I got my mailing done in two trips to the post office, and was amazed and delighted that I was in and out in under 10 minutes both times. All of my gifts have arrived at their locations, cards are received and I managed to keep shipping costs down this year. I rarely get out of the post office in less than 20 minutes and the boxes cost a mint to ship. A couple of years ago it cost me $75 to ship two boxes to my granddaughters in Spokane. This year, I opted to buy gifts that are smaller in size, including gift cards, that would fit into the USPS's flat-rate boxes. From now on, that's how we're going.
My two friends Cindy and Mae and I had our annual holiday luncheon yesterday. We went to the Silver Gulch in Fox and had a wonderful lunch despite the -25 degrees. Although it was a little chilly in the restaurant, the food was good and the company can't be beat.
Last evening the three of us drove all over Fairbanks looking at holiday lights. I figured it would be a good time to try out the handheld twilight feature on my camera, and I wasn't disappointed with it. We were a little disappointed that a lot of places we've enjoyed seeing over the past few years didn't have their elaborate displays - some of them didn't even have a single light.
However, the Larson house was as lit up as normal.
Though I'm a traditionalist and don't like to see kitschy stuff that looks out of place, I decided the palm trees did fit the theme of this display.
I really don't like those inflatable snowmen, Santas and other things people put into their yards. We saw an inflatable Nativity and penguins as well, some of them losing their air and folding over onto themselves and others tipped over by the wind. To me, they're not attractive and seem like yard clutter.
By far, my favorite lights were those on natural displays.
The street lights cast a yellow glow on the birch trees.
This choke cherry tree may have been my favorite. It was strung with small white lights, and the fresh snow gave it a beautiful ethereal appearance.
Tomorrow is Dec. 21, the winter solstice. I often think it's my favorite day of the whole year, because it means we'll start gaining daylight again. I take my tree down by Dec. 26 so I can get every bit of that extra light (even though it's only 1 minute at first). My dad enjoys telling me it's just the first day of winter, but to me it signals we're midway through winter and heading toward longer days, and, eventually, break-up. There are a number of solstice activities, including fireworks, today. I can sometimes see them from my yard, so I'll probably take the dog out and see if they're high enough for us to catch a glimpse. However, I don't plan to go downtown to see them. This is the end of a long weekend for me and I need to get back into work mode tomorrow.
Plans for today include baking a ham for the office Christmas lunch, shoveling my sidewalk and brushing all the snow off my car.
Happy Solstice everyone.
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