Today I went to the mall to meet my brothers. The plan was to take a picture of us three for mom — I mean, what do you get an 80+ year old woman? The main problem was finding a Christmas tree. You’d think the mall would be covered with trees, but noooooo. The only tree we found was the one with Santa. Luckily we were there before Santa arrived, so pictures were taken and mom will be pleasently surprised.
Then we all made a break because the place was filling up. It’s crazy the day before Christmas Eve day.

I’m experimenting with a new gallery system. The old collection of pictures was PHP code I wrote, but with all the worries about security and all the features that are typical today, I decided to try out a system that allows comments and rating and albums and other neat things.
There are now random pictures in the sidebar and, over time, I will load all my pictures.

It’s been cold for the Willamette Valley. This morning it was in the upper 20s with freezing fog. But the ice can be pretty. But, burrrrrrr.

It was another D and D day at our house last Sunday. The picture at the right is one person making chain maille. Yes, in some houses people sit around and knit. Here they make armor.

Disney has an illuminated Tinkerbell for the top of your Christmas tree. That strikes me as truly a secular Christmas — taking even the angel from the tree. Now, the tree itself is a pagen symbol but making it the center of the family with the angel looking over adds a little of the true Christmas spirit. But, adding Tinkerbell is going over to the commercial side much too far. Don’t you think?

I can tell Christmas is quickly approaching. The tension is rising as preparations for the extended family being here on Christmas Eve (that’s around 20 people) with Wagilia dinner for the immediate family at sundown before. That will mean serious logistics. But, in the mean time, we went shopping today and made sure we got to the store early to miss the crush. There’s a lot of shopping going on out there.