Say Cheese!

I grew up around cameras. My dad purchases a new camera every few years, and I remember several film cameras that he used when I was younger. My Aunt Vada also takes tons of photos of everything, and at one point, she told me she kept all the negatives (I wonder if my students know the meaning of this word in this context) in one box in her house, so if there was a fire, she'd grabbed that box and not the dozens (probably closer to a hundred) photos albums. My grandpa had a Polaroid camera that we loved to take photos with and wait a few minutes for our images to appear. (One time, Papa took some Polaroid shots of the TV set, while the music group, The New Kids on the Block, appeared on the American Music Awards on TV, so I could see them. He was afraid I wasn't watching the live show at my house. Little did he know that I was recording it on a thing called a VCR!)

I also have memories of my dad setting up a giant projector and screen in our family room, so we could watch "silent" films of me as a baby in the late 1970s. When my younger brother was born in 1985, my dad bought our first video camera. It was the bulky kind that required an assistant, usually me, to hold part of it in a camera bag while he filmed. We lugged it to Disney, Dollywood, beach trips and family gatherings. Part of the camera was actually the VCR, and it never failed that we couldn't find a blank tape to record something on when we needed it. I'm fairly certain the final episode of "Dallas" on TV erased one of my birthday parties.

I even found a camera in a cow pasture once. It was a bright yellow underwater camera in a bright yellow bag, and I discovered it one day while helping my day feed the cows in the field in back of our house. There was a roll of film in the bag that we developed, but it was hard to tell who had taken the photos since they were mainly of buildings in a large city. I'm not sure if it fell out of a plane or someone walking through our property dropped it. It's still a mystery, but I used the camera to take many underwater photos at the beach and in my grandparent's pool. 

I remember dropping off rolls of film and waiting for several days or even a week before we could pick up our prints, and we would always get two sets of prints. Then, a radical new way of processing prints within an hour happened. Now, I cannot remember the last time I actually had printed photos made. I guess it was for our wedding and honeymoon in 2004.

During college, I was a telecommunication major (fancy way of saying broadcast journalism), and we used very heavy and expensive cameras and tripods for reporting the news. One of my friends accidentally backed over a tripod while driving, and it cost several thousand dollars to replace it. Recently, I purchased a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera for $120 from Amazon.com. It has a built-in USB arm that plugs into a computer, so it's easy to download good quality video and edit it in a matter of minutes.

Everything is much less expensive and easier to use now, and I am very fortunate that my family is camera and computer literate because my parents are keeping my nephew each week, and they send photos and video of him to me via email. My dad has a digital camera now that also records video, and it fits into his pocket. I guess he doesn't need an assistant anymore.

I am so thankful for these advancements since I am able to see the little guy smiling, laughing and growing into an adorable little man. I also can see how much my parents are enjoying their first grandchild. I can't imagine waiting weeks at a time for my parents to take photos, have them developed, and then mail them to me.

Here are a few of my recent favorites. I know I am biased, but I think he's probably the most adorable baby ever! :)

Here are a couple of videos. 

My brother and his boy....

A heat wave in Kentucky...highs in the 50s this week

The last time I didn't wear socks in the house was mid-November. Since Thanksgiving, we've had cold temperatures and snow on the ground each week. For more than two months, highs have generally been in the 30s and lows in the 20s or even colder. We've even had lows in the single digits near zero and wind chills below zero. It's 50 degrees outside as I write this post, a temperature we haven't felt in a while.

According to Lexington's LEX 18 chief meteorologist Bill Meck (read his weather blog at http://www.lex18.com/bills-weather-blog), Lexington has had 27.4 inches of snow, which is the 9th highest on record. This is almost three times as much snow as an average winter. The average high since December 1 has been 35 degrees, and there have been 53 days when the temperature did not rise about 40 degrees. We've had 32 days when we didn't get above freezing.

I started taking photos of the ice and snow in early December.

This amount of snow on our back deck was enough to get me excited. Little did I realize what winter had in store.

This first dusting happened while I was decorating for Christmas, which was nice. Within a few days, here is what the back deck looked like.

Remember the sunflower...how about snow flower.

We had a white Christmas. It started snowing Christmas Eve and continued through the morning.

Cash went outside in some of the first snow.

 During a period of melting, giant icicles hung from the roof.

I really like to see the snow fall at night. It makes everything so bright.

Spring is technically more than 30 days away, but we're having a warming trend for now. David and I agree this is as far north as we'd like to move at this point. Last Wednesday wasn't a fun driving day, but I still think I prefer this much cold and snow for a couple of months compared to many many months of Florida's heat and humidity.

There is a small amount of snow on the back porch now, but it will all be melted by tomorrow. Happy Valentine's Day!

Exploring Kentucky

The nice thing about family visiting is we also get a chance to explore more of Kentucky. It's been a month since David's family visited us for the New Year, so I've been a bit lax in posting some of things we enjoyed during their visit.

One day, we visited the Acres of Land Winery in Richmond and ate lunch. It was delicious, and they have a nice selection of wines and scrumptious entrees on the menu.

We traveled to Berea that afternoon to do some shopping at the many arts and crafts stores. Allison found a rather large chair to sit in, and the owner of the furniture store will make one for your house for $5000.

Kentucky is known for its Bourbon--an American whiskey. There are six historic distilleries in our area, but most were closed on New Year's Eve. However, Wild Turkey was open, so we ventured to Lawrenceburg, Kentucky and took a tour. It was interesting to learn how Bourbon is made.

