealthy subdivision, but surprisingly, they didn't have much in the way of Christmas decorations. Then we went to Oconomowoc, and they had plenty.

Here is the side of the same house as taken by Travalon's cell phone, my good camera, and Travalon's good camera.

Our last stop was Deerfield to see the mega-decorated house. Here is another one in town.

And here is the one where they went all out.

And, anticlimactically, here is yet another one in Deerfield.

We also tried to go to the place that used to be Country Springs and is now called the Ingleside but still has a huge lights display that you drive through. There was quite a line, but the woman guiding people told us it wasn't a long wait, "only fifteen minutes." Plus another half hour to drive through the whole thing, plus you have to pay, so we skipped it. We may see if it's a little less crazy on a weeknight.

Famous Hat