Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Merry Christmas

A quick posting before my computer freezes! This is one of my absolute favourite Christmas ornaments, given to me by my daughter for Christmas in 2014. It stands maybe 2" tall and is just so cute. She knows so well how crazy I am about mushrooms : ) The only little snowman I have ever seen holding a mushroom of any kind. This bright red one is the poisonous/hallucinogenetic Fly Agaric/Amanita muscaria. Happy Christmas Day, everyone! Ha, this is funny - yesterday evening, I Googled NORAD to check where in the world Santa had reached. Immediately, I got the Blue Screen of Death - thank you Santa for my early Christmas present. Strangely, though, my computer didn't freeze for the next few hours, unlike this morning, Christmas Day. For many people, Christmas is a very difficult time, for various reasons. My thoughts are with them and, as always, with those who for one reason or another will spend Christmas alone. To those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a happy day, anyway. Merry Christmas, happy day!

Pam, wishing you, your hubby and your three furry companions a wonderful, relaxed, peaceful Christmas Day! Absolutely loved your Christmas card that you posted - very clever and beautiful. I'm sure everyone loved it and was impressed at your skill. I can only begin to imagine how much effort went into creating it. Will be thinking of you. Adding this very quickly this evening (Christmas Eve), as I am holding my breath that my computer won't freeze any moment. Pretty well impossible to use - it lasted just 10 minutes this morning. Technician was unable to replicate the problem I'm having, and could find nothing wrong to fix. So annoying! Anyway, I send my Christmas wishes to each of you and hope that tomorrow will be a happy day for you, whether you spend it with family/friends or quietly by yourself. If you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope your day will be good, anyway. To my daughter - sorry, I just had to use this little snowman before giving it to you : )

I happened to have already scanned this image a few years ago and thought I'd use it today, to wish everyone who celebrates Christmas a very happy day. Me, many, many years ago (lol!), wearing homemade, flannel pyjamas and clutching one of my Teddy bears. Merry Christmas, everyone! Here, our temperature on Christmas morning is -19C (windchill -29C). Extreme cold warnings are in effect for Alberta. The forecast for "a few flurries" has changed, so sunshine should be here to stay all day. There is too much snow on the ground already, so we don't need any more.

Lol, those of you who know me, know that I love photographing owls. Needless to say, my daughter, with her brilliant ability to choose gifts that are exactly right for each person, found this perfect little wooden Christmas tree ornament for me and gave it to me on 21st December, when we had our Christmas get-together, spent SE of the city with our cameras. The red felt background shows through all the cut-out holes, and I added a clipart candy cane. I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas is having, or has had, a lovely day. Thanks to the freshly fallen snow yesterday, we have a white Christmas, unlike last Christmas.. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the temperature is -18C (windchill -24C). Brrrr! For many people, Christmas is a very difficult time, for various reasons. My thoughts are with them and, as always, with those who for one reason or another will spend Christmas alone. To those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a happy day, anyway. Wishing you all a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and all the very best in the New Year! If you will be on the road, please don't drink and drive!

Lol, those of you who know me, know that I love photographing owls. Needless to say, my daughter, with her brilliant ability to choose gifts that are exactly right for each person, found this perfect little wooden Christmas tree ornament for me and gave it to me on 21st December, when we had our Christmas get-together, spent SE of the city with our cameras. I was playing around on my computer last night and somehow ended up with this 'drawing' and decided there was something about it that I liked - and then I couldn't decide whether to post the red version or this one. Ended up posting both. I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas is having, or has had, a lovely day. Thanks to the freshly fallen snow yesterday, we have a white Christmas here, unlike last Christmas.. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the temperature is -18C (windchill -24C). Brrrr! For many people, Christmas is a very difficult time, for various reasons. My thoughts are with them and, as always, with those who for one reason or another will spend Christmas alone. To those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a happy day, anyway. Wishing you all a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and all the very best in the New Year! If you will be on the road, please don't drink and drive!

I dashed down to the park yesterday afternoon to try and get a few snowflake photos. Got an awful lot of blurry photos, but also maybe two or three that were just about sharp enough. This was the most complete snowflake that came out, but I wasn't sure about it on a black background. Not very Christmasy, so I'll keep a brighter shot of a slightly melted snowflake for a bit closer to Christmas. If you happen to think of it (you know, in between baking, cooking, shopping, wrapping, etc., etc., - yeah, right!), let me know which one you prefer. I just couldn't make up my mind which was my favourite of the two. It was slightly windy and, oh boy, does that make it harder to get anything that is so light and delicate in focus, LOL. I guess I should have taken my tiny, table-top tripod that I tend not to bother with any more. I loved it when I was trying to focus on a certain snowflake and another one with a completely different pattern, gently landed on it or nearby. What a magical world it was : ) I had such a lovely morning today - a Christmas get-together with a whole bunch of friends whom I hadn't seen for about a year and nine months!! My out-of-town botanizing trips are always on Fridays, so I've been unable to go these usual weekly get-togethers with friends. What a wonderfully warm, welcoming bunch of people they are - I'm very lucky to know these folks! I have to set my two alarm clocks and my kitchen timer for around 3:50 tomorrow morning - i.e. not all that much later than I normally get to bed! - as I have to be halfway across the city for 6:30 a.m., ready for travelling westwards with a few friends to do the Christmas Bird Count in Canmore (near Banff). Just hope I don't sleep through my alarms! I think it was three years ago that it was -30C on this Canmore Count and five hours of walking in it was not exactly fun : ) No bird photos, but I got some beautiful icicle shots, ha. The 2010 count is the National Audubon Society's 111th annual Christmas Bird Count! Sunday is the Calgary Christmas Bird Count, so it will be another early start.

Just in case anyone has forgotten (lol!), tonight's the night - when Santa (or Father Christmas) travels the world, delivering gifts to all those who have been good. Taken on 23 December 2011. NORAD Santa Cams: "Santa Cams are ultra-cool, high-tech, high-speed digital cameras that NORAD pre-positions at many locations around the world. The cameras capture images and videos of Santa and his reindeer as they make their journey around the world." Apparently, he has already left well over 1,335,200,000 gifts (as of 8:30 a.m. Calgary time). www.noradsanta.org/en/track.html HAPPY CHRISTMMAS, everyone! All the very best in the New Year!

A few of this year's birds to decorate my Christmas "tree", to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and all the very best in the New Year! For many people, Christmas is a very difficult time, for various reasons. My thoughts are with them, including all the people in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, who have suffered such a huge tragic loss in their community the last couple of weeks. I think most people, far and wide, have been affected by this and have these folks in their thoughts and prayers. As always, those who, for one reason or another, will spend Christmas alone, will also be in my thoughts. To those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope the coming week will be a happy one for you. Happy Christmas, everyone! If you will be on the road, please don't drink and drive!

Just haven't had time to create a bird Christmas card, so decided to use this cute little snowman instead. Photographed him yesterday evening, just in the nick of time. I want to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and all the very best in the New Year. Thank you all for another great year of friendship - and especially for your support in difficult times after my brother died. That is something I will never forget. Thank you for taking the time to look at my photos and for all those much appreciated comments, and thank you for posting so many amazing images on your own photostreams. There are so many of them that I just haven't been able to comment on - but I always look and enjoy and admire : ) Health and happiness to each and every one of you, and, of course, the same wishes go to those of you who don't celebrate Christmas. A special thought to those who spend Christmas alone.