Thanksgiving Day 1

A stowaway from the organic produce delivery -- made me laugh.

Invitation & Disclaimer

Today, on the first day of November, two beautiful gals who hold a special place in my heart have begun a new tradition for this month of thanksgiving -- one photo a day as a way to note our gratitude.  It is a little side addition to 10 on 10, the original idea of taking a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours on the tenth day of every month as a way to document & find creativity with the life & beauty of everyday.  I encourage you to check out 10 on 10 -- you can see a couple of my old 10 on 10 posts here and here.  The daily invitation of thanksgiving for the month of November has captured my attention -- indeed, due to another friend, it was already something I was considering for daily thanksgiving posts on Facebook.  I will be posting a photo for each day in November & I invite you to join me.
And I end with a disclaimer...while I hope this will be a revival of sorts of this sorely neglected blog (last post April!), I make no promises.  I am inspired to do daily photo posts in November, but can't speak for past that -- I won't pretend that this blog won't again take the backseat.  For now, I hope you will enjoy my daily photos & that you will join me!
Love, Eliza

Back From Peru

Opening Day 2010

2010 Opening day didn't turn out well for the home town 9. 4-0 loss to the A's. M's need to find some offense fast.

2010 Mariners

RJ aka the Big Unit

A budding Superstar

An established Superstar

A fading HOF'er

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. We are enjoying a great day with my family in Spokane.

Advent Sharing

Above is the nativity that was always displayed at my Gowey grandparents' house during Christmastime. From a young age I remember admiring it in its corner cupboard spot, especially the lit star in the old paper creche. This will be the second Christmas without both my grandparents & my mother & her five siblings recently sorted out all of their holiday decorations to be distributed among our large family. Little did I know that this nativity set actually belonged to my mother & has now found its way to me. She received the creche & holy family from her grandparents (my great grandfather Clarence Lawton & great grandmother Harriet Eagle) when she was a little girl & each year would buy an additional figure until the set was complete. Below is a clearer photo of the nativity, now in my home. My mom told me that somewhere there is a photo of her, around 6 years old, playing by her grandparents' Christmas tree with the newly-gifted creche next to her.
Today is the third Sunday of Advent, the focus on Joy. I find joy in this family treasure handed down to me, in holding hands with my mother at church this morning & doing the advent reading together, in the lightest snowfall, in my husband making me breakfast, in my kitties curled up asleep, in so many things. We've been absent from this space for some time & have many things to share. In the coming weeks I hope to share some of my favorite photos since we took a hiatus from blogging in June, as well as some of the fun things we've been up to lately (both a 1920s & 1950s themed parties!). For now I want to share with you the words to a favorite hymn--we sang it in church a little while ago & the words have stayed with me, my hope for a joyful, peaceful world.

Abundant Life

We cannot own the sunlight sky,
The moon, the wildflowers growing,
For we are part of all that is
Within life's river flowing.
With open hands receive and share
The gifts of God's creation,
That all may have abundant life
In every earthly nation.

When bodies shiver in the night
And weary, wait for morning,
When children have no bread but tears,
And war horns sound their warning,
God calls humanity to wake,
To join in common labor,
That all may have abundant life
In oneness with their neighbor.

God calls humanity to join
As partners in creating
A future free from want or fear,
Life's goodness celebrating,
That new world beckons from afar,
Invites our shared endeavor,
That all may have abundant life
And peace endure forever.

What do you find joy in today?

JP Pond Skimming on July 4th at Baker

Baker in August

Lake Anne

Thanksgiving and all that.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Can you pick the turkey out in this picture?




The Chef, my sister, did excellent job cooking the 24 lb Tom. She also had the added excitement of getting engaged to the Turkey in the above picture.


The turkey took up the entire oven. But since it was a convection oven it cooked in an outstanding 3.5 hours.


Hailey was a big fan of the Turkey as well.

As is tradition my father carved up the giant bird.

And we all ate as much as we could for 3 straight days. Watched football and played games.