Just wanted to share some smiles with another photo I took recently of adorable Baby Eva!
How could Santa resist this little sweetie waiting under the Christmas tree?!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Photography
Twinkle
Wishing you a sprinkle
of weekend holiday twinkle
that causes your nose to crinkle,
laugh lines lest a wrinkle,
and eyes that have a winkle!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Charlie’s Christmas List
Dear Santa –
Charlie here.
I am soooo excited for Christmas!
I have been a very good boy this year – my first year of life.
(Well – most of the time anyway!)
I would be so happy if I could have the following things for Christmas
(and everyday if it’s not too much to ask).
Most of these things cost no money – they just require a little time and love.
I hope you will make my Christmas wish list come true.
May I please have:
12 sticks to chew on
11 games of tug
10 games of fetch
9 belly rubs
8 ear scratches
7 naps in the sunshine
6 zoomie runs around the house
5 GOLDEN BONES
4 scraps to fall on the kitchen floor
3 doggie treats
2 walks per day
and
1 warm, happy, loving home to live in.
Thank you, Santa, for whatever you can provide.
Sincerely and with much love,
Charlie
PS My mom says this reminds her of another Christmas song….
Let’s build a bridge
Pittsburgh, PA – The City of Bridges – 12/5/15
Let’s build a bridge
that will float above the fog,
that connects confusion,
destroys division,
fastens friendship,
links love,
joins jurisdiction,
unites understanding.
Let’s build a bridge
of peace.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Eye Spy a Christmas Angel
This week’s WordPress Daily Post Photo Challenge is Eye Spy, and I cannot recall ever spying more beautiful eyes than on this little angel I had the privilege of photographing for fun recently.
Can you even stand the cuteness?!
I dare you not to smile!
This is sweet little Eva, and she is very excited about her first Christmas.
Wishing you the innocence and joy of a child this holiday season.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Are you Jingling Your Bells Yet?
I am!
Not only am I jingling, but I am singing too!
And sometimes I like to sing in Ubbi Dubbi…. especially Christmas songs…. like Jingle Bells.
And especially when little ones are around who laugh and laugh when I do it.
So – yes – at the breakfast table the morning after Thanksgiving – I was singing:
Jubinguble Bubells, Jubinguble Bublells,
Jubinguble uball thube wubay.
Uboh whubat fubun ubit ubis tubo rubide
ubin uba ubone huborse ubopuben slubeigh
Hubey!
Doesn’t Christmas bring out the child in all of us?
Chubeers & Hubugs,
Jubodubi
Getting our Christmas On
Yep!
This is happening here….
Getting our Christmas on.
‘Tis the season!
Fa la la la la la la la la…
and all that jazz!
Hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving!
Today – We are chillin’!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Autumn’s Final Act
Dancing in the Autumn sunlight
amidst coffee-colored trunks and wispy branches
with marshmallow fluff and smoky gray clouds floating
in an azure blue sky
above a carpet of fading green grass…
A few bright leaves hang on to life
in bold and brilliant bursts
of crimson and honey and marmalade.
Autumn’s Final Act.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Photo taken 11/21/15 from my front porch (my blog cover photo) of the weeping cherry tree that has the only leaves left in the front yard.
Clouds: from Both Sides Now
November Clouds – McKinney Home, Mars, PA
After posting my November Clouds photo and post yesterday, a very dear friend sent me this YouTube video early in the morning saying it was a “cloud song to go with my pic.”
Well, I got busy working and didn’t have a chance to listen to it until Charlie and I went for our lunch time walk.
The air was a bit cooler than it has been the past few days, but 55 degrees F is still pretty lovely for late November here in Mars.
So with my iPhone in hand and Charlie leading the way down our usual path, I hit “play.”
I then hit “play” five more times while we walked a few miles.
I had forgotten how much I love this song.
Or did I just realize how much I love this song?
Joni Mitchell wrote “Both Sides Now” in 1967 (I was only 4-5 years old), and recorded it in 1969 on her second album entitled, “Clouds.”
Needless to say, I was a bit young to truly appreciate it at that time. It is, however, #171 in Rolling Stone’s Top 500 greatest songs of all time.
So I listened to the words yesterday – – – over and over – – – and I found such deep meaning, such contentment, such freedom and liberation …
Next month, I will turn 53. Still hard to believe, but I also realize I am on the “other side” of life.
I am obviously past “middle age” as I surely don’t expect to see 106!
And it has taken me a while to believe and “accept” this “stage” of life – this “over 50” stage… But somehow, somewhere, at some point, it all became clear. It all became fine. It all became great!
It all became real and wonderful and the best time of life.
I’ve had my teens and twenties and thirties and every wonderful and not-so-wonderful thing that comes with each of those stages. When 50 came, I mourned it a bit.
I can’t pinpoint exactly when or why or how it happened, but I became content – even happy – maybe happier than ever – with this phase of life.
I’ve seen life and love and even clouds – from both sides now.
And life is clearer.
Life has more meaning.
Life is sweeter.
Clouds are “bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air.”
They have also “blocked the sun and rained and snowed on everyone.”
But – “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow it’s cloud illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all.”
And I LOVE that!
I’ve also seen love and life from “both sides now.”
From “give and take”
From “win and lose”
And maybe I don’t have all of the answers….
But I realize that even though “something’s lost…”
there is still….
“something gained in living every day.”
And I am cherishing every single one…
from this side now.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
“I have always thought of myself as a painter derailed by circumstance” – Joni Mitchell (June, 2000)
Hmmmmmm……
PS Thank you, Dick! ❤
November Clouds
“A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed.
It feels an impulsion…
this is the place to go now.
But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds,
and you will know, too,
when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond the horizons.”
– Richard Bach – Illusions
(This photo was taken late yesterday afternoon from my work office, which sits on one of the highest spots in Mars, PA. It was close to 70 degrees F again yesterday, which is so crazy unseasonably warm for November. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the blue sky and the puffy clouds and felt so inspired and overwhelmed and empowered by the beauty!)
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
the creative life in between 