All Souls Day

When I woke up this morning, I was happy to see the sun shining in a clear blue sky, a surprising change from the gray, overcast days we recently experienced. I awoke with an awareness of All Souls Day and a thinning of the veil between worlds. The older I get, the more I see the turning of seasons in life - the birth of children followed by the passing of elders. Life is a circle, and if we see with the eyes of our hearts, heaven and earth come together and everything stands as one. 

When I saw the beautiful weather, I was kicking myself for not having my camera nearby. Fortunately, my friend Shelly Boyd got the picture I missed. This photo credit goes to Shelly. 

The 4th of July

Dakota's girlfriend Kelsi invited our family to spend the 4th of July in Suncrest. I was looking forward to visiting Kelsi's family, but I have to admit that I was not too excited to watch the fireworks in a rural community. I had this idea that the firework display would be less than memorable. Boy, was I wrong. 

Unlike Spokane County, Stevens County has no fireworks ban, so before the show actually started, fireworks were exploding all around us - in every direction. It was crazy! It was like a pre-show firework display that lasted for more than an hour. When the actual show started, we were able to sit directly next to the place where they launch the fireworks. It had never been so close before. Sometimes, the fireworks exploded directly overhead and seemed to fill the whole sky.  

After the main firework display, we lit sparklers.  

Homemade Pie

This is the beginning of the food season - Halloween candy, Thanksgiving turkey, and Christmas dinner; it's a wonderful time of year, but it's also difficult for my diet. 

But yes, once a year, I love to pick sugar pumpkins from Greenbluff and make my own pies from scratch. I found a great recipe online that makes a wonderful dessert. Well, the recipe is 21 pages long when printed, mostly because it addresses every possible contingency and variation, but if you can skip to essential details, it really does make a great pie.  

I used three small pumpkins, and I got enough goop to make two pies, with enough left over to make a delicious pumpkin curry soup. 

The crust was another issue. It is still hard to get a perfect crust; however, this time it turned out better than before. The last time I attempted a pie crust, the thing was like a lead Frisbee. At least this time the crust would break with a fork. 

One of the sugar pumpkins

immediately before its demise. 

I used an ice cream scoop to extract the seeds. 

I then steamed the pumpkins. 

...my collection of pie spices and flavors. 

Tree

This year I suggested that we buy a Christmas tree, but my kids insisted on visiting Greenbluff to cut our own tree. They said we would create more memories that way, so we went. 

Dakota packed the tree part way out of the lot, but once he got tired, he handed it off to me. That's me below, the one with the legs sticking out from the tree. 

Fire

This is the second year we went to Stevens County for the 4th of July - a place where fireworks are still legal, and where my friend John purchased over $400 worth of rockets, fountains, and other exploding things. I suppose it's worth the trip to hang out with friends, eat barbecued hamburgers, and watch someone else burn their money.

Almost equally entertaining, I got to experiment with taking pictures of the fireworks with different shutter speeds. A few of the pictures turned out with some interesting effects.

The first picture is actually one of my favorites, though it's certainly less exciting from the standpoint of the light show. The exposure time was 15 seconds, but John had a hard time lighting the rocket, so the picture looks like him sitting still by a small campfire. It reminds me of the primal fascination with fire we most certainly inherited from our first ancestors.

This picture reminds me of a lightning blast hitting the earth.

In this picture, multiple strikes hit the same spot at once.

In this picture, I can almost picture a fire breathing dragon just below the field of vision.

Roman candles...

This one reminds me of a volcano.

Easter

My family dressed up on Easter Sunday and walked to the park for a family picture. The sun was shining and the temperature finally rose above 60 degrees. It was a beautiful day for remembering resurrection and new life.

Click on the picture for a larger image.

New Year's Eve

My family spent the last night of 2010 with Rhonda's extended family, playing card games, and of course, eating way too much food. Laughing with family is a wonderful way to start the new year.

Home-Made Gifts

Rhonda's family practices a wonderful Christmas tradition of making home-made gifts. Everyone draws a name and then creates a home-made gift for that person. The gifting is inexpensive, but is usually quite meaningful. Those of us who participated shared a meal together and exchanged gifts.

Of course, baby Meadow was the star of the evening. Everyone took turns fighting over who got to hold her.

The Trees

After watching White Christmas at the Bing, my family walked to the Davenport Hotel and observed the Christmas trees organized by the Spokane Symphony fundraiser. Different community organizations each sponsor a Christmas tree with a unique theme that includes cash and other prizes. Participants can vote for their favorite trees by purchasing ballots for $1 each. The ballots then function like a raffle. If your ticket is drawn, you win the tree and all the attached prizes.

