On the Second Day of Christmas...

Well, it's the second day of Christmas!  We woke up this morning to six inches of beautiful crisp snow.  We haven't had a snow like this for at least two winters (I think).    

My mom mentioned that having snow today goes with this song.  :) Today is the feast of St. Stephen, and the snow is indeed crisp and even.  

 Of course I had to take a picture of some snowy wool.  :)

Have a blessed day!

Christmastime is Here!

Cue the music

Hello everyone!  

It's good to be back on Blogger after so long.  Thanks for sticking around and waiting for me to finally start posting again.  :) Christmas break has been pretty good so far, even though it's hard to believe that Christmas is so close already.  My unrealistic to-do list is much too long, and I'm having a hard time realizing that some things just aren't going to get done.  :S  Maybe that's a good thing, though. It forces me to take a step back and relax after being on full-speed during the semester.
Anyway...

Last night my family spent the evening at my grandma's house. 

I took a few moments to take some pictures of the Christmas displays.   Some Most of the pictures were pretty bad, but I've discovered that PicMonkey can make even the most mediocre photos look halfway decent.  ;)

The weather forecast is predicting snow in our area on Christmas Day.  Wouldn't that be wonderful? 

The upcoming Christmas liturgies are going to be beautiful.  I love how there are different readings for Christmas Eve, Midnight, and Christmas Day Masses.  It reminds me of just how deep and colorful the Catholic faith is.  

Have a blessed and merry Christmas to all of you!

Oh, and for all of you who have noticed that Someone is missing from this scene, the manger is empty because Jesus hasn't been born yet.  :D

Meet Me in St. Louis

Warning: Excessive amount of doll pictures.  If you are offended by  an unusual number of dolls photographed, you might not want to read further. ;)
This Sunday my family and I went to St. Louis for the day.  It is one of our favorite places to go because there are so many things to do in St. Louis for free that appeal to everyone.
This Sunday was an exception to that appeal for everyone, at least for a little while. 
We went to the American Girl store.

It was a true dream-come-true for myself and my younger sisters.  :D

The store opened in March of this year, and from what I can tell, it's been going great for AG.   :)

The amount of dolls in that store was stunning.  They had dolls in the displays, underneath the displays, and on wall-to-wall shelves.
It was incredible!

They even had armies of dolls!  ;)

The store had a mini Bistro, which was really cute.  I took a picture of the light fixtures.  The bubbly one in the center is my favorite.

I had to take a picture of the Josefina display.  Josefina is my favorite.

They had the tiny weaving loom on display that I've seen in catalogues for years and always wondered what it looked like in real life.
It looks like it would be rather difficult to set up for a young girl, in my opinion.

I also took a picture of the Kaya display.  You can see her horse, Steps High and her dog with his own travois for carrying things.

To be honest, I kept hold of myself pretty well until I saw Kaya's tepee.
This was the best picture I took of it. 

When I was 13, I received a mini Kaya doll for Christmas. I consequently made tepees out of chop sticks and brown fabric for Kaya.  It was one of the best Christmases ever. ;)

I didn't realize that AG is still selling mini dolls of the retired characters like Kirsten and Samantha.  You can see them on the far right.

After a while though, my dad and brothers were done with standing around awkwardly while we girls jumped up and down enthusiastically.  I am so grateful that they waited patiently for us.  I can imagine what it was like for them.   They told us all the hardship and ridicule they received from other customers. All. The. Way. Home.

Afterwards, we went to the St. Louis History Museum.
It's a pretty impressive place.

A statue of Thomas Jefferson in the main entryway.  The museum was made for the St. Louis World's Fair  and was a part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  Jefferson was President at the time and a necessary driving force of the Purchase and the subsequent Lewis and Clark Expedition.

There was a small exhibit on weaving in the back room.
This is pretty much the only picture I took of it because my camera's battery died.

The history museum was followed by the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, which was beautiful as always.  Later we stood underneath the Arch and walked through the underground museum.
It was a great day.

Horseshoe Lake

Today was a rare day.  It was one of the very few days when my dad, my brother, and I were all off of work.  Mom and Dad decided to go on a drive to nearby Horseshoe Lake in Illinois.
It had been a while since we had all gone out there, probably around six years.

The lake is more or less a small swamp, complete with cypress trees and stagnant water. ;)

Cypress trees are always cool to see.  They grow in relatively stagnant water about two to three feet deep.

We stopped at a good lookout point, complete with a mini pier!
We had a great time, until my second brother noticed this:

 The top of the deck was just fine, but those support beams looked a little sketchy!

I tried a little forced perspective with my point-and-shoot Nikon.  What do you think?

A little farther on down the road the lake changed into a huge pool of gigantic lilypads.  It reminded me of the end of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" when the children are boating through a sea of white waterlilies. 

At this point my camera battery was dying, so I quickly snapped a picture of this tiny fairy-like scene.  

God bless!

Tunnel Hill Trail

 On Wednesday, I went with my dad and brothers on a bike trail called Tunnel Hill Trail.  The trail is about an hour's drive away from our house.  We left as early as we could to take advantage of the cooler morning air.

The trail was quite lovely, but before I can show you just how beautiful it is, I must first show you how much work went into it.
 

Yes, five bikes and a large water cooler were packed into the back of my family's 12-passenger van.  It worked out quite nicely.  You can tell that Dad has done this kind of thing before. ;)

The evening before the ride, shortly after we made the plans, I decided that I needed a new bike.  The one I rode before I've had for about eight years and was in rough shape.  That, and I wanted one that fits my personality.  

I found this.  I knew without a doubt that this was indeed my new bicycle. 

The ride itself was nice.  We got there at about eight in the morning, so everything was still fresh and new.  My brothers spotted several deer (they were farther ahead than I was at that point).  The first one they saw was a doe.

Then all of a sudden, a tiny, long-legged creature came out of nowhere:

It was a fawn! 

It was amazing to see such a small animal with such energy!

Fawns are so adorable.

A few miles later, Brother #3 stopped short on the trail.  He apparently had just barely missed a turtle. 

Dad picked up the little guy, who quickly receded into his shell. 

 You can see just how tiny he was.  I think he was a small snapping turtle, but I'm not sure.

Here are some pictures of the trail itself.  It was nice and shady for a good part of the ride. 

I forgot to mention earlier that this trail was originally a railroad.  There are several trestle bridges, with this one being the largest.

We were up pretty high!

We came to the end shortly after we went through the longest tunnel.  

I meant to take pictures inside the tunnel, but the first time we went through it took all my strength just to get through it.  That, and it was really dark in the middle.   I took video when we went through it the second time, but it was pretty shaky.
So, this is pretty much all I have of the tunnel itself:

 Not bad for taking the picture over my shoulder while riding away from the tunnel, eh? ;)

The trail was longer than any I have ever covered before.  It was ten miles one way, up a slight grade.  It was an endurance run, that is for sure.

But it was worth it.


J.M.J.