December End(ed) in Pictures.

 OK!  If I use something besides "Explorer" to open my Internet, I can post my pictures.  So, here it is:  December ends in Delayed Pictures.  A bit anti-climatic, really..

 It will be sad to take the tree down today.  But it we are going to blow it up, there's not much choice.  Or at least, no choice that doesn't involve burning the house down.

 Sara likes to make toys for Chuck's cockatoo, Scarlett.  That toothpaste box is stuffed with corn flakes, then wrapped in brown paper...

 A few last minute phone calls for new students to join our Monday / Wednesday night English class.

 Staff meeting cancelled.  Yay!  Don't have to go to work on New Years Eve!

I help Chuck edit a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune about gun control.

 Beds ready for overnight guests tonight.

 Chuck's homemade pasta is made and dried out.  We will eat homemade noodles with poppy seeds for new years day:  kluski z makiem in Polish.

 I can't decide what to wear for our big party tonight.  Finally, I choose three different get-ups, getting progressively more outrageous as the evening goes on. 

 New Years dinner will also include bigos (my all-time favorite Polish delicacy).  I add a little fresh cabbage to the bigos pot, which has been  simmering on and off for a couple of days.

 Getting the fireworks ready to put on the tree.

 I tape about 30 feet of sparklers to safely fuse and wrap the tree in it.

 Chuck is attaching fire-bombs to the fuse as well.

 Sara, making signage for our luge run, directing guests down the forest path to the sledding hill.

 Just a quick supper of burritos tonight.  I get  some roasted pork out to thaw.

 I haul the chimenea and a pile of firewood out to the luge run, so we can have a bonfire going  out there.

 Shovel the path to the hot tub, so people can have a soak if they like.

 A few Christmas thank-you letters

 We won't be doing paint ball tonight.  Chuck is selling some of his old guns. 

 Quick!  Clean up the burrito detritus and get the bar set up!

Time to get changed and ready for guests. 

Aaaaand that is where I got too busy to take pictures.  Chuck and I invited over 100 people to our place for New Years.  Total adult guests?  Three.   Not counting the two guests that came half-an-hour early and stayed for 20 minutes before leaving to go some place else.

But, our friend Cliff was there with his kids; my daughter invited a bunch of friends... It turned into a teenager party. But they had a great time:  sledding; hot tub; mock-tails (I still have several bottles of sparkling wine, due to shortage of adults); shooting pool; Karaoke (Cliff and I did "California Dreamin'").  And at midnight, we lit the fuse on the Christmas tree.  The fireworks were great!  But the tree did not burn:  too fresh.  I'm thinking that we should take the tree and stick it down in the ravine for the summer, then bring it back for next year. It will probably be in perfect shape for a conflagration by that time...