Boxing Day

Boxing Day is celebrated the day after Christmas in Britain and some of the Commonwealth countries. What one does to celebrate Boxing Day is a mystery to me. It is the same day as the Feast of Stephen when King Wenceslas and his page set out, though the frost was cruel. It is cold--here at least. Windshield scraping was a chore this morning.

It gave me a good idea, though, for a theme for our header challenge this week (Thursday instead of Wednesday Christmas). BOXES.

Check out the other Headbangers who are listed in my sidebar. Mac may even include in his post what Boxing Day is about, as he is the lone Brit in our little group at this time.

I figured there would be boxes in our sights or in our files. Mine are mostly in the files, though some are from the last few days, such as thinking about the boxes the cookies would go out in. (The reindeer, gingerbread boys, and stars got their dressings completed before they made their way to friends.)

And there are the costumes to be placed back in their boxes

to store till next year's Christmas Nativity Pageant.

 

Looking back, I realized a fascination with far back methods of printing, and the need for boxes. The first picture is from when we toured Rubel's Castle in Glendora, California. The second came from a museum in Lincoln, England. (This link is to the first of several posts about Lincoln--the one where we first met Mac and his lovely wife Julie.)

Rather glad I don't have to find the right letters in that second batch. (I have a printing press picture from St. Petersburg, Russia, but the computer does not seem to want to let me turn it right side up.)

 

As a quilter, I sometimes tend to put things in boxes--both in the sewing room and in the quilt design. And this one continues with little boxes in the border fabric as well.

 

Browsing around I found that on the Washington State Ferries, we are somewhat placed in boxes. But this cyclist does not seem to want to stay in the box.

 

And viewed from the Space Needle, the city of Seattle, looks, like many cities do, like a whole lot of boxes. In fact, at one time that boxy black building just left of  center, once the Washington Mutual Building but I am not sure what it is now since the demise of Washington Mutual, was dubbed "the box the Space Needle came in". At the time, it was the tallest building in Seattle, now eclipsed by several others.

 

 

But boxes, the favored plaything of kittens and kittens at heart everywhere, gets my nod for my header.

Seattle, Woodland Park Zoo

 

Holiday Preparations

We decorated the church yesterday, and in keeping with it still being Advent, the Baby Jesus is not in the manger. He will be added on Christmas Eve at the Children's Mass.

In the meantime, preparations for our Christmas Pageant the same evening are underway. We got a late start because of other things going on, and I had to take over. We only have one king. I hope to remedy that situation at the next practice. This picture is from last year.

And as usual, the Advent Wreath is a beautiful reminder of that hope in our hearts because Christ came, and comes to us each day, and will come in the end.

 It is our Header challenge theme for this week. Check those listed in my sidebar for their interpretations of the them of Holiday Preparations.

It's cloudy

Mac gave us the theme of Cloud Formations, so what could I possibly use other than the lenticular clouds that form over Mt. Rainier.

I'm a day early again with my Headbanger post and new header as tomorrow is another doctor day for my better half.

I'm glad the clouds theme was traded to this week, as I have access to my files to retrieve some of the mountain pics. I could have made do last week with some of the clouds from our travels, but there is nothing quite like a lenticular cloud.

 The other members of our little challenge are linked in my sidebar. We'll see what they can put up.

Sparkle

Once again I was not sure I would be able to participate with the headbangers, as I needed to find something without resource of my photo files. In other words, something had to sparkle today, while we were driving nearly 500 miles from early morning till dark.

I did find a sparkle last night as we turned into the street where our hotel was, while waiting at a stoplight, I spotted this underpass lighting. I would call that sparkly. I'll use a better shot of it for the header.

We often wonder about these trucks which we pass each time we drive through Weed. California. They are also kind of sparkly. What is the deal with a fleet of bright and sparkly multi-colored tank trucks. They always look so shiny and clean.

The snow made the Grand Canyon rather sparkly last week.

I will use this version of the underpass lighting for the header. Check the links in my sidebar to see what the other header challenge participants find. Their posts and new headers will be up sometime Wednesday.