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10/07/11 - Signs of Christmas

While we were hiking on Hurricane Hill, we couldn't help but notice signs of the season. Yes, there was some autumn color, but when we Kalebergs say "season", we mean "Christmas season". So while the stores are still pushing Halloween candy, stage makeup and costumes, we Kalebergs are already leaping ahead to the real thing. We usually don't jump the gun like this, but there were the signs: the first snow and the brilliant red and green of the season.

Snow by the trail

Snow on the trees

Look, Christmas trees

and more Christmas trees

We've really got to start decorating.

There's the red and green.

Deck the trails.

OK, so this is a bit autumnal.

That might make a nice tree blanket.

Keywords: autumn, christmas, hurricane hill, trails

12/27/10 - Because You Can't Have Enough Closeups of Our Cookie Tree

Here are some more of the great cookies, and a little chair made from a champagne cage, that the elves our friends made for our cookie tree.





Keywords: christmas

12/21/10 - Christmas Party

We held our big people's Christmas party, and the place was magical. Of course, it didn't look so magical with the flash, so we took shakey time exposure shots without a tripod. Magical means blurry in this context. Still, the party was kind of magical.

Our Godzilla Christmas angel was aglow with atomic fire. Our cookie tree aglow with candles, and our guests aglow with choucroute garnie, bourbon sodden fruitcake, brie en croute with cranberry chutney and, of course, our thermonuclear egg nog. It's the same recipe we use for Godzilla's atomic fire.

Yet another magical, i.e. blurry, Kaleberg Christmas.

A blurry shot of the cookie tree

A blurry shot of our party spread

Our Christmas tree lies in wait.

Keywords: christmas, recipe

12/14/10 - The Kaleberg Cookie Tree

Every year we draft our friends and their children to help decorate our cookie tree. We always have two Christmas trees. One is nine feet tall and covered with ornaments. The other is much smaller and covered with cookies and lit by candles.

As usual, there are some pretty good looking cookies hanging from our cookie tree, thanks to the magic of 10X confectioner's powdered sugar, food coloring and the hard work of good friends.









Keywords: christmas

12/11/10 - Santa Is Coming To Town

Every year the Port Angeles fire department sends out Santa to spread Christmas cheer and collect money for local charities. As one might expect, Santa rides a firetruck, so we literally await his siren call in early December. This year, it was raining, but Santa doesn't get stopped by snow, so the rain barely slowed him down.

Santa is coming ...

Santa, and his helpers, are here!

Good bye, Santa, see you on the 25th.

Keywords: christmas, port angeles

12/09/10 - Christmas in Seattle

We made another lightning trip into Seattle, and since it is December, we checked out the gingerbread house show in the Sheraton Towers lobby. This year, the theme was houses, so they had cozy houses, tree houses, farm houses and space houses, all done with gingerbread, candies, icing and other wonders.

Remembering the good old days, before the housing bust ...








Keywords: seattle, christmas

12/06/10 - Around Port Angeles

We were exploring downtown Port Angeles and dropped into the new Blow Hard Glass Gallery which is down on Railroad Avenue. Railroad Avenue always seemed like the industrial poor sister to Front and First Streets, which was a pity as it is the first street one sees getting off a ferry from Victoria. The new bus terminal and related work seem to have improved things a bit, and the new glass gallery is a great new addition. (Yes, we know, they opened in May, but readers of this site know that we are always months and often years behind the times.)

We also dropped into the Princess Valiant Coffee shop, and picked up some of their fresh roasted coffee. We were pleased to see that they also sell Dry Creek Farm eggs among other things.

We then dropped into Port Book and News, but we've entered the Christmas book embargo. Basically, no one is allowed to buy him or herself any books lest this interfere with the other's gift book buying. There is a reason we call this the most skulkiest time of the year. We really liked the little motorized amusement park in the front window. It's a great holiday season touch.

