Oiva Toikka Penguin

My Christmas present from OilMan was a glass penguin designed by Oiva Toikka and hand blown in Finland at the Iittala glass factory. I think he manages to be both elegant and silly (whimsical?) at the same time, but perhaps that's just inherently true of penguins in general. It was difficult to get the white balance right. He looks better against a dark background.

We took the Christmas tree down today. We have a growing number of ornaments that don’t go on the tree for a variety of reasons. I thought I would just trash the ones I hadn’t used in years but it turned out I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Stars made from popsicle sticks and glitter may not be elegant, but they carry a lot of memories....I took care to put the ornaments I used this year in labeled boxes so OilMan won’t have to drag all the boxes down from the attic next year, but I’m sure that by then we won’t remember what the labels mean....

Our friends from Corvallis return tomorrow on their way back home from Southern California. They’ll stay a few days this time. I’m publishing from my phone because my computer seems to have died. I’m hoping it’s just the battery. And I fear that the phone isn’t that far behind.

Remember when something that cost well over a thousand dollars was supposed to last for more than 6 or 8 years? Out kids just roll their eyes when I say something like that....