Green Apple's Blush: I've learned how to share Pictures!

Monday, December 27, 2010

I've learned how to share Pictures!

Now if I can only learn how to "take" them, LOL....

Here are my guys:

The oldest, trying on a scarf someone gave him....

My hubby, picking up the trash. He's the reason I have all blonde boys....

The little guy, who I still homeschool. He had to put on pajamas in order to be "comfortable" for opening gifts. He's got on an Ireland soccer t-shirt he received, too. And of course, he had to immediately start putting together the Lego sets....

Our tree:

...which is filled with homemade things and ornaments they love:

My husband's favorite: old-fashioned glass ornaments of all types.

Tons of tiny nutcrackers which my younger son currently favors....

And all sorts of homemade ornaments they've done over the years. Especially those that included pictures of them....

The whimsical birds that are my favorites....

The red wooden bead garland, and a hand-crocheted angel someone gave us as a topper....

The silliness:

Big brother wearing the Saints jersey little brother received because he wants one, too....

Modeling his new, super-soft blanket with our cat (Poor thing, she's so glad to have a quiet house again. She never knew when he was going to swoop her up....)

Hubby sitting in his chair, wearing his grinch shirt, watching A Christmas Story (holding the high power magnification mirror he got because he can't see any more, LOL....) I wish I could figure out how to get these pictures to align on the page better, but oh well....

Drinking sparkling cider out of sherbert cups.... I just don't know about this boy....

And the wrestling, the inevitable wrestling.... ALWAYS the wrestling.... But he was very good with his little brother while he was home and I was happy about that. He's now in a somewhat cool Florida, but at least their outdoor pool is very well heated, so he's not minding the wind too much. It's supposed to warm up for them as the week continues. I hope that all will go well. This is the first big trip he's made away from home since a disastrous week at a scout camp when he was eleven....

And the snow - more than we've ever had in December. There's been snow on the ground almost constantly since Thanksgiving and that's just unheard of for us here:

We've had a pretty nice Christmas around here. It's pretty quiet now... time to read!

Regena

2 comments:

Unknown said...: I think you took great photos. I don't know how to take them either. I always have the camera at the ready and it's driving my kids nutty.; December 28, 2010 at 11:36 AM
Savannah McQueen said...: Very nice...you covered it well. I like the birds in the tree, too. Your owl reminds me of the screech owl we had in the back yard recently.; January 4, 2011 at 9:13 AM

The Planting of the Apple Tree, William Cullen Bryant

Come, let us plant the apple-tree.
Cleave the tough greensward with the spade;
Wide let its hollow bed be made;
There gently lay the roots, and there
Sift the dark mould with kindly care,
And press it o'er them tenderly,
As, round the sleeping infant's feet,
We softly fold the cradle-sheet;
So plant we the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Buds, which the breath of summer days
Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;
Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast,
Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest;
We plant, upon the sunny lea,
A shadow for the noontide hour,
A shelter from the summer shower,
When we plant the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Sweets for a hundred flowery springs
To load the May-wind's restless wings,
When, from the orchard-row, he pours
Its fragrance through our open doors;
A world of blossoms for the bee,
Flowers for the sick girl's silent room,
For the glad infant sprigs of bloom,
We plant with the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,
And redden in the August noon,
And drop, when gentle airs come by,
That fan the blue September sky,
While children come, with cries of glee,
And seek them where the fragrant grass
Betrays their bed to those who pass,
At the foot of the apple-tree.

And when, above this apple-tree,
The winter stars are quivering bright,
And winds go howling through the night,
Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth,
Shall peel its fruit by cottage-hearth,
And guests in prouder homes shall see,
Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine
And golden orange of the line,
The fruit of the apple-tree.

The fruitage of this apple-tree
Winds and our flag of stripe and star
Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,
Where men shall wonder at the view,
And ask in what fair groves they grew;
And sojourners beyond the sea
Shall think of childhood's careless day,
And long, long hours of summer play,
In the shade of the apple-tree.

Each year shall give this apple-tree
A broader flush of roseate bloom,
A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,
And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower,
The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower.
The years shall come and pass, but we
Shall hear no longer, where we lie,
The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh,
In the boughs of the apple-tree.

And time shall waste this apple-tree.
Oh, when its aged branches throw
Thin shadows on the ground below,
Shall fraud and force and iron will
Oppress the weak and helpless still?
What shall the tasks of mercy be,
Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears
Of those who live when length of years
Is wasting this little apple-tree?

"Who planted this old apple-tree?"
The children of that distant day
Thus to some aged man shall say;
And, gazing on its mossy stem,
The gray-haired man shall answer them:
"A poet of the land was he,
Born in the rude but good old times;
'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes,
On planting the apple-tree."