Christmas Candy Train and other Pictures

Christmas Train made out of graham crackers and some of my favorite candies.

Interesting icicle structure. The icicles dripped from the snow on the roof, but the snow started sliding off the roof and curled around.

I haven't posted a 3-D picture for a while. Here is a 3-D picture of the Christmas Train.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Church got cancelled for today due to snowy/icy weather.

After snowing non-stop all day yesterday, before it started raining at 5:30 pm, we got about five inches of snow!

Granted, that's not much snow, but when church is at the top of Oregon Coast's "Little San Francisco", you can begin to understand.

The other problem is that it’s not practical for small towns like ours to invest in plows and other snow equipment for such rare occurrences.

In fact, the unplowed, un-salted, and un-sanded streets made it all the more special. Driving through downtown, with the snow-packed roads, the Holiday decorations, people crossing the street bundled up in winter coats, made me think I was in a scene from 'It's A Wonderful Life'!

The other problem with this area is the potential for freezing rain (that is the most dangerous winter weather here)--nature's ice rink maker. It’s too warm in the sky to snow, but its freezing on the ground so the rain coats everything and freezes into one giant, clear, smooth ice sheet draped over everything.

Regardless of the potential problems with snow and ice, everyone seems to be playing it safe and careful.

I really enjoyed the snow this weekend. It's been exciting and peaceful. I loved seeing the crystal, white carpet. I enjoyed examining the delicate, complex snowflake designs. I enjoyed playing in the snow. It's just been a real treat for me this year!

Alaska Visits

The weather has been quite unusual lately. Usually the weather is fairly moderate and uneventful (meaning not much other than rain and occasional moments of sunshine) on the north Oregon coast.

However, last year at this time we nearly blew away and this year the migrating birds are pulling out their maps trying to figure why they still haven't left Alaska. Its been a week of icy, snowy, below-zero weather with more in the forecast for Christmas week as well. Maybe we will have a white Christmas this year!

Even though its quite unusual weather for this area, we are still very blessed. Its enough to make the season a exciting, but mild enough that everyone is pretty safe and able to stay relatively warm. I know there are other places that are much worse...in fact just east over the coastal range, there are several problems with snow and ice. Go even further east and you will find sub-freezing temperatures, snow, and no electricity. We pray that everyone will endure the storms well.

Snow on the Beach (with shipwrecked Peter Iredale in the background)! I had to see the snow on the beach for myself because in my experience, its all but unheard of in this area.

Santa Baby!

'Shrinky-dink' ornament. A five inch drawing on plastic (# 6 plastic) with colored Sharpies, shrunk to about two inches by baking on a paper-sack lined cookie sheet for ten minutes or so at 250-300 degrees.

Love the Lights!

I really enjoy trying to capture Christmas lights and glowing ornaments on digital 'film'--even though it never comes close to how magical it is live.

If you've been to the Caretaker's Cabin lately, you already saw this dragon and the jaw-dropping alligator (below) from the Oregon Zoo Lights.

The Oregon Zoo Lights were spectacular. In the field in front of the stage they created a whole animal world of lights.

This year we made snowflake ornaments using beads and pipe cleaners. I like how the lights reflect and refract through the clear beads

Each year this house is very-well decorated for the Christmas Holiday--every year it seems to become more and more spectacular. They even play Christmas Carols through loud speakers. (Click to see a bigger picture.)