Dana and Sons

I'm always on the lookout for candid picture opportunities. These three were so absorbed in whatever they were looking at on Will's computer that I think they were quite oblivious to me or my camera. I liked the result.

We've had a quiet day today. Some people hate this 'lost' week between Christmas and New Year's Day, but I have always quite liked it. There is no pressure to do anything in particular and this year we have had the added benefits of frosty nights and clear sunny mornings. It's hard to get out from under the covers, but it warms up fairly quickly. There's not much to do in the garden, but there is promise of longer days. 

It is the perfect week for taking down the Christmas tree, once brightly lit and glittering  but now drooping and losing needles. Out with the old and in with the new. The tree is hauled out and the enormous quantity of needles is swept up; the ornaments are taken down and packed away in their boxes. I can once again get out of the car in the garage because the boxes are stored away in the attic for another year. Next year we will have the same dilemma...artificial tree, cut tree or no tree at all, and once we have a tree where will we put it? But that is all finished for 2019  and it feels good to have a clean house and a fresh outlook for the new decade.


I have included a picture in extras of our credenza which I was clearing of its withering greenery and wizened red berries. It was built for us by a friend who also happens to be a master furniture builder and has become quite a presence in this house. Dave was doing a brilliant job of remodeling our kitchen and I commented that we were still using an old lab desk I bought at some sort of university sale and repainted when I was still a student at Cal. It was falling apart by the time Dave was working on our kitchen and we worked with him to to build us a new one.  He said he had just the piece of cherry wood that he had gotten in trade for services rendered to someone else. He had us come by to look at it and I have to say, the splintery rough board covered in spider webs (and probably spiders) which he produced from his basement did not impress us. 

The finished product certainly did, however, and it now occupies pride of place in our living room because we can't fit it anywhere else. It's full of table linens which no longer fit our table, wine glasses, the ancestral family silver and an extraordinary number of bottles of alcohol which we haven't touched in years since I made the cognac cake or attempted a Cosmos cocktail for my neighbor who loves them. I should probably clean all that out before the new year too...

We are expecting our friends from Corvallis soon. They have spent the day driving up the interstate from Southern California where they spent Christmas with their family. They often  break their trip with us, and I imagine after that drive they will be ready for a drink....