One Community: June!

 

One Community is a monthly photoblogging project where participants take pictures of their homes and communities with a theme in mind. The goal is to showcase similarities and differences in our communities worldwide.

I gotta tell you One Community peeps, this month, I’ve got nothing! Road, Float, Sprinkler and Oasis? Things have been busy here and I’ve barely touched my camera.

Except that I got a new phone and am pretty impressed with its camera. Sitting out on the patio yesterday, I casually aimed my new iPhone 5S and snapped these in about two seconds flat. With a little Picmonkey action, they are not half bad.

OK. So I’ve got a little bit of Oasis. That’s all I got.

The herb patch in our small courtyard garden has been hard dirt for years. In the years BM (Before Maceo), we had luscious basil, rosemary and thyme. But as soon as Maceo could toddle, he colonized that patch and made it his own personal dirt pit. And we gave up.

This year, I have to say, we have hope. We’ve planted the patch, explained to him what the herbs need to grow and how he can help, and so far, so good. Crossing fingers.

Tau grew this basil on his bedroom window sill in a teensy plastic greenhouse that I found in the Target dollar bins. This was the only seedling that survived the transplant into this pot. Maceo calls it “baby basil,” and I’m thinking it’s going to make it.

Below is what he calls “big basil”—one of two four-inch plants we bought from the nursery. Because we love our summer pesto and caprese in this house! These are only about the size of a soccer ball now but they are growing fast.

I have a thing for marigolds. Dave doesn’t get it, but he still humors me and lets me plant them along the border of the herb garden.

And finally, below you can see our first baby step into the world of veggies: tomatoes! Actually, not true. I tried to plant some South-African gem squash a few years back, and they worked their way up the trellis beautifully and flowered but never fertilized. Boo!

I think I picked up this tomato rocket at Target also. The kids have been excited to watch it sprout and grow. They will be beside themselves if it actually bears tomatoes. But will they eat them?! Stay tuned for the next exciting installment! Da-da-da-dum!

’til next month peeps!

Click the link below to read more One Community posts and join us!

The Rules: Post one or more photos interpreting the words for the month, and add your blog post to the link-up. Please include a link back to the link-up post on your One Community post, and take a look at some of the other links and comment on them. This link-up is all about building community!

One Community: May!

 

One Community is a monthly photoblogging project where participants take pictures of their homes and communities with a theme in mind. The goal is to showcase similarities and differences in our communities worldwide.

I got to pick the words for this month’s One Community challenge and then had a challenge finding pictures for them! Five, Mother, Recipe and Remember

Five, or as we say here in California, cinco … de Mayo! Mayo also being the fifth month of the year. See what I did there?

Tau came home with this fabulous Cinco de Mayo chicken painting. Understand that art is not Tau’s thing, so I consider any art from him fabulous. For bonus points, he wrote the title of the picture and his name at the bottom of the painting in cursive, his other least favorite thing to do. Mother’s Day came a little early for me!

 

Mother: One Community peeps, many of you are new here, so allow me to introduce my mom Di. She passed away two years ago and this picture makes me smile. It’s just so her! So her, in fact, that we used it on the pew leaflet at her funeral service.

Four years ago, Mom and I took a three-day Mexican cruise out of San Diego. And at the port of Ensenada, we took a Mexican cooking class, with fancy margaritas and a charming, engaging local chef, and ingredients that my African mother had never seen or used, which she absolutely loved. The dish we started with was guacamole, which in my opinion should be considered a main food group.

I can’t believe she’s gone, I miss her every day, and I love that we made guacamole together!

Recipe and Remember: I think I’ve spoken before about feeling closer to my mom and gran when I bake and cook. The recipe that reminds me most of the two of them is the scone recipe that they both used.

It’s pretty foolproof but the lighter your hand and the less you mess with the dough, the fluffier they turn out. The scone recipe is pretty versatile too — I’ve added raisins as shown below to get the kids to eat them, or grated cheddar when I wanted something savory.

Ready for the oven:

The picture below is of the recipe, hand written by me into my recipe book as a teenager. The blue additions are my mom’s writing, and as you can see, this page has seen a lot of use.

The ingredient list and method are very Mom and Gran—how much milk do you need? Meh, just enough to klits with the egg and add until the dough is right. Paint tops with left over egg? My Gran would dip three fingers in what was left in the jug and just pat-swirl the top of each scone. Perfect every time.

