And It's December!

The irrigation district releases water into the canals about once a month during the winter months to allow ranchers to refill their cisterns and stock tanks.  I couldn't resist the nice weather to take a walk and enjoy the opportunity.  It doesn't last long and then the canals are pathetically empty.

After cutting Christmas trees for the past 14 years we have lost the enthusiasm for this tradition.  Tree lots are abundant here and when you think about the $10 tree tag, gas and meal afterwards, the $30 for a tree seemed like a deal.  Ian found this lot behind a church, well organized and well priced.  We have a new tradition!  Weirdly all three of our families came to this same conclusion - phew.

Dawn asked me to attend the two fund raisers and "say a few words" about my experience at the A6 gallery.  In the sake of time she offered to excuse me and just introduce me as she told my story.  Fine by me!  I've learned that there are 40 major donors in Bend and 800 501C3 organizations struggling for the same dollars.  A6 is branching out into the schools and hoping to partner with Parks and Rec. I am so thankful to be part of this organization.

As always, December piles on the activities.  We all met downtown Saturday for the annual Christmas parade and to see Logan march in the Bend High band.  I thought the Thanksgiving parade was astonishingly big but this was double that.  Bend loves to love Bend.

Afterwards we walked over to JDub for lunch where the paper table coverings and cups of crayons provided silly and endless amusement and also let us celebrate Josh's birthday two days prior.

And this is the sitchiation in my studio.  I am once again back to one weaving bench.  Josh redid my Gilmore bench last summer, replacing the broken screws and regluing everything.  I took it back to him at Thanksgiving because it was simply unsafe.  He says he'll have to redo the whole thing, sand it back down, reglue and screw. I almost want to buy a second Schacht bench and just let the other one go - expensive firewood.

Maddie is pretty enthralled by the tree.

And then we did this to it!  This is a Douglas fir, totally new to us, fragrant with soft tips.  It's a smaller tree and between reduced size and soft tips, there are a lot of ornaments that I looked at but had to put back in the box.  The tree is about memories, so whether or not I was able to hang them all, I got to enjoy them all.