It's just past Thanksgiving and almost the last day of November and another month has come and (almost) gone. I like to get at least one blog done each month and, well, this is it!Census
The dominating task for my month of November has been working for the U.S. Census—yet again!
The Stockton Early Local Census Office (ELCO) was one of two Census offices opened in the U.S. in 2008 to serve as sort of a "staging area" for the beginnings of the 2010 Census. From that office, several other Local Census Offices (LCO) are being born, so to speak. One of those offices is the Placerville