It's been cold and windy at the beach for the last two days. I got some interesting shots before my hands were too cold to hold the camera. On Wednesday, Dec 26th, the surf was very rough and the north wind was blowing the spray backwards as the waves broke. Today, Dec 27th, the Gulf was dead calm and the sky was beautiful.

Ta-Da!

Part of the ongoing beach renourishment flotilla

Get him - he's got a cracker!

French fries!

This looks photoshopped but I swear it's not

Sunset in Gulf Shores Dec 27, 2012

Almost below the horizon

Rough surf kicked up by the Christmas Day storms

North wind blowing the spray backwards

Looks like crackled glass

What?

I'm too sexy

Busy Little Elves

Fizzer the Christmas Kitten

The Christmas boxes are all over the sunporch in varying stages of unpackedness (if that's not a word, it ought to be) and I'm rooting through them picking out the things I want to decorate with this year. The cats are delighted to have new places to get into and they keep bringing bits of ribbon and greenery for my consideration. Nervous Little Red Dog is barking maniacally at the Taller Half who is outside on the ladder putting up icicle lights on the house. He is fa-la-la-ing in an endearingly off-key baritone as he works. The little kitten who showed up a few days ago is very busy helping him with the lights and every now and then I'll here the singing interrupted with "don't chew on the electrical tape you moron" or "I'm going to throw you in the canal if you pull that garland down one more time". Ahh, the sounds of Christmas. Mama-in-law is fixing the wreaths for the doors and the spray of greenery to put on the mailbox since I don't have the patience to fiddle with all those floral picks and bows. She's good at it and I'm not - I always end up cussing. Tonight we'll light the second candle on the Advent wreath Veronica made and brought with her from Prague last week. It is beautiful and so far Davie hasn't chewed on it.

Gulf Shores Christmas tree on the beach

Here's a short video from the city Christmas tree lighting party last night on the beach. Hot chocolate and cookies, Santa and snow machines, Old friends and family, now that's a celebration.

Long Holiday Weekend Plans

I can't wait for 5 o'clock this evening - I'm off work until Monday morning. Huzzah! Tonight the taller half and I are going to the Tom Waits concert in Mobile. We've both been hoping to see him for years but his sporadic touring schedule never matched up with where we were. Tour info at http://tomwaits.com/

Big plans for tomorrow, too. We bought an invisible fence to put around the yard. Nervous red dog needs more exercise than her rapidly aging mama can provide so we're going to put in the fence and pray she doesn't fry her brains learning where the boundaries are. Working with the taller half to accomplish this may not be a good idea so I plan on strawbossing and providing cool adult beverages along with a running commentary. Should be interesting to say the least.

In our local paper this morning, my favorite food editor had a great column on barbeque. Check it out at blog.al.com/generous-portions/ He has some great tips from Steve Raichlen's Barbeque Bible www.barbecuebible.com/ This is my favorite book for grilling and bbq-ing info. I'm thinking baby back ribs, chicken, maybe some sausages...yum. The 4th of July barbeque was always a big deal at home when my brother and I were kids. Mama would wrap sliced potatoes and onions in tin foil, put in lots of butter and chives and a dash of cayenne. The package would cook alongside the ribs and smell heavenly. I loved the potatoes that would almost stick on the bottom - they were golden brown and crispy. I think those will definitely be on the menu this year. Daddy always made homemade ice cream in an old hand crank freezer. My brother and I would start off the cranking so energetically and tire almost immediately. Daddy wouldn't take over until the handle wouldn't turn even with both of us pulling on it. Watermelon frosty cold from the cooler, ice cream made with a real vanilla bean, ribs so tender you could pull the meat off the bone with your lips...now that was a 4th of July barbeque!

After the feasting, we'll head over to the state park to get a primo view of the city's fireworks show. Every year a barge anchors about 1/4 mile offshore from the public beach and fires a spectacular show out over the gulf. The traffic is horrendous so we try to park on the backroad around the lake so we can scoot out and get home before the rest of the people start playing bumper cars. There really isn't a bad seat anywhere along the beach road and lake road through the park.

Finally Saturday will get here and I can spend the day at my workbench. Hopefully, the taller half will go diving so I'll have the day to myself. I got some beautiful new opalite teardrops from http://gottacraft.etsy.com. I have several ideas for using them - can't wait to get started.

Barbeque, fireworks, crafting time - what more could a girl want or need?!

Happy 4th of July to you!