‘Til next month peeps!

Click the link below to read more One Community posts and join us!

The Rules: Post one or more photos interpreting the words for the month, and add your blog post to the link-up. Please include a link back to the link-up post on your One Community post, and take a look at some of the other links and comment on them. This link-up is all about building community!

One Community: April!

 

One Community is a monthly photoblogging project where participants take pictures of their homes and communities with a theme in mind. The goal is to showcase similarities and differences in our communities worldwide.

Our cues this month come from Rebekah at Honeysuckle Life, and they are:  Flowers, Spring, Purple and Rise

Spring! What better way to celebrate than to go for a walk this past Saturday to our local Farmers Market with this guy. Maceo’s job was to sit back, chill and eat strawberries. He’s very good at it.

Flowers. There is a stall at our market that sells proteas, which just happen to be the national flower of South Africa. Obviously. Would you expect anything less of South Africa? I mean, come on!

 

Spring. The market positively hums with new growth — succulents, fresh flowers, organic eggs, every variety of cheese … you name it!

I bought two skeins of handmade pasta, one of which came with a recipe for creamy lemon-garlic fettuccine with asparagus. So I had to buy asparagus, right? 

 

Purple. The beets and their shocking purple! Beetroot always reminds me of my mom, would would steam and pickle large batches of it, and savor eating every slice. I’m not the biggest fan of beets, but they make me smile whenever I see them.

Rise. There is a woman at the market who specializes in French breads and pastries. There is always a swarm of customers around her stall, waiting to buy.

And oy! The BUTTER! And the CUSTARD! And the SUGAR! All of it, light and poufy fresh, fresh, fresh!

Maceo and I came home, stroller laden with goodies. All good!

Click the link below to read more One Community posts and join us!

The Rules: Post one or more photos interpreting the words for the month, and add your blog post to the link-up. Please include a link back to the link-up post on your One Community post, and take a look at some of the other links and comment on them. This link-up is all about building community!

One Community: March!

 

One Community is a monthly photoblogging project where participants take pictures of their homes and communities with a theme in mind. The theme varies by month. The goal is to showcase similarities and differences in our communities worldwide.

Our cues this month come from Sarah at Beauty School Dropout, and they are:  Shower, Calm, Green and Friendship

Here goes!

Shower. We haven’t had rain in San Diego in — pfft! — 300 days or something crazy?! Then this past week, it rained on and off for four days. It may as well have stormed for a month, punctuated by tornadoes, an avalanche and perhaps an earthquake or two.

San Diegans have a hard time with weather and with rain in particular for some reason. Local TV stations refer to coming showers as thunderstorms, even when there is no thunder, and a friend told me last week that we were due to have the worst weather in recent history for the region.

I got nervous for a moment until I remembered the night of torrential downpour, thunder and lightning that Dave, three-month-old Tau and I survived in Africa — a storm so fierce and unrelenting that rangers at the game lodge we were visiting had to drive us back to our rondawel through the mud in a big-wheel jeep, and even then it was touch and go.  I decided that the killer storm of San Diego 2014 probably wouldn’t be that bad.

This picture was taken through our dining room window Sunday. A steady but light rain, three days of it and, ahem, we survived!

Calm. Meet my new friend Shimi, that’s short for Sashimi. He sits on my desk at work and is charged with keeping me chilled and focused on the bigger things in life.

Green. Here is my little one, Maceo, watching the rain make puddles Sunday morning outside our bedroom window. He took every opportunity to slip outside and ride his push bike through the wet on our patio. He also took great pleasure in putting on his swim goggles and dunking his face in the deepest puddles.

Friendship. This past weekend was my birthday! And throughout the week I got small parcels from friends. Lovely books and fabric from Kelli, and this fun naked mail from my friend Joslin. She knows I love me some Dark Chocolate Raisinets!

Click the link below to read more One Community posts and join us!

The Rules: Post one or more photos interpreting the words for the month, and add your blog post to the link-up. Please include a link back to the link-up post on your One Community post, and take a look at some of the other links and comment on them. This link-up is all about building community!

One Community: February!

One Community is a monthly photoblogging project where participants take pictures of their homes and communities with a theme in mind. The theme varies by month. The goal is to showcase similarities and differences in our communities worldwide.

