Getting Crafty

   
                        
I put this together at the end of the Christmas season last year and I am so extremely pleased with how it looks and what it has inspired.  They are little bags and each day gets a note with an activity on it.  We’ve done all sorts of things like baking cookies, decorating the tree, doing something kind for a stranger, reading a Christmas book, eating a candy cane and making crafts.  As a strictly non-crafty mom, we’ve done far more this month than we ever have!

This masterpiece is entitled “Harbor at Dana Point”.  You can see it, can’t you?

                         
These wreaths were lots of fun and turned out really well, I thought.  They’ve been hanging on the kids’ bedroom doors all month.

I tried some paper snowflakes with Logan but, predictably, they turned out like this.

                      
So we stuck with mine for this year.  We have our magi in a separate window since they are coming from far away.

                       
We even made our own nativity stick puppets and Logan put on a little show for us.  Naomi wasn’t really into that one either, and decided that Baby needed a story instead.

Jake’s been in the crafting mood too and has spent almost the whole month in the garage.  The only finished piece so far is this castle that he “helped” one of his lieutenants make for the general.

                              
We’ve had some bathtub creativity . . .

and lots of your average, everyday cuteness.

Logan had his first little church performance, singing Angels We Have Heard On High.  He was that kid that just stood there (even though I know he knows the words) and looked around at all the other kids.  It still makes me smile!

     
It was so much fun to have both the kids help decorate the tree this year.

                                     
Here’s the finished product.  I did help both the kids make Christmas ornaments but apparently haven’t gotten a picture of the results, so you’ll have to use your imagination--they are of the pipe cleaner and bead variety.

        
Jake put the lights up on the house (front and back).  Don’t they look nice?

                         
Another of our advent activities was a funny Christmas photo shoot.  Logan is playing you “Jingle Bells” and Naomi went with a “Deck the Halls” theme.

Christmas love!

A very merry Christmas from us to you!

From ALL of us!

End of the Line

I’ve got the last of the Thanksgiving posts up before Christmas!  Yeah for me!  In keeping with the way the whole Catalina trip has been posted so far, these are just the scattered leftovers.





  
  I really shouldn’t have to label these at this point.



The shadow in the back is the mainland.


At the museum there was a collection of pictures of notable Hollywood-types and various movie sets around Catalina.  I know the pictures of the pictures aren’t particularly good but I wanted to mention to you that this is where Natalie Wood drowned and where Marilyn Monroe lived with her first husband.  If you look, you’ll also see Desi Arnaz and the boat (with the movie poster on it) from Doris Day’s Glass Bottom Boat.

Stopping to smell the flowers.

                      
And enjoying the view.  At this point we were on a short hike, as far back into the hills and out of town as we could get without a hiking permit.

 
We didn’t see any of the buffalo, but we did get a few glimpses of wildlife.

We also managed to get a good Christmas card photo of all of us.

                 





 

Some fun at the beach and then it’s time to head home.

The End!

Not That Kind of Casino

Apparently “casino” really just means “gathering place” in Italian.  In any event, there is no gambling at the Catalina Casino, just an Art Deco masterpiece theater, the world’s largest circular ballroom, and a small museum.

For Sarah G.  And if you look close, I have Christmas lights on my toes, more of my own handiwork.

                                         
Stopping for a snack before we head over for the tour.  Gotta love a place with free fudge samples.
                                                                                                                                               

 

 

 
The building is the equivalent of twelve stories high and was completed at a cost of $2,000,000 . . . in the late 1920’s!  With a combination of high quality and good care, most of the building and its furnishings are still original.


The theater was the first in the world designed specifically for movies with sound and the acoustics are perfect.  It is still an active theater; the new Twilight movie was showing when we were there so we opted not to see it.


                              
The murals were done by the same guy that had just finished Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and there are some neat lighting effects, including a field of stars in the ceiling above you when the room fades to deep blue just before the movie starts.  On weekends, moviegoers are treated to a free organ performance on a certain type of pipe organ, of which there are only four remaining in the world, and this is the only one still in use regularly.

Upstairs, the ballroom can accommodate as many as 6,000 dancers and hosted the cream of the crop of musicians of the Big Band and Swing eras.

   
The Casino still hosts numerous events, everything from film and music festivals to weddings to the island’s high school prom.  Despite the room’s enormous size, elaborate Tiffany chandeliers, and other fine embellishments, the most stunning thing up here may be the view.  

        
French doors surround the ballroom and lead out onto the gorgeous balcony where you are surrounded by brilliant views of Avalon, Descanso Bay and all the way across the water to the mainland.

                              
Parting shots.  How long has it been since I’ve shown you a great hibiscus flower?