Click the image for video

Prince Valiant, more than coffee

Lots more than coffee

Blow Hard Glass Studio

More glass

Keywords: christmas, dry creek farm, port angeles

11/30/10 - The Kaleberg Christmas Trees Have Arrived

For most people Black Friday is about getting great deals on electronic gadgets and housewares, but for us Kalebergs, the Friday after Thanksgiving is about choosing our Christmas trees. It isn't that we enjoy getting great deals so much as we like big Christmas trees, and our local tree suppliers only get so many big trees. If we wait a day or two, they are all sold, and we have to do experimental tree surgery and create Franken-trees and the like. So, every year, the day after Thanksgiving finds us at the tree yards and nurseries looking for the biggest trees we can get.

This year, we found a great nine footer for the living room and an elegant six footer for the cookie tree. They've already been delivered. We Kalebergs just aren't great tree wranglers. Now comes the real work, the lights, the ornaments, and the cookies. If you thought you had lots and lots of time before Christmas, it is time to think again. The season is upon us.


Keywords: christmas

03/18/10 - Lingering Winter

There was a touch of snow on the Lake Angeles Trail the other day. Apparently winter is not quite over, at least not until the 20th, the first day of spring. On the positive side, someone has removed the Christmas ornaments from the tree not far from the bridge. That's a definite sign that winter is passing.

Lingering winter

Keywords: christmas, lake angeles, spring, winter

03/02/10 - Return to the Lake Angeles Trail

We always like the Lake Angeles Trail. It is only ten minutes from town. It offers a good hard climb. You can keep going all the way up to the lake, or you can turn around at a lower elevation. The lower reaches tend to be clear most of the winter, and when they are not, they make for good snowshoeing.

This January, the road collapsed just before the park entrance, so not only was Hurricane Ridge out of reach, but the Lake Angeles Trail was cut off as well. When it reopened, we made our way up a thousand feet or so.

We found the trail is in great shape. There were a few more logs down, but nothing hard to get over or around. In fact, little had changed. Even the Christmas ornaments that someone had put up were still there. It was like coming home.

The creek

Freshly fallen

At least we took down our tree.

Keywords: christmas, lake angeles, winter

01/07/10 - Christmas on the Lake Angeles Trail

It looks like the park elves were busy this Christmas on the Lake Angeles Trail. They decorated one of the trees - and there are lots of trees on the Lake Angeles Trail - just a bit before the little bridge. We often climb the Lake Angeles Trail this time of year, though not all the way to the lake, so it's nice to have a bit of Christmas spirit to break up the hard climb.
P.S. Some day we have to blog about our book of Christmas illuminations, A High Country Christmas.



Keywords: christmas, lake angeles

01/05/10 - The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building was the last of the great skyscrapers of the Roaring 20s, even though it wasn't finished until 1931. As the tallest building in New York City and having opened at the start of Great Depression, it was often known as the Empty State Building. Now, it is still a building of note, though it has long been in need of a new look.

Recently, Kaleberg Construction was offered the opportunity to rebuild this landmark using more modern materials and advanced construction techniques. In fact, we were presented with a solution to the ailing building's troubles in a simple kit form. Here follow the adventures and triumphs of Kaleberg Construction from unboxing to installation, and marvel in the rebirth of a classic, just in time for our great recession.

If you aren't sure of what a prolegomenon is, see a recent posting on the classic form.

The Erector Set Empire State Building as installed on site

The classic unboxing shot - the prolegomenon.

Top down construction technology is surprisingly effective.

Work in progress

Ready for installation

Keywords: new york city, christmas, art

12/30/09 - Illumination

Just for the record, here are our two trees illuminated. We had to wheel out the better camera, the one with shutter and aperture control, to capture the tree light. There's probably a special mode for this on our little camera, but we can never figure out what all those modes are good for.

The cookie tree.

The big tree.

It's another world.