Our cues this month come from Africankelli: Heirloom, Style, Heart and Warmth

Heirloom. I have my mother and maternal grandmother’s engagement and wedding rings. I also have my great-aunty Boo’s string of pearls, and a very solid silver filigree clip bracelet that belonged, I believe, to my great grandmother.

But do you know what my most valuable heirlooms are? My granny’s biscuit-colored mixing bowl, and the yellowed bone-handled knife and battered spatula that my mother always used when she made scones and cupcakes. When I cook or bake I feel as close as I possibly can to Mom and Granny Sylvia. They’ve both passed away in the last five years, and using their tools is one of the best ways I know to spend time with them.

Style. Our home is not filled with a whole lotta fancy. It’s small, so we try to keep it simple and uncluttered. And we tend not to decorate with store-bought stuff — pretty much all the decor in our home is personal and holds meaning.

This little glass bird, for example, belonged to my dad’s mom, my Granny Grace. It was given to her by my grandfather after a trip he made to France, likely in the 1940s. It’s beautiful when the sunlight catches it on my bedroom window sill, and its delicacy reminds me so much of her.

This vintage map of the Natal coastline hangs on our dining room wall, a reminder of where Dave and I were raised in South Africa and where we met before moving to North America. The place names remind us of different trips and vacations, and I love the simple framing.

Heart. We love San Diego. Love–love San Diego. But if there is another place on earth where my heart truly belongs, it is my Granny Sylvia’s family home in Johannesburg, at 60 Dunottar Street, where many of my happiest childhood memories are centered.

On the bookshelves in our San Diego living room, I now have the 80-plus year old house number off the gate at Dunottar street — the low gate and fence, which were replaced with tall concrete and barbed wire as break-ins and violent crime became more prevalent in Joburg in the 1980s.

This number plaque, and those little wooden elephants too, come to think of it, are representative, and part of the few leftovers of all the years my maternal family spent in that heart-home where my grandmother and her sisters, and my mother too, were all raised.

Below is a picture of my Granny Sylvia in her early twenties, standing between her parents outside the Dunottar street house, her sisters Yvonne and Joy to the left.

Warmth. Any skill I have with needle and thread, I come by honestly. Heh heh. My mother, grandmothers and great aunts all sewed, knitted and crocheted well. I could do all three by the time I was eight.

When my brother and I were little, my Granny Grace crocheted granny-square blankets for the two of us, and one for each of my four cousins. My mom loved what her mother-in-law had done so much that she did the same as soon as her grandchildren came along.

This blanket is Tau’s — insert link to adorable baby-Tau waking up picture here. It is perfectly matched to the colors in his bedroom, perfectly executed, as only my mother could.

When Maceo came along, Mom asked for swatches of the colors I was using in his room. It was her way of ensuring that our adopted babe would be wrapped in the same granny-love from the other side of the globe.

Turns out, Mom never got to finish Maceo’s blankie. Rapid-onset dementia meant that she suddenly lost not only her cognitive abilities, but also the ability to see and work with her hands. So when I traveled to be with her, shortly before she died, I made sure that I found the unfinished blanket in her closet, squares neatly organized in a box with all the right hooks and yarn, and brought it home with me to finish. It’s been two years since Mom passed, and it’s finally time for me to take the blanket pieces out the box and learn to crochet again. It’s my project for the year, and it might take me even longer. So be it. My boy will need his blanket. And my Mom will want to know that it’s done.

Click the link below to read more One Community posts and join us!

The Rules: Post one or more photos interpreting the words for the month, and add your blog post to the link-up. Please include a link back to the link-up post on your One Community post, and take a look at some of the other links and comment on them. This link-up is all about building community!

A Very Canadian Christmas

 

Except for the part where there was no snow, it was a very Canadian Christmas. We did all the things we love doing in Victoria—bundled up and went walking, took in an ice-hockey game, warmed up in good coffee shops, and visited with all of Dave’s family.

Perhaps because I was more concerned about cramming ALL OF CHRISTMAS (!) into our suitcases before leaving, I forgot to pack my Canon, so the pictures on Flickr are courtesy of my phone unfortunately. Still, I hope you enjoy them!

One Community: January!

 

I’m not even going to try to limit myself to four photos for this month’s One Community roundup! We spent Christmas and New Year in Canada with Dave’s extended family, and the pictures are just too rich to not share!

