Elvis in Seguin

As promised, here is my celebrity shot from last night's Holiday Stroll festivities! When I saw him, I knew I had to get a shot. Elvis was a riot and it seemed everyone enjoyed him. He made us all laugh and even belted out a few lines for us.

Lighting of the Town Square

Tonight we met up with a new friend and shared with her the lighting experience and I had a great time. It seemed like we had fewer floats and not as big a crowd but it was still really nice to get out in the chilly weather. Really gets you in the holiday mood. The parade started at 6:30p and then the town square was lit up while the high school band prepared to play some Christmas tunes. It's always fun to see how bright it gets once the light switch is flipped on!

We walked around and looked at the decorated Christmas trees around the square and then walked over to the Heritage Museum, which was open late and offered refreshments and a warm welcome to passers by. (I'll post a very funny picture tomorrow of a celebrity impersonator who was one of several at the Museum tonight.)

Thank you to everyone who commented to me about the blog and/or the article. I felt so happy that people took an interest in this hobby that I have. I think it was the first time Mark and I have been out on the town and I actually talked to more people than he did! ;)

Christmas Preparations

It is very hard to believe that December is a couple of days away already. My sister and her family were visiting from FL so I really wanted to finish gifts for all our FL family members in order to send it all back with her but I lacked just two gifts! Oh well. Here are some stockings we did manage to fill and send back with her.

I love Christmas time and finding just the right things for a friend or family member. It really is fun. I learned about the stocking tradition when I met my husband and his kids. I had so much fun finding goodies for them that my sisters and I started stockings for the kids in our families and each other. I think it's my favorite gift related activity!

Thank you everyone for your interest in the blog and for your comments and emails. I love hearing from all of you!

Pecan & Reporter

Recently I was interviewed by our local paper, The Seguin Gazette Enterprise about this blog and I thought it was a really neat experience. Actually, I was quite surprised and tickled when I received the posting from Michael asking that I contact him if I wanted to talk about the DP blog.

It was fun but felt odd to have someone asking about why I do this and then photographing me photographing Seguin. This is a shot of Michael shooting me. His shot can be found on the Gazette website if you want to check out the article.

Thank you, Michael. It was a great experience!

Checking the lights...

I did ask first if I could snap a shot. :) This is a close up of one of the City of Seguin employees preparing the lights on the trees on the square. I can't wait until we're all lit up!

Sorry for the lack of posts. With family visiting for Thanksgiving, it was non-stop with little time for surfing or posting! Hope everyone had a nice time. We were so thankful to have the chance to spend time with family. It was wonderful.

Christmas Lights on the Square

Here's another sight I saw downtown that was an unexpected but wonderful surprise. City employees were busy putting lights in the trees. The lighting event will be on November 29! I love tree lights. It becomes really magical. The event also includes a night parade and is usually a lot of fun.

Decorations

While downtown, I saw evidence that Christmas is indeed right around the corner. Decorations are going up, including on this light post. It's cloudy this week according to the forecast but when I took this series of photos last Friday, it was a perfect and beautiful day.

Juan Seguin and the Water Drops

Yesterday I was downtown and walked around Central Park to take some pictures. I'll be posting them this coming week since I saw several things I found interesting and want to share here. What I like most about this shot is the way the water drops look. They look frozen but then I look at it again and they look animated. Also, I like how it appears as if Juan Seguin is doing battle with the water.

Insulators & Flowers

It's November and when I took this photo a couple of days ago, it was in the mid-80s in temperature. Too warm for my taste since I can't get into the holiday spirit with unseasonably high temps. Today, it was wonderfully cool...lower 70s all day and tonight will be in the upper 30s. I love the crisp, cool weather.

We have these insulators on our fence on the side of the house. Mark and I use to go insulator hunting along railroad tracks. Those were the good old days when we actually had more personal time!

Corner of Kingsbury & Austin Streets

I have been trying to get a good shot of this sign for some time. I smile every time I drive by because it is so clever. I haven't been there as a customer, which I suppose is a good thing, but they do brisk business from what I see.

Veterans Day

Grave of a forgotten veteran...

Calvin Williams was born a slave in Orange County VA on Juy 4, 1832. After securing his freedom in 1864 he joined the ranks of the Union Army. After the Civil War, Calvin re-enlisted and served in the 38th and 24th Infantry as one of the famed "buffalo soldiers" assigned to protect settlers on the American frontier. After his discharge in 1871 at Ft. McKavett TX, he settled in Seguin TX. He lived the remainder of his life there, quietly raising a family and developing the Second Baptist Church, which still stands today. He passed away on Jan. 12, 1909.

That very year, his grandson Joseph Williams embarked on a professional baseball career that earned him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

Today's post was written by Mark. Thanks, honey! I knew you would be the best person to write this for Calvin. On October 29, 2007, I posted something else about Calvin.

Red eye candy

I don't even like candy apples but I was so drawn to these beautiful red creations I just had to ask to photograph them. The lady was so nice, she took the plastic off the top. Can you spot something interesting or unusual about one of these?

We saw these at La Paleteria, which I posted about on October 20, 2006. It's a local ice cream place we keep hoping will succeed but worry about b/c we hardly ever see people there. There is ice cream, fruit bar, shakes, smoothies and more! If only they were on the town square, it would be lovely to walk around there with a yummy treat.

Here's a Photo without flash, which I sort of like though the vibrant red with the flash won out on it.

White Plumeria

It has been a super hectic week at work. I am barely keeping up with things. I did want to post this Plumeria bloom. I find it so soothing, the white on green. Our plant is about 3 or 4 years old and has never bloomed until this year, when we put it in the ground. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Gift & Gourmet

This is a wonderful little gift shop right across the street from our home. I love walking over there. Or I should say, I use to. I have not been in there for some time so I will try and check it out next weekend for an inside shot. I like to check out the window display. I took this right before Halloween, hence the pumpkins and so on. I meant to see about that green dish towel with the candy corns. It looked so fun.

I knew the lady who owned this store but Anne has sold it (I think last year) to another lady, her name escapes me but I did meet her once in the store. There was always something wonderful in there I wanted and Anne kept a wish list for customers so that she can make suggestions to shoppers. That was really nice to have a retailer give you that attention. She also bought some earrings I made and so that was coolto see my stuff in the display case. I think that was my first official sale to a store (versus friends and family buying my creations). Sometimes, I would just hang out with Ann and chat. That seems ages ago.

Water Tower Completed

All summer, we passed the water tower and it was covered either partially or entirely. Very mysterious even though we knew it was getting a cleaning and new paint job. And now here it is! I really like the clean look and the blue lettering. If you want to see what it looked like before and during the face lift, check out these links:

Photo 1 Before facelift and Photo 2 During facelift

Men at Work

Something blue for the theme today - the sky! I saw these two men working waaaaaaaaaaaay up high at the high school before one of our Friday night football games. Gotta make sure all those lights are fully functional I suppose so they kids can see where they're running and throwing the ball. :)