Day-Tripping

We set our alarms to wake us up at 5:00 AM yesterday.

We were going on a day trip to Rochester.

It was a dark, cold morning.  We had a long 5 hour drive ahead of us.

This was taken on the highway in the dark with the lights overhead and the cars on the other side of the highway.  Fun!

The parking garage in Springfield was festive!

As daylight slowly brightened the dark sky, it was really beautiful.

We got to Rochester a little early so we could get a seat for the Holiday Sing.  The Holiday Sing is an annual tradition at the Eastman School of Music.  Students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members (and parents!)  gather together in the main hall at the end of the fall semester to hear and perform musical pieces inspired by the holiday season.  I was excited that we could be there!

And better yet,  Annie was playing in the Holiday Sing this year!

We enjoyed all of the performances, but of course we liked the saxophones best of all!

If you're interested,  here a snippets from some of the other groups.

Afterward,  we had the privilege of having lunch with our beautiful daughter.

And for the finale,  we shared a few slices of scrumptious carrot cake at Cheesy Eddie's.

Then we were back on the road again.

We left in the dark.  Came home in the dark.

These are Christmas lights as we sped by in the car.

We arrived at home again at 8:39 PM.  

It was a very long day, but one that I'm glad we didn't miss.

The kids come home at the end of this week so it won't be long until our family is whole again.

I can't wait!

Change

We had a water bowl already.

It's been used for many years.

On the surface, it was very functional.

The design only allowed the pets to see a small portion of the water

so they were unable to splash the water on the floor.

But it was not perfect.

Exposing what has been hidden, 

removing the lid, 

the unseen water was not clean.

Don't they deserve better?

It was time for a change.

This is the new water bowl.

The water is constantly moving.  

It is filtered so it's always clean.

It's healthier.  It's better.

The world is always resistant to change.

Isn't it true?

Change is scary.

Change is hard for many.

Even when it's necessary.

When something has been the same way for so long,

it takes courage to do things differently.

It takes is someone with the courage

to try another way... 

to show others it's not scary,

and hopefully lead others to the same conclusion.

Still, some resist.

But be persistent.

Don't give up.

Or maybe just give them no other option.

Downsizing the Tree

Bigger is better, right?

That's what I've always thought when it comes to Christmas trees.   Growing up, we always had big trees to fit the high ceiling in our living room.

I remember trudging through the woods of Vermont (somewhere) with my family and watching my father top a good 12 feet off the top of an unsuspecting pine tree.

The tradition continued when I was married and we had our own house with a cathedral ceiling in the living room, first with real trees (from a tree farm) and in later years with a 12 foot artificial tree.

It was always a major event to put up the tree as the kids oohed and awed over each ornament as they placed them exactly where they wanted them on the tree.

Vance was usually on the stepladder to decorate the top section of the tree.

This was fun with the anticipation of Christmas in the children's faces, even though taking it down and putting all of the ornaments away was one of the worst tasks I faced each year.

As time passed and the kids grew up,  they wasn't the same excitement in putting up the tree anymore.  In fact, for the past two years they just wanted lights on the tree with no decorations!  When my sister was here for Christmas last year,  my niece, Hali, took pity and used here own creativity to make the tree more festive.

This year,   it was Adam's idea to downsize.   Since we spend most of our time together in the dining room, he thought it would be a good idea to get a small tree and put it in the corner near the table where we could enjoy it.  At the time,  we were picturing a perfectly shaped small tree, but it didn't turn out that way at all.

When the time came to go to the tree farm to pick out a tree,  Kerry got the idea to cut a small tree down from out back yard,  and that seemed like a fun idea to everyone, so we all trudged through the snow to the back section of our yard to take a look.

It was not quite a "Charlie Brown" tree, but pretty close.

It was a lot easier than any other year and everyone enjoyed the novelty of it!

We put it in a bucket of rocks with water for a stand.

The kids picked out their favorite ornaments that didn't weigh too much for the delicate branches.  We used micro LED lights on a thin wire too.

And voila!

The next morning, it made me happy to find Adam doing homework by the light of the tree.

At least for this year, and maybe in the years to come,

downsizing was a very good decision!

And it will definitely be a breeze to take down after the holidays.