A post Christmas Craft Project 12 '14

I found these Christmas stockings on sale at Cracker Barrel for $1 a piece. They were perfect for a Christmas Craft project I had been thinking about.  I bought on  some red cotton bias to make the straps and some snaps to hook them on.  A few stitches later and like magic...  We have four Santa sock decorating the chairs at our Christmas Table.

And the stockings are hung 12 ' 14

"And the stockings are hung by the TV with care..."  and so  with that ,we are wishing a "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.!"

PS.  You can't see it in this photo, but  we each have out initials glittered on our socks .. BJ's  are on the left, CC's on the right  and K (for Kat) is in her rightful place in the center.

Our Menorahs 12' 14

The Menorah is the symbol of Hanukkah. For Jewish people worldwide the Menorah  is is a symbol of pride in their shared history. Whether Orthodox,Reformed, or Conservative Jew's world-wide respect and use the  Menorah as one of their symbols of identity.   For Bruce, who was raised Reformed , and exposed to all three forms of, the Judaism, the Menorah is integral to who he is.

Bruce's First Menorah

Of course we do honor the holiday's tradition by the  are lighting  the candles and reciting the prayers all eight nights.  We use the  50 year old Menorah and a prayer book that was given to Bruce by his family when he first went into the military. For Cece, who has been married to Bruce for half of her adult life,  the prayers said during this ceremony are a comforting reminder of shared social values towards family and community and one another.

As a show of my respect for my husband and his traditions, I put symbolic Menorahs all over the house throughout Hanukkah.  Most prominent is the set of blue bottles arranged like a Menorah in the front window.  We add one new candle in each bottle throughout the eight day  holiday season.

The next most obvious is the fancy modern Menorah that graces the center of our dining room table. We light the candles in it  only on the closing night of the holiday.

Smaller symbols abound as well.... like the tiny Menorahs which sit by each place setting 

Or the tea towels with  hand stitched Menorahs on them..CC even painted a small Menorah on canvas.  It remains on display not just for eight days, but throughout  the entire month of  December.  

Yeah, yeah, we  know all the above has nothing to do with the real connection of the Menorah to the holiday,  but both of us are romantics.  What better way to show my sentiments towards my husband's values , than to do something so schmaltzy.

Night of a Thousand Candles 12' 14

Bruce and I made our now annual trip to   Brookgreen Gardens to attend their Night of a Thousand Candles Festival..  This is one of our favorite events of the holiday season and one we always look forward to attending..  

BJ  in the garden

For nine evenings in December all 500 acres of the garden are lighted by holiday displays and  remain open until 10 pm giving the public an opportunity to explore the gardens after dark.. 

CC with camera

For photographers, the event offers a rare opportunity to capture nocturnal views of  the garden's  grounds and the magnificent sculptures .   No matter how cold the weather, Bruce and I bundle up warmly enough to spend every minute we can  before the gates close on us.We come fully prepared with cameras, extra batteries, mono-pods, and spotlights.  About the only thing that can stop us is a rain heavy enough to damage our equipment and damp out the candles..  Unfortunately for the past couple of  years , this is exactly what has happened..  Rather than be rained out again, Brookgreen has changed the event's lighting from being 'The Night of a Thousand Candles' to what looked this year to be 'The Night of Ten Thousand LEDs' .  

The result were strikingly different in the kind of photographs one could capture.

2011 Candle it tree

For example compare the  photograph  above I took in 2011 of the candle lit Christmas tree

  with the blue mini-light trees that Bruce took at this years event.

2014 Blue mini-light trees

2011 photo of Sprites with floating candles and strobe backlighting

or the 2011 photo I took of the Sprites pond with the 2014 photo Bruce took of the

same sculpture pond

BJ's 2014 photo of sprites pond  with electric lights

2012 Tree Allee

Above is a photo I took in 2012  of the gardens  maganificent Tree Allee  and 

below is Bruce's photo of how it looked in 2014 with thousands of strands of mini-lights draping from every oak branch..

2014 Tree Allee

Personally I thought the number electric lights obscured the landscaping entirely ( as can be seen in several of the photos above)  

2012 Photo of a Heritage Tree

At best it made the landscaping play second fiddle to the lighting 

2014 Heritage Oak

That being said, the stronger lighting did provide some interesting opportunities to photograph the out of door sculpture collection. Check out the interesting effects we got from photographing the Sunflower Girl Sculpture in the  Children's Garden 

Lighted  from the front by a camera flash 

Lighted by a side strobe

Long exposure lighted by garden lights

Many of the other sculptures were equally interesting when seen by artificial light

Many of the other sculptures were equally interesting when seen by artificial light.

Snow Owl

For our part we both are hoping that the weather will eventually allow Brookgreen  to return to using more candles, but either way,  we will still  be attending the 2015 Festival.

Hanukkah 2014 12'14

This year, Hanukkah starts on evening of December 16th and ends at sunset on December 24th.   On the morning of Dec. 16th, CC took down all the red ornaments inside and out.

and  replaced  most of the  interior  Christmas theme decorations  with  symbols of Hanukkah (a few of the less obvious Christmas ornaments, like our kitchen elves were allowed to remain.) 

Bruce claims he always had a ' Hanukkah Bush' in his childhood home while he was growing up, so all the red ornaments on the Christmas tree were replaced with blue 

And the smaller trees in the other rooms replaced with silver and blue ' Hanukkah Bushes'

  

The main dining room has blue and silver service 

and a decorative Menorah prominently displayed as the centerpiece.

Home for the Holidays. 12/1/14

Front Entry

Bruce and I will be staying home for the holidays.  We have decided to enjoy the season and to make our home as festive as possible. We always celebrate both  Christmas and Hanukkah , but we try to keep them separate so as not to  forget the underlying meaning of the holiday.  This year we decided to decorate the house for the first two weeks of December with a Christmas theme colored  red silver and gold .

As usual, CC put up Xmas trees in every room in the house 

and hung garlands and wreaths  everywhere.

 She  decorated every window with snowmen and snow flakes.

 And even had  snow flakes over  and  on  the table .

We're all set to throw the  first Christmas party of the year.