A Little Christmas

Gentle Friends, our Christmas season has really gotten going now... we headed out last night to our first party of the Season... an annual event we've been attending for the last few decades... here's my annual shot of this year's magnificent tree in the front parlor...

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Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Few Christmas Things

Gentle Friends, Christmas is in full swing in our life here by the Bay.  The week started off with the arrival of our Christmas cards... I love sending out cards every year and once again I had a friend snap a photo at Thanksgiving that I turned into our card.... here's what it looks like this year...

... and then later on in the week was our company Christmas Lunch.  This year we came back to the City and headed down to the Embarcadero...

... to The Slanted Door....  it was a really tasty lunch... they serve things "family style" so you get to taste or leave alone things ordered... 

 

here's a snaparoo of my lunch...

... there was bok choy, gulf shrimp, and some really delicious beef covered in what was probably some of the best mushrooms I've ever had!!!  For dessert there was...

 and then with the espresso came three of these to the table...

... some flavoured cotton candy.... a little odd but did that stop anyone.... nope!!

... the views were of a very smooth bay looking towards Treasure island...  I think the only real drawback was the noise level was out of control.  Just really too loud for any kind of conversation or just basic talking to your dinner partner. 

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Then the week wrapped up with our going out into a rainy evening to see...

... we took an Uber to the Theater and the traffic was backed up all over downtown... crazy drivers and rain are not a good mix!!

... ACT (American Conservatory Theater) has been doing ACC for years at the lovely old Geary Theater.  The theatre dates to 1910 and is a real gem of neoclassical revival.  It is a smaller space and feels really intimate.  The play was fun and they did a super job interpreting the story!!

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There you go sports fans an update on my little life, not much stitching to speak of, but with the Season a week shorter than usual, I'm staying busy with other things!!  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Lotta Christmas Cheer!

Gentle Friends, so this first weekend of the Christmas Season started us off with a bang and two Parties back to back... Saturday evening we headed over to Alamo Square and our friends from forever Chris and Mo and their lovely Historic Home decked out for the holidays..
here are some shots...

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... you can't really see it but on the sideboard are some of the pastries and Chris made his Stollen again, so delicious and filled with marzipan!!

... Mo tried something al little different this year while lighting the tree.  He started off with the tree dark and the candles slowly illuminated the tree... usually, he leaves the bubble lights on and after the candles are lit he turns them off... I like the slow illumination...

... and once they are all lit it was a treat to see!!  This shot is from the back parlour...

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Then Sunday evening we headed over to friends home in the Castro...

... Adam had decorated the front of his building so the festive spirit started even befor ascending to his apartment...

...I love these feather wreaths....

... his apartment was packed to the gills with people so there was no clear shot of anything... but you get the idea, a lovely tree he looked all over town for...

... and I headed back into the kitchen, there was an open window I was aiming for, fresh air was at a premium!!  From left to right... Adam's mom, Becky, his stepdad, Mo, Daniel, Naidi, Mike, Mike and Matt....the window you can't see is to the left...

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... and I'll wrap up the post with another shot of Mo and Chris' tree with just the bubble lights a'going.... it's a beautiful tree once again!!
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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Goo Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!
edgar

A Little Bit of Christmas

Gentle Friends, our Christmas began Saturday evening at our friends annual Christmas party... I've posted some snaps before and every year it's such a lovely occasion... here are some snaps from this year...

... the tree this year was a real stunner and although there are candles... here it is all lit up with lights...

 .... lighting the candles...

 .... candlelight...

 ... and a really great snap of all the candles going ... it was a super tree this year, probably the best ever!!!

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there you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Night Music

Gentle Friends, one of the highlights of the weekend was attending a performance of Handel's Messiah....  and I took some snaps....

 ... I had ordered the tickets a while back... since there were only to be three performances by the SF Symphony I wanted to make sure we had decent seats on Saturday evening...

 ... instead of driving downtown we Uber-ed there, so much easier than trying to find parking.... this is the War Memorial Opera House decked out for the Nutcracker....

 ... and even City Hall is decorated and lit up for the Christmas Season...