Treasure. The heart of our visits to Victoria, BC, is always the opportunity for our boys to get to know their grandparents and older cousins, and spend time playing with their younger cousins. Tau asks about Kai (9) and Tait (6) often and opportunities to see them are rare. So when they do get together, it makes for rich little-dude photo ops like these:

Cosy pub lunch after watching Kai’s ice-hockey game

Kai adores his baby cousin

Christmas cuzzies

Silver.  We were lucky enough to have two big feasts! One on Christmas day and a second a few days later when our oldest niece Kendra and her fiance Zack flew in from Australia where they live. 

At the first dinner, Dave’s sister Trisha placed a handmade cracker on each plate. Inside? A small gift for that person—holiday perfection.

What this picture doesn’t show is the certifiable CRAZY that defines Walsh get togethers. Twenty-five of us crammed into a home designed for four people, climbing over each other to move from room to room, hunting down your misplaced wine or beer glass, washing and drying dishes in between courses, straining to converse with an aunt or nephew that you haven’t seen in a year over the shouting din. The kids’ table looked like this at the first meal. Not exactly off the pages of Martha Stewart. Right after this, Maceo spilled someone’s juice all over that table.

Just a few of the kids!

Resolution. There is little room for me-time or reflection on our trips North. I did get out for a nice long walk around our old neighborhood of Oak Bay on Old Year’s Eve though.

Dave and I lived in Victoria for 12 years before moving to San Diego. We married there and put each other through college there. It’s the place where we forged our partnership, struggled to make ends meet, and aspired to live somewhere else. So, returning is bittersweet. Around every corner in this town shrouded in winter is a memory, a feeling, a sense—each one particular and loaded with emotion.

So my walk around the bay, up through the golf course, and back past our old apartment was poignant as I closed out 2013 and looked forward to the new year. Surrounded by our old community, I was very aware of the choices we made twelve years ago to go do something different, and the many blessings we have experienced doing so.

These days, as a working, older mom of small boys, I am beyond torturing myself with New Year’s resolutions. Looking into 2014 is more about focusing on gentle intensions. On small actions that I can give priority, that will lead me to be healthier and more capable. That is all.

Garden gate, Victoria, BC

Winter. We were fortunate to have moderate weather during our visit. Four years ago, we were in Victoria for Christmas and the cold was bitter! This year we packed warmer clothes, fleecy PJs and slippers, a hot water bottle and heating pad. And it made all the difference.

We are spoiled by San Diego winters—the sunshine, the balmy temperatures, the outdoor opportunities. Winter in Victoria reminded me that our sunshine and longer days are like gold!

Sunrise, Christmas morning

Mid-morning, overlooking Oak Bay

Happy New Year, friends!

See you next month!

One Community is a monthly photo project in which participants photograph their homes and communities with a theme in mind. The theme varies by month. The goal is to both showcase similarities and differences in our communities worldwide – and bring us all closer together in understanding through art.

Each month, one of the hosts picks four words for us to interpret through photographs of what we see around us in our daily lives. You can see my previous entries for July, August and September. Starting this month, we’re opening this project up to anyone who would like to participate! We would love to have you join us! The link-up will begin on October 5th and stay open for one week.

The Rules: Post one or more photos interpreting the words for the month, and add your blog post to the link-up. Please include a link back to the link-up post on your One Community post, and take a look at some of the other links and comment on them. This link-up is all about building community!

Best. Dad. Ever.

 

Taken Hawaii, Nov. 2012.

Canada the Lovely

Earlier this month, we spent a week up north on Vancouver Island.

In addition to catching up with Dave’s cousins, aunts, parents and siblings, we spent a few days up at the family cottage, on the ocean at Saltair. Dave’s brother Stu and his boys joined us, which made for much fun beach combing, boating and crabbing for the kids.

Tau learned to solo kayak, Maceo became an honorary Canuck, we proved that siblings who drink beer together start to look awfully alike, and I got to savor and demolish a whole crab!

The rest of the pictures are here for your viewing pleasure. I’m reminded every time we visit just how gorgeous British Columbia is in its clean, natural beauty. Enjoy!

Blink, and a Year Goes By!

 

It’s been two months since I last touched the blog. School let out for the summer, Maceo turned one, and we visited Canada.

I’m spending this summer at home, organizing closets and drawers, having fun around town with the kids and, as it turns out, also taking care of sick kids! The two are not mutually exclusive.