 We had a great tour guide who explained the entire process and answered questions.

Wild Turkey has built a new distillery, but we toured the old one since tours aren't happening yet in the new one.

The Bourbon is stored in barrels until it's ready.

Sometimes, the barrels leak.

Our tour guide let us taste some from the leaking barrel. It was rather strong.

When we returned to the visitor's center, we had a more formal tasting of the different kinds of Wild Turkey Bourbon. It's definitely an acquired taste.

In addition to seeing the distillery, it was a nice drive through the country parts of Central Kentucky.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! I can't be in Florida to help her celebrate, but here is a great photo of her and my adorable nephew with some birthday flowers. Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

An Italian Christmas

We've started several Christmas traditions, and one of them is having an Italian meal on Christmas Day. We enjoy the ham, turkey, stuffing and other side items at Thanksgiving, but we like to do something different for Christmas.

This year we made seafood lasagna rolls-ups stuffed with asparagus and topped with a creamy vodka tomato sauce. Besides looking like Christmas colors of red, green and white, they were delicious. We prepare everything on Christmas Eve, so all we need to do on Christmas Day is bake everything.

Our Christmas Eve meal carries over from my parent's tradition of having ham sandwiches, sausage balls and chips and dip. We bought Boar's Head deli meat from Kroger, and they have some great selections. We decided on the Salsalito turkey and rosemary and sundried tomato ham with Havarti dill and Asiago cheese slices. We eat the sandwiches on onion rolls, and this year, we tried a new brand we found at Meijer stores, Aunt Millie's. They were better than ones we've had in the past.

This meal would not be complete without David's favorite chip ever, Cool Ranch Doritos.

We also make sausage balls each year, and David is holding the giant sausage ball before I rolled about 50 individual ones. This year, I used the sage pork sausage and Bisquick and added some Gruyere cheese along with extra sharp cheddar, garlic salt and red pepper flakes.

OK, back to the seafood lasagna meal. We used crab, lobster and bay scallops for the filling. David sauteed the crab in a dab of olive oil, and then cooked the lobster in Sherry cream.

He then mixed in some minced garlic while he cooked the scallops in garlic butter.

Next, he combined all the seafood and garlic with ricotta cheese and two eggs.

Here is what the filling looks like before it's rolled into the cooked lasagna noodles.

We steamed the asparagus and set it aside.

It's time to put everything together.

Start with a lasagna noodle.

Add some seafood and ricotta cheese mixture.

Cut the asparagus into smaller pieces and add it.

Almost ready to roll it up!

Let's roll!

The first one in the pan.

They keep multiplying.

Finally finished rolling.

For the sauce, we used a jar of Vodka sauce, a jar of light Alfredo sauce, a can of Italian style diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and some garlic cloves.

We poured the sauce on top and covered the dish for baking on Christmas Day.

A Christmas meal wouldn't be complete without Herman rolls.

We also had an Italian side salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, black olives, carrots, green peppers, banana peppers, green onions and grated Parmesan cheese.

Here is the main course hot out of the oven and topped with Pecorino Romano cheese.

It was a delicious meal!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Finally Updated: Twelve Days of Christmas Top TV Specials

I apologize for not posting a daily update with a different Christmas TV special, but the holidays happened, and I got a little busy. So, I'm listing the remaining top ones on my personal list here. I already mentioned The Brady Bunch, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Next on the list is a favorite of so many generations—Charlie Brown Christmas. It first aired in 1965.



I have seen this one many times, and I have it on VHS and DVD, but there is still something magical about watching it live each year when it airs on ABC. It used to only air once per season, but now ABC airs it twice during the holidays.

Switching to Christmas movies, I have a couple of favorites. I still enjoy watching the original Home Alone made in 1990.



I can't believe it's 20 years old this year. I remember seeing it in the theater with my mom and brother after Christmas and on the Sunday before school started again Monday.

Another favorite movie that I love watching every year on TV is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation made in 1989.



I have many favorite scenes in the movie, but my favorite is the singing of the National Anthem near the end.



A new favorite from this year is Glee's Christmas episode on TV. Only in its second season, this show has soared in the ratings.



I am a huge fan of The Golden Girls, and I've probably seen every episode multiple times. There were a couple of Christmas shows, and I like "Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas," in which Rose is working at a counseling center, and a man dressed as Santa Claus comes in on Christmas Eve and holds Rose, Blanche and Dorothy hostage since he wants to spend Christmas with others and not alone. The girls are trying to make it the airport in time for their flights to visit family members, and in classic Sophia fashion, she walks into the counseling center after waiting in the car for a while and takes the gun out of the man's hands since it was a toy gun.

Thinking the day is saved, the women rush to the airport just in time to make their flights, but due to a storm, all the flights out of Miami are canceled, so they end up at a diner, eating their favorite dessert, cheesecake. To make it a great Christmas episode, it starts snowing in Miami during the last scene of the episode.



I've also seen every episode of the original Beverly Hills 90210, and in this Christmas episode, Brenda brings home a Santa Claus who she thinks is homeless to spend Christmas Eve with the gang.



Thanks for reading until the end. My all-time favorite Christmas TV special/movie is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever based on a book. It's a great story of the unruly Herdman children who show up to a church service in early December because they think there are free snacks, and end up taking over most of the parts in the annual Christmas pageant. The TV special was made in 1986, and I have a copy on VHS that I watch every Christmas. It's still the best!



Hope you enjoyed reading this list and watching all of these Christmas specials and others on television. Merry Christmas!