 ... and our final destination Davies Symphony Hall....

 ... all decked out with lovely big Christmas trees....

 ... looking out towards City Hall...

 ... we attended the pre-concert talk given by Scott Foglesong of the Conservatory of music.  

It was a sort of quick history and background of the piece and was very interesting!!!  Then it was on to our seats...

... on the first tier to the right of the stage so we could see backstage a bit ....though the open door,,,  this is the stage before the chorus and musicians come on ... 

...  and here is everything going strong, chorus, musicians, conductor and the four principle singers.  It was a wonderful evening and such a stupendous piece of music to hear live.  If you ever get the chance I highly recommend hearing the messiah live and in full music rig!!

a little edit:  everyone (or most everyone ) jumped to their feet and stood for the Hallelujah Chorus, it was a great moment and so very traditional!!......

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Shoppin'

Gentle Friends, I've done next to no stitching over the past week, but yesterday we did finally get downtown to do the last bit 'o shopping that needed to be done.  

I had my camera so I took some snaperoos.....

We parked in the Mission Street garage and since we got there early we got prime parking next to the elevator on the second floor!!  WooHoo!!... the trotted over to have some breakfast... next up was Bloomingdales so I could pick up some Kusmi Tea, they are the only place in the city that carries it...  then over to the Westfield Center... and this year under the dome is this enormous upside down Christmas tree looking thing... that twinkles and sparkles....

... a shot from the second floor looking up at the Santa Tree and the hanging "ornament"...

... we headed to see it up close, and it's hard to imagine but the twinkling lights kinda make this a nicer looking thing than just an upside down looking tree....

... and Santa was there - the line was huge, but he was a great Santa!!

... here's another shot at the tree level so you can really see just how big it is compared to everything around ... the large clear ornaments fill in the open spaces nicely...

We were here specifically to go to Victoria's secret, now whatever secret she has must be a small one because the tiny lacy things I was seeing looked to be basically butt floss.... and would certainly not leave much to the imagination much less contain any secrets!!.... but I was not there to buy "floss" I was there to get some perfume for my niece...

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After the Center, we headed out and over market street to the Converse store and although saw some fun things didn;t get anything, but they have this hanging decoration of shoes that is interesting.....

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Next, we walked up to union Square to Macy's and once again they had really nicely decorated windows ......here is one of the windows, sorry about the reflections...

some of the windows had puppies and kittens from the SPCA, the puppies were all napping... 

after some heavy hitting shopping, we headed upstairs to Holiday Lane....

... there was a ton of folks up there so I was unable to get any shots without some people....

 ... notice the "sale" signs already up and prominently displayed.....

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...heading back downstairs I got this shot of the ice skating rink on Union Square......

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It was a nice feeling to be leaving with all our shopping completed by about 1:30 when the crowds really started to thicken....  now everything is wrapped, packed and ready for shipping pick up this afternoon......  we also got most of the Christmas cards out over the weekend so that is also done...  just ticking off the list things to do before Christmas so I am a happy camper!!

That's about it for today sports fans. thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Oh Tannenbaum

Gentle Friends... the past weekend was a "party heavy" weekend so many places to go and so many people to see...one party we usually get to every year is really over the top... the tree they erect is enormous, and it always has real lit candles, truly phenomenal!!

... this is the tree in the front parlour window over looking Steiner street.  It is amazing what a crowd this will draw during the season - folks out walking, stop and just gaze up from the street.  

This is how it looks with just the regular lights going......

....  here's a shot from the back parlor, you can better see just how big a tree they put up.....

... with the white lights on and lighting the candles....

... the candles all lit and the burned and burned and were going for a good 1/2 hour or more.   Now I've been going to seeing Chris' Christmas parties and seeing hie candlelit trees for the past 20+ years both here and when we were living in Florida and every year when those candles are lit it really knocks me out!!!  It's feels and looks so very old fashioned and totally Christmas.  BTW the candles were ordered from Germany, a country that really knows how to do traditional Christmas!  After the party, walking back to the car we passed this house.....

.... super lights!!

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That does it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by, do stop again!

Take care,

edgar