It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Something strange happened.  Perhaps because this is our first year in our first house.  Well, for whatever reason, I caught the holiday decorating bug.  It's our first year actually attempting some holiday cheer and I thought I was doing a pretty good job, but as I looked through the pictures I snapped, they all seem to be missing something...

The banister...

...looks rather dull.  I'd like to hang some ornaments throughout, but my cat would inevitably knock them down and the dog would inevitably eat them up.  Hmph.

Our front door...

...needs more lights!!  

An inside door...

... is actually in my opinion properly outfitted with a simple hanging Santa-Star creature made by my very crafty mother.

And my piece de resistance...

... my mantle, inspired by an idea in Real Simple, I think could use a couple of small wreaths hanging from the wall above.

Well, I'm already counting down the days until all this Christmas stuff is marked down so I can scoop up some great bargains and ensure a plentiful decorating spree next year.  I tried to snap a picture of my neighbor's outside display - think Clark Griswold - but alas it didn't come out.

I just have two words for them, though: game on.  I'm talking lighted reindeer, crazy lights, the whole nine yards.  Watch out for Xmas 2009.

Until then, enjoy this shot of our state's capital - next to my new place of work:

Astronomical Phenomena

One thing I love about my home is star-gazing.  Not the kind of stars you see in L.A. or NYC.  Real stars.  I can see the Little Dipper on a regular basis and sometimes the Big Dipper.  

That's about as advanced as my knowledge of constellations goes.  I was walking Bear outside in my neighborhood on the night before he went into 

acute kidney failure, and we saw  a shooting star.  I've never seen an actual shooting star before.  

It was pretty amazing.  Not really like this picture; it kind of twinkles like fireworks.   After seeing it, I had a sense that everything would be OK.  And a couple of weeks later, after a very large vet bill, Bear turned out OK and I landed a new job.

Last night we saw the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter combo.  That was really amazing.  The planets looked like they were Christmas lights on our neighbor's house.  To look up and see planets so close (well, relatively speaking) is mesmerizing.  I tried to take a picture, but this is the best shot (the crescent moon is in the upper left hand corner, then the lower dot is Venus and the dot to the right and slightly higher is Jupiter) (and click on the picture to make it bigger):

 Bear, however, was less enthralled.

He doesn't get bogged down by astronomical happenings.  He just wants a cozy spot to sleep.