(no subject)

Have been out of touch for a while. Y'know, what with the boything back in town. This past weekend we spent with my Dad, and had a lot of fun. We went up on Friday night and watched The Polar Express with Morgan before bedtime. She's at the age that she can understand what's going on, and be afraid when the main characters are in danger and cheer them on as they try to get out of danger and bounce up and down on the couch when all turns out to be well, etc. It's totally adorable. Saturday was kind of just a day of kicking around and waiting until evening for the Scots Walk in Volcano, so we decided to go for a drive (surprise!) and take Alan over to Coloma (which is the site where gold was discovered in 1848 that kicked off the Gold Rush and is pretty much the reason why there are gringos in California today). Turns out that this weekend was their "Christmas in Coloma" festival. Lucky timing, eh? In addition to the usual Gold Rush era museum and preserved shops and cabins and whatnot, they had blacksmithing and spinning demonstrations, wreath- and candle-making, carriage rides, Santa and Mrs. Claus for picture-taking, a Pony Express rider to carry the letters kids wrote in the old schoolhouse across town to aforementioned Santa, a random pile of snow in the middle of the field that Morgan just _had_ to climb on even though Mommy hadn't packed an extra pair of pants... Good good times.

The Walk ended up being quite a disappointment. The years my family has gone in the past (admittedly, it's been a few since the last time), there's been a big turnout; easily a couple-three hundred people gathered in front of city hall in Volcano (a town with a population in the double digits), everyone carrying a candle that they lit from one of their neighbors, schmoozing about and being adopted and offered wee drams by people who discover that you're a Buchanan, and a team of pipers standing around playing while everyone assembles, then leading the procession at a reasonable pace through the streets of town and ending up at the Catholic church, where the priest stands on the front porch and gives the crowd a Christmas and New Year's blessing in Gaelic and English, and then we sing Auld Lang Syne (or pretended to). This year there were maybe, like, fifty people? And only one piper, who took off before even this paltry crowd was assembled with their candles lit, and then walked so fast that we three accompanying toddler Morgan were quickly left behind. The good side to the small crowd was that we could stand close enough to actually hear the priest's blessing this year, but sadly that wasn't quite enough to make up for the overall lackluster event. Sorry, kiwifruitbat.

It was still only about six o'clock, so we wandered down to Sutter Creek for the second night of their open house. Y'know those shots of Main Streets in western movies? Sutter Creek looks like that. Except the road and sidewalks are paved and there are cars. But the storefronts are well-preserved and it still has that feel. The street is hung with Christmas lights and the stores are open to wander through and they have Christmas music playing and offer cider and hot chocolate and munchies. At one point in the evening there's a procession from one end of the street to the church at the other, led by the "players" in said church's nativity scene, and people follow carrying candles and singing carols. Oh, funny moment: a bit afterwards I saw the guy who plays Joseph walking back through town, still in costume, and pushing a stroller with a sleeping little boy in it. Wish I'd had my camera, it was perfect!

I bought an angel bear to go on top of the tree we still need to buy, and absolutely fell in love with a $2,000+ mahogany china hutch/secretary (this one had dishes instead of books, but books is a good idea...). Srsly, I stood there for a good five minutes just staring at this thing and drooling. Okay, well maybe not really drooling. But man this thing was gorgeous and I was seriously thinking about how I could rearrange the furniture in my apartment so it could fit, ignoring that I couldn't pay for it anyway. But oh, if I didn't have international flights in my near future, I would ask the family to pool the money they would otherwise spend on Christmas and birthday presents so I could have that one piece.

Anyway, yes, fun times with family, and kiwifruitbat is bugging me to go to bed now.

(no subject)

Have been out of touch for a while. Y'know, what with the boything back in town. This past weekend we spent with my Dad, and had a lot of fun. We went up on Friday night and watched The Polar Express with Morgan before bedtime. She's at the age that she can understand what's going on, and be afraid when the main characters are in danger and cheer them on as they try to get out of danger and bounce up and down on the couch when all turns out to be well, etc. It's totally adorable. Saturday was kind of just a day of kicking around and waiting until evening for the Scots Walk in Volcano, so we decided to go for a drive (surprise!) and take Alan over to Coloma (which is the site where gold was discovered in 1848 that kicked off the Gold Rush and is pretty much the reason why there are gringos in California today). Turns out that this weekend was their "Christmas in Coloma" festival. Lucky timing, eh? In addition to the usual Gold Rush era museum and preserved shops and cabins and whatnot, they had blacksmithing and spinning demonstrations, wreath- and candle-making, carriage rides, Santa and Mrs. Claus for picture-taking, a Pony Express rider to carry the letters kids wrote in the old schoolhouse across town to aforementioned Santa, a random pile of snow in the middle of the field that Morgan just _had_ to climb on even though Mommy hadn't packed an extra pair of pants... Good good times.

The Walk ended up being quite a disappointment. The years my family has gone in the past (admittedly, it's been a few since the last time), there's been a big turnout; easily a couple-three hundred people gathered in front of city hall in Volcano (a town with a population in the double digits), everyone carrying a candle that they lit from one of their neighbors, schmoozing about and being adopted and offered wee drams by people who discover that you're a Buchanan, and a team of pipers standing around playing while everyone assembles, then leading the procession at a reasonable pace through the streets of town and ending up at the Catholic church, where the priest stands on the front porch and gives the crowd a Christmas and New Year's blessing in Gaelic and English, and then we sing Auld Lang Syne (or pretended to). This year there were maybe, like, fifty people? And only one piper, who took off before even this paltry crowd was assembled with their candles lit, and then walked so fast that we three accompanying toddler Morgan were quickly left behind. The good side to the small crowd was that we could stand close enough to actually hear the priest's blessing this year, but sadly that wasn't quite enough to make up for the overall lackluster event. Sorry, kiwifruitbat.

It was still only about six o'clock, so we wandered down to Sutter Creek for the second night of their open house. Y'know those shots of Main Streets in western movies? Sutter Creek looks like that. Except the road and sidewalks are paved and there are cars. But the storefronts are well-preserved and it still has that feel. The street is hung with Christmas lights and the stores are open to wander through and they have Christmas music playing and offer cider and hot chocolate and munchies. At one point in the evening there's a procession from one end of the street to the church at the other, led by the "players" in said church's nativity scene, and people follow carrying candles and singing carols. Oh, funny moment: a bit afterwards I saw the guy who plays Joseph walking back through town, still in costume, and pushing a stroller with a sleeping little boy in it. Wish I'd had my camera, it was perfect!

I bought an angel bear to go on top of the tree we still need to buy, and absolutely fell in love with a $2,000+ mahogany china hutch/secretary (this one had dishes instead of books, but books is a good idea...). Srsly, I stood there for a good five minutes just staring at this thing and drooling. Okay, well maybe not really drooling. But man this thing was gorgeous and I was seriously thinking about how I could rearrange the furniture in my apartment so it could fit, ignoring that I couldn't pay for it anyway. But oh, if I didn't have international flights in my near future, I would ask the family to pool the money they would otherwise spend on Christmas and birthday presents so I could have that one piece.

Anyway, yes, fun times with family, and kiwifruitbat is bugging me to go to bed now.