I always enjoy the elegance of the Davenport.

The Kids

Just a few more pictures of the kids getting ready for Christmas.



O Christmas Tree

When we got the tree home from Greenbluff, it was so large that the tree stand could not support its own weight. As soon as we let go, the tree literally toppled over in the middle of our living room. In the end, we had to buy a totally new stand. Once we did, we were able to balance the tree, but again, it was so large that it took up at least a fourth of our living room.

Something about having an oversize tree made my kids happy. It's like a reflection of their giant love for Christmas.

Greenbluff Trees

After our wonderful experience gathering pumpkins at Greenbluff, we decided to return for a live Christmas tree. We found quite a variety at a little place called Hansen's. When we arrived, an attendant greeted us at the gate and said that every tree costs $50, regardless of size. With this in mind, the kids decided to select a tree that goes beyond our normal limit. Since cost is no issue, they reasoned that they might as well go big.

We trudged through two feet of snow and finally found the perfect tree. Actually, Whitney made the final selection. As expected, she picked one of the largest trees in the lot. It was also the farthest away, meaning that someone would have to drag that thing out of there. Of course by 'someone,' she meant Dakota and me.

In this photograph, Dakota is planning the best way to expose the trunk for cutting.

Dakota and I took turns cutting the tree. The base was so wide that we had to lie on our bellies in the snow and crawl halfway underneath the lower branches.

We took turns cutting the tree, and we also took turns resting. During one of my breaks, I happened to notice a visitor on a nearby tree top.

In the end, the tree must have weighed a hundred pounds or more. Dakota and I had to drag that thing over a hundred yards in more than two feet of snow. It was hard to get good footing, so we constantly slipped and fell. More than once the tree even rolled over the top of either Dakota and me.

Dakota and I struggled and heaved to drag that tree while the girls stood by watching. At one point, McKenna said, "Can you guys hurry up?"

Whitney chimed in, "Yeah, old man, don't be such a wimp!" With sweat dripping down my face and freezing to my eyebrows, I was in no mood to appreciate their bossiness, but later we all laughed about it.

After we dragged our tree out of the field, a couple of guys from the farm helped us load the tree onto my truck. We paid our $50 in a little red house by the road, and then they gave us free hot chocolate and apple cider, as well as a free Christmas ornament. What a fun day!

Dinner & Dessert

Just about every year, I feel a certain obligation to photograph our Thanksgiving turkey. I know, it's kind of silly, but ever since I assumed cooking responsibilities a few years ago, I'm always surprised that things turn out so well. In my own mind, I have no special talent for cooking, but dinner really was quite the success. The bird was a perfect golden brown and both the stuffing and the gravy were wildly delicious and popular with the family.

Paul and his kids came over for dinner, games, movies, and a sleep-over. We played a rousing match of Peon, followed by Apples to Apples. I'm happy to say that the cousins had a wonderful time together. When it was time to leave, Paul's kids were begging to stay another night.

Oh, and I really should mention our pumpkins. This year I decided to create a new memory for my children by picking our own pumpkins at Greenbluff. The new memories continued when we decided to make pumpkin pies from scratch. We used "sugar pumpkins," which is a particular variety used for cooking because of its natural sweetness and relatively string-free pulp.

Dakota helped carve the pumpkins into smaller chunks, which is actually a little harder than it looks.

Once we reduced the pumpkin to workable chunks, we steamed the pieces to separate the flesh from the outer crust.

My kids helped me to add all the secret herbs and spices and then I mashed the pulp by hand.

My daughter McKenna helped me to roll the crust.

Well, I'm happy to report that the pumpkin filling was a great success. Seriously, the filling was better than anything I ever tasted from a store. Unfortunately, the pie crust was another matter. The crust came out of the oven so hard that my kids could not bring a knife through it, no matter how much they attempted to saw through. Dakota lifted the entire crust from the dish in a single rock-hard piece. (The picture above shows the pie sitting in perfect form, totally free of its dish). Everyone took one look at the pie and burst into laughter. In fact, I laughed so hard that I cried. Who would have thought that a failed pie would create so much happiness?

Never to be deterred, my family simply scooped the pumpkin goop with a spoon, mixed it with whipped cream, and ate it like a delicious pumpkin pudding.

This picture shows our pie sitting upside down, totally solid. Brilliant.