Winter Solstice

Every year, Muir Woods Park Services hold a Winter Solstice party. There were bonfires and singing and free apple cider. But the most amazing things are the candles. They're just little tea lights in white paper bags, but the rangers line all the main paved paths in the beginning part of the park. We wandered through once when it was just getting dark, and I'm glad we did. You could still see the redwoods stretching above you, but you could see the candles stretching into the woods like fairy lights too. A few hours later, that's ALL you could see. Our camera isn't good enough to capture all those, but we got a few decent closeup shots (see me above!) It got SO COLD, but it just made you want to huddle around the bonfires. Our night ended with watching a group of men do what I can only assume is a traditional pagan dance to the sound of a recorder. The best (and first) solstice celebration I've been too!

Silly things

And so this is Xmas,
I hope you have Jasmine.

Merry Xmas (War is Over)
from the Christmas Song Generator.

Get your own song :

Ahahahahahahahaha!
And almost as funny:

I'm dreaming of a white Jasmine,
Just like the ones we used to know.

White Christmas
from the Christmas Song Generator.

Get your own song :

In real news, I'm making peanut butter kiss cookies today and I did the thing where you substitute unsweetened applesauce for half the butter and before I got all the other ingredients in there they tasted like apple peanut butter cookies which is not a bad thing. Not bad at all. Now we just have to see if they will hold their balls.
We're going to get a Christmas tree tomorrow!

Hotlanta

We're back from Atlanta! We didn't actually see much of the city, of course, being almost entirely wrapped up in Bar Mitzvah activities, but the skyline was pretty :)
Also, it was colder than I expected. Not like Wisconsin or Delaware cold, but cold enough to require a sweatshirt and hat at night.
I met Joe's "extended" family at this gathering. His Aunt Jacki is really his godmother, and an old friend of his dad's, but Joe thinks of them all as family. His cousins are really cool, and very easy to hang out with.
As soon as we got to the hotel (the Hyatt), a hotel employee met us at the door, told us they were overbooked, and sent us "next door" to the Hilton. The Hilton was actually half a mile down the road.
Nobody explained anything to us. The Hyatt gave us a letter saying they were paying for the night, but we assumed we were still paying for the original room...we were very confused. Also the Hilton did not have free breakfast and that annoyed me too. In the end, it turned out we got our first night FREE which made me very happy. If only they would have explained that to us in the first place, I wouldn't have gotten all irritated with them. Also, we came and got our free breakfast from them Saturday morning anyways!