Refreshed

Monday night, Peyton and I had some folks over for a holiday party. Good times were had for sure. Plenty of awesome desserts and drinks were had as laughter and cheer filled the air. As the night wore on, some of us gathered in a pickin circle to strum and pick on banjos and guitars. Joe even dropped a beat on the bongos which added a unique twist to the folk music. Below is a picture of us pickin around.

As the evening came to a close there was talk about the approaching lunar ecclipse that would occur Tuesday morning between 1:50 and 3:30. Peyton and I decided to set our alarms for this rare viewing as it was occuring on the winter equinox, and even rarer site to see. Awaking at 2:30, we struggled to put some wool socks on and grab our jackets as set out to face the chill of a mid December night. We were not alone. After only minutes, we had ourselves another amateur ecclipse gazer. As we rendezvoused outside of our apartment, we gazed at the cloudy night sky. With a pair of binoculars and an eager heart, we waited until 3:00am and took in as much of the ecclipse as we could. Here is a weak attempt to capture the beauty of the night.If you look close you can see a sliver of the orange-ish ecclipse.

Took this picture of the sunset Tuesday afternoon when I got off work:

Last night was really special. My nephew, Micah, decided that for Christmas he wanted to buy two boys, DeShawn and Larry from Barton Heights, gifts. I met them through Marty, who goes to my church, and we had them over for a Thanksgiving at my parents house. We decided to pick up DeShawn and Larry after I got off work. We decided we would get dinner and go downtown to see the holiday lights. We had an awesome time hanging out at Pizza Hut and then going to the Jefferson Hotel and the James Center to see the lights. I was really cool to see the three guys laughing and having a great time together. Probably one of the best memories of this holiday season.