This year has been a hard one with my mom passing away. It felt like her passing whipped the rug out under me; it was just so unexpected. And I find it’s taking time to get back to the things I usually do for pleasure. I hope to pick up the pace here, posting more often again!

In the mean time, here are lovely pics from Maceo’s birthday party — enjoy!

May Your Joy be Complete, Your Faith be Fulfilled

Taken at Ensenada, Mexico, 2009

Today AJ and I, along with family and friends, said goodbye to our beloved Mom, Di Hazelhurst. We will love her forever and it is with sadness, but also great love, that we release her!

For family who were not there, here is the eulogy that was read on my behalf.

For My Mom

Just a few weeks ago, I spent ten of the most precious days of my life at my mother’s bedside. I am deeply grateful to have been there and to help make decisions that kept her at peace and comfortable during her last few weeks with us. I cherish every smile, every typically-mom-like gesture, and every moment that we shared as she stood face to face with this incredible transition to the next world. It was a true privilege.

I remember when my grandmother passed a few years back, Mom saying that she felt so honored to be with Gran, to send her off with grace, dignity and love. Unfortunately, I have had to return to the United States because I have two little boys to care for, but I count it one of my life’s greatest prizes so far to have spent these ten very special days with Mom.

You all knew Mom very well:

• Some of you attended St. Martin’s and home group with her, and knew her often irreverent but truly authentic faith and love of God.
• Some of you are very dear or very old friends – the kind of choms who are more family than friends, who know that she would do anything for anyone, and that her door and home and arms were always open – abundantly so!
• Some of you worked with Mom, and know how just how meticulous and thorough she was, without exception!
• And some of you are family – from near or far – who have loved, admired and known Di with only the intimacy and honesty that family can.

Thank you all for being here today.

As her children, my brother and I have known Mom in ways that no one else has – and so I’d like to share a tiny bit of my remarkable mother with you all:

• Mom was likely the most beautiful, independent, creative, caring, sociable, strong and determined person I will ever know. She was renowned for her resourcefulness – for her ability to make something out of absolutely nothing – whether it was a party out of a few toasted-cheese sandwiches and a liter of Coke; a last-minute nativity costume out of an old bed sheet and a necktie; or (very recently) fixing the Ethernet connection on her beloved computer Wally with a couple of pipe cleaners and quite a bit of willpower.
• My Mom was always a fun Mom – golden, carefree and exuberant! As a young child one of my most enduring memories is driving the Pretoria to Jo’burg road to visit my Granny on Sundays, windows wide open, sun streaming in, Neil Diamond or Barbara Streisand belting it out on the old eight-track in her little yellow Austin Apache, AJ and I bouncing around on the back seat in the days long before seatbelts.
• Mom was also very glamorous to me as a little girl. She and my dad would attend Jaycee functions – Mom stunning in a full-length halter evening gown, her shoulders tanned, her long, golden hair swept up in a loose knot.
• It’s no surprise to any of you that Mom loved to travel. Over the years, she’s visited us in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. She’s been to Israel, Mauritius and the Seychelles, to Oberammergau, and the many places she loved throughout South Africa. Her curiosity and zest for anything strange or novel meant she was always happy to explore new places!
• Mom’s grandchildren remain her living angels: Mitchell, Jaimey, Sarah, Andrew, Tau and Maceo – she designed and crocheted for each one their own, very unique Granny-Di blanket for them to remember her by. And while she never got a chance to hold my youngest, we did spend a lot of time with her on Skype, Maceo bouncing up and down on my lap, Granny Di blowing him big kisses and loves through the screen.
• Over the years, my mom taught me many practical things for which I am thankful every day:
  • How to knit, sew and cook – WELL!
  • To be passionate about books and reading and music and writing – that the soul, without art, is somehow less blessed.
  • Most importantly, she showed me, through the daily example of her own life, that women could and should stand strong and capable, on their own.
• Yet, I think the greatest gift Mom gave AJ and I, was that of learning to be open, gracious, hospitable and generous with what we have. To always give others the benefit of the doubt, to always reach out with an open hand.

There are many people who cannot be here today – in particular, I’d like to acknowledge Mom’s best and closest childhood friend Beth McGregor, affectionately known as “Bunny”; her cousins, who were her brothers and sisters really: Colin, Lynne, Clive and Dawne; also, those close friends up in Pretoria and Durban with whom she either worked or raised her children – her lifetime friends. And of course, there are many others. Mom was a person whose net was widespread because her arms were always open!

