Our Christmas Treasures

We call this the Christmas room. It is our family room, but we hardly use it except at Christmastime. It is a great place for my Santa collection. My mom made all of the ceramic Santas; she poured the molds, painted, and fired them in her own kiln. They are definitely one of my treasures from her. There are many homemade ornaments on the tree including many that the kids made with their photos included.

This Santa ball was my first ornament when I was a month old in 1962.

This glass ornament of a bunch of grapes was on my grandma Snell's first Christmas tree. She married my grandfather on Christmas Day 1929 so the ornament is 80 years old. It has the note from grandma attached - she labeled everything important for us before she passed.

Seasonal Sunset

I to a drive over to LBI as it was finally sunny and warmish after so much wet and cold weather. I was rewarded with a beautiful sunset that was a perfect backdrop for the holiday decorations in Ship Bottom.

Island Christmas Gazebo

Just as you come over the bridge onto Long Beach Island, there is a little gazebo looking over the bay with Christmas lights. I loved how the lights reflected in the puddles left by the recent rain and snow melt.

The Great Cookie Bake-Off

Rachel's friends Tara and Marlena joined us for the annual "great cookie bake-off" this year. There was a blizzard outside that ended up dumping close to two feet of snow on the ground so it was a perfect day for baking. It is so much fun to cut out sugar cookies in festive Christmas shapes and then decorate them with buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Julene and Pop Pop were here as well which made it extra special.

"Hey I know, let's decorate each other!"

Tara got lots of flour and frosting on herself throughout the day.

Zach still had melting snow on his face after shoveling outside when he leaned over to see what Marlena was up to.

Here are all of the bakers: Kelly, Rachel, Julene, Marlena, and Tara.

Zach couldn't wait to taste his creation.

Pop Pop didn't really help with the baking, but he certainly did enjoy eating the cookies!

Paint Around at Main Avenue Galleria in Ocean Grove

This past Saturday there was a "Paint Around" at Main Avenue Galleria in Ocean Grove. Starting with five photos from Galleria photographers, different artists painted for 30 minutes on each painting adding their own style and vision to what the previous artist had already done. After three hours, the five paintings were complete and they were raffled off to customers who had brought a donation for the local food pantry. Here is the painting of my OG Tents image.

Here is a progression of the painting over the course of the evening. Sue Gioulis started from a blank canvas and quickly sketched the outline of the scene and even had time to block in some color.

Jim Ferrier ponders which part of the painting he will focus on. When he was done much of the shading in the bottom of the image was complete.

Patti Kaufman who paints bright, whimsical paintings added fuschia, magenta, and bright blue to the painting.

Norma Tolliver, the gallery owner and pastel painter added more colors and details to the scene.

And finally Sandra Thwaites finished up the evening by adding a few final touches to the painting, although Sue decided at the last minute that a few birds in the sky were in order and are included in the final image above.

More photos from the other four paintings created at the Paint Around can be seen here:

http://www.thrukellyseyes.com/-/thrukellyseyes/galleryindex.asp?c=18839

Christmas Lights

Now that December is here, I feel like it is time to get in the holiday spirit. I don't like hearing Christmas music or seeing any holiday decorations before Thanksgiving, but once Black Friday comes, then I say it's time to start decorating.

The culdesac above is in Hazlet NJ and everyone on the block gets in on the act. It is a competition every year to see who can have the most decorations.

I got a big kick out of seeing this tow truck all decked out for the season. I don't think he is going to be towing anybody very far with all of these lights, however.

The house above reminds me of a gingerbread house.

I prefer white lights and a more traditional approach to decorations like this home in Jackson with the large country porch.