Snow!

Last weekend we had some snow. It wasn't much, and it didn't last long, but it was certainly more snow than we ever saw in Thailand. The kids thought it was a perfect excuse to get out and play, and the dog went right with them.

Best Gingerbread House

Here was my favorite house, one of Ann's creations:

Ginger Bread House

Decorating ginger bread houses is a family tradition in our house. Ann bought several kits, and she and kids got to work one evening recently.

Snake in the House

We came home recently to find a snake in our kitchen. It was just a little guy, a small earth snake, maybe 6 inches long. The irony is that we lived in a tropical country for 21 months and never even saw a snake, then we come back to America and within 5 weeks have one in the house:



This reminds of the last time we encountered an earth snake, back when we were in Richmond:

Jezzy chillaxes

What does a Yorkie dog do at the end of a long Thanksgiving Day? She chillaxes by watching the dog show!



We had a great time with family for Thanksgiving this year; Jezzy was a hit with the cousins, especially young Maddie.

Leaves

We live near the entrance to Durant Park, so we occasionally take walks along the trails and around the lakes. Though not a very clear shot, here's one that highlights the beautiful colors of the leaves a couple weeks ago.

Kiteflying on Wrightsville Beach

I bought a small kite a couple years ago at Kitty Hawk Kites and brought it with us to the beach. It flew pretty well, but the wind blew the kite so that it was right in the sun. That made for some pretty interesting facial expressions.

Surfer at Wrightsville Beach

The waves weren't too high--it's the east coast after all--yet they were high enough to tempt some surfers on the day we went to Wrightsville Beach near Wilmington, NC. So I tried my hand at a few shots. I really could have used a 300 or 400mm lens.

Jacen's web site

As part of computer class, I'm teaching Jacen to set up a web site. His first site, jacen.garriss.org, was created with iWeb on our iMac.

Birds on Wrightsville Beach

We spent part of a day playing on Wrightsville Beach, just east of Wilmington, NC. I managed to catch a few shots of the birds scavenging a meal:







That 200m lens really came in handy here, though I could have put a 300 or 400 to good use, if I had one.

Fowl at Greenfield Park

There's a 5 mile walking trail around the lake at Greenfield Park (in Wilmington, NC), which we walked. Along the way I saw these birds, a napping duck and a fishing heron:

No swimming

While in Wilmington, NC, we spent one morning at Greenfield Park. It has a decent-sized lake in the midst of it which has this encouraging sign:

Video of the Walking Street Market in Chiang Mai

Jacen took some footage of our favorite market while in Chiang Mai, and he recently made a short video out of it. Enjoy!

The Walking Street Market from James Garriss on Vimeo.

Glassblowing

While in Wilmington, NC, we went to the Burchetta Glassblowing Studio and Gallery, where they give demonstrations and even lessons on blowing glass. Unfortunately their furnaces were down for maintenance, so we didn't get to see any glassblowing. So we looked at their gallery, which has many nice pieces.



In this picture, direct sunlight is coming into the gallery from the opposite direction and shining on/through the glass pieces. It was so bright that it effectively blinded everything else in the picture. This effect was not done via post-processing.

A flower on the beach near Fort Fisher

I found this flower growing in the sand near Fort Fisher. Anyone know what it is?