Above all, my mom was just that – an incredible mother! And I find these days that I can only be a mother because of the example she set. Her children were her crowning achievement, the prize of which she was most proud, and her very greatest love!

My brother and I would like to thank Anthony and Tracey Done for being the son and daughter she so needed when we were always far away. We’d also like to thank them for their incredible hospitality, and for truly walking that extra mile, with and for Mom, during her last days.

My dearest Mom, may your joy be complete, may your faith be fulfilled, and may you rest in peace with our beloved Granny Sylvia and Grandpa Pieter! We will love and cherish you forever!

Significant Journeys and New Adventures

 

I read this quote today: “Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.”

Hmn, no. Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, God gives us a mind-bending, heart-pumping adventure, with a dash of good old-fashioned tear jerker and feel-good flick thrown in just for good measure!

Three days before we left  on our vacation to Germany, we got a call from our adoption facilitator to say that we had been picked by a local San Diego mom who had chosen to place her baby boy. Talk about having your world turned upside down!

We were excited, we were amazed and yes, we were more than a little in shock after waiting nearly two years to adopt a baby. Apart from being a wonderfully relaxing vacation, our two weeks in Germany gave us the opportunity to fully absorb the fact that we will soon be holding a newborn. This wonderful, new little man is due in early July.

Tau is excited and keeps asking, “When is our baby coming?” He’s also absorbed with all of the organization going on in the baby room, especially with various toys and bits of equipment, and how they work and at what exact age the baby will need them—ever the engineer!

All of that said, until the adoption is finalized, we are not going to post details here on the blog. Instead, we’ll be finishing preparations at home, transitioning Tau to his new school, supporting our wonderful birth mother, and bringing our new son into our family with great love!

I’ll let Dave post details about our amazing trip through Baden-Baden and the Rheingau, but in the meantime, you can see our Germany pictures on Flickr.

A Little Piece of Perfect!

 
Today was Martin Luther King Day. Dave had to work but Tau and I took Nanny and Granddad down to Windansea beach. Clear skies, 78 degrees, sandy beach. It was perfect!

 


 


 


 

Cocooning Over the Holidays

 

After a very busy 2010, and Thanksgiving spent away at Solvang, CA, we decided to spend Christmas at home this year.

I had the week between Christmas and New Year off, and Dave only worked a few days, which gave us all lots of time for sleeping in, leisurely meals and playing with all those gifts from Santa.

A few highlights from December:

• For Tau’s 100th Day of Kindergarten celebration, Dave and Tau built an amazing, fun display of 100 Christmas lights! The first of many school projects I’m sure.
• Tau and I went on a school field trip to see The Old Globe’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Thanks to Tau’s teacher, we managed to scoop front-row-center tickets, and we could literally reach out and touch the conductor and see down into the orchestra pit. It was an outstanding production and Tau’s first venture into the world of theatre!
• We baked and iced Christmas cookies for the first time.
• At VMIX, we had a fun Holiday Sweater Contest. My sweater was appropriately horrible but my friend Andrea’s Gingerbread House Vest took top honor because, apart from its awesomeness, it lit up and flashed. Here is a fun video of the festivities at work on our corporate blog.
• On Christmas Eve, we visited some crazy holiday lights not far from us and tracked Santa’s progress, thanks to Norad.
• And, yes, he came and left MANY gifts for us all, but especially for Tau, who was most happy to receive his beloved Octo Battle.
• Santa did not forget Dog and brought him a hat, and we gave Dog a pair of pajamas and his own pillow, which Tau and I sewed out of an old pair of Tau’s PJs.

We spent New Year at home also with a quiet but yummy meal, and have been slowly easing ourselves into the new Year.

For more pictures, take a look at our Christmas and New Year 2010 set on Flickr!

2010: Tau in Pictures

 
Every year, Dave and I send our parents calendars personalized with photos of Tau.

His first year, we did fancy-shmancy Shutterfly ones but the second, I experimented with the cheapie dollar-store, glue-on-your-own-photo type, and decided they had a personal, handmade charm that the professionally printed ones lacked.

This year we had some awesome pictures to choose from, so I thought I would share them with all of you. Moms and Dads, H and W, if you are keeping yours for Christmas day, please avert your eyes!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

2010 Tau in Pictures, posted with vodpod