Keywords: christmas

12/23/09 - Cassoulet for Christmas

This year was a cassoulet year at Casa Kaleberg. (We alternate cassolet and choucroute garnie every other Christmas.) That's a photo of our Christmas cassoulet on the right. Cassoulet, if you've never had it, contains white beans, duck confit, pork loin, ham hocks, pig skin, garlic sausages, andouille and a host of other pork products. It's an amazing dish. Just making the duck confit, that is, duck preserved in its own fat with spices, is a fair production, and it takes several days just to cook and assemble a cassoulet.

We tried to get a shot of the whole cassoulet, but our guests moved in too quickly, so enjoy this action shot.

This year we got our pork from the folks at The Swinery, a butcher shop based in West Seattle. They get their pork from a number of local farmers, and we have to say that the meat is first rate. They didn't blink when we asked for pig's knuckles, and they came through with a first rate piece of pig skin. We tried their Toulouse sausages and were quite impressed. You can see some of them in the photo above. The Swinery is based out in West Seattle, so now we have to explore more of West Seattle, and we have to try out The Swinery's new sandwich shop near Pioneer Square. If you live in Seattle and hear oinking in 2010, that might just be a couple of Kalebergs on the march.

Keywords: christmas, seattle

12/21/09 - Christmas 2009

December has been a busy month with parties, travel to Seattle and lots of excitement. We've also been decorating Chez Kaleberg and our Christmas trees. Here are a few pictures of our two trees. The big tree is a nine-footer and neatly fills a corner in our living room. The little tree is decorated with cookies, our friends' creations, and is lighted with candles. That's our Christmas party spread to the right. We'll post more pictures when things calm down a bit, most likely around Christmas later this week.

Ready for Christmas

Our tree

The cookie tree

Keywords: christmas

12/04/09 - Christmas Trees

We started checking for Christmas trees before Thanksgiving. We have a nine and a half foot high ceiling in our living room, so we need to get a tall one. The local Christmas tree places don't order very many trees that tall, so we have to start early and move quickly. Our big competitor seems to be Wilder Honda, but we are hot on their heels. (That's what we get for living in a converted auto showroom.)

Behold, this year's monster. It has an industrial grade stand, forged in Mordor as part of the post-ring orc industry for peace program. We've decked it out with lights. That took a two stage power distribution system with a sub-terminal located about 2/3 of the way up the tree to power the upper strands of LEDs and conventional lights. We needed that ladder to get the spire and upper ornaments in place.

As noted, our tree is a work in progress. We'll keep you posted on our website.

Work in progress

Keywords: christmas

01/06/09 - Christmas in a Jar

This little lamp doesn't look like much. It fits inside a little jam jar which happens to have two flat faces. The works include a battery, six LEDs and two mercury switches. Upright the lights are off, but as you rotate the jar the red and green LEDs go on and off. Rest it on one face to see red. Rest it on the other to see green. If you turn it just right all of the LEDs glow red and green. What could be more Christmas-y than that?

It doesn't look like much in broad daylight.

One angle turns on the green LEDs.

Another angle turns on the red LEDs.

Keywords: lamps, science, christmas

12/28/08 - Turkey With Three Sauces

Like Ebenezer Scrooge, we had roast turkey for Christmas. Mind you, we've had a bit of a head start on celebrating the holiday, so we know that turkey is a traditional Christmas favorite. This year we made three different Mexican sauces, a red sauce, a green sauce and a brown sauce. That last one was a chocolate sauce. The red sauce was an old favorite, but the green sauce was a Kaleberg Labs project, and the clear winner in an excellent field. For recipes and more, check out Turkey With Three Sauces.

Keywords: food, christmas

12/26/08 - Our Cookie Tree

Every year we have two Christmas trees. One is a conventional tree, albeit nine feet tall. The other is the cookie tree which is much smaller and decorated mainly with cookies and illuminated with candles. There is nothing quite like a candle lit tree with its soft flickering light and, unfortunately, sense of danger. Unlike Christmas trees with conventional lighting, a candle lit tree requires attention, but that attention is well rewarded.

Move your mouse over our cookie tree to light the candles.

Keywords: christmas

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