Bells and Whistles!

 

Ashton, Derek, and I trimmed the Christmas tree yesterday. Curie was very interested in this whole process! 

It was an exciting day as Curie was officially added to the family pinwheel ornament.  This origami ornament was created by my parents for their tree when when they were young and did not have a ton of money for tree ornaments.  It contains all of the members of my family, dogs included!!! Welcome Curie to this festive and meaningful holiday tradition! 

The pinwheel is always placed lovingly in a place of honor high on the tree in full view.  (And well out of reach of puppy jaws!) 

As our custom, Derek places his homemade toilet paper roll Santa and bird clip ornament at the top of the tree.  

Curious Curie goes on tree inspection!  (As of this morning she has officially annihilated two ornaments that were placed too low on the tree.  Ornament shifting has now taken place to keep special ornaments out of puppy reach!) 

My book club hosted its annual holiday brunch and gift exchange.  They are a fun group of women! 

Introducing my new alto flute, a wonderful gift from Mom and Dad (Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Randy)!  As you can see, it is larger than my "normal" C flute, but not as long as my bass flute.  It takes more air and a longer wingspan to play.  It plays lower than my C flute, pitched in the key of G, and has a wonderful tone in the low and middle octaves.    I actually received it on Halloween, but have not blogged about it yet since there was so much else going on.  I have really been enjoying learning to play this new instrument and finding new music repertoire for it.  I have been doing a lot of playing both alto and C flute this month getting ready for multiple senior center performances as well as my upcoming Community Band Winter Concert.  It is such a joy to focus on music! With the assistance of the Community Band, we may be starting a flute choir next year which will give me more opportunities to play both my alto and bass flutes.  Stay tuned!  I'm excited! 

Curie likes to supervise, and then snooze to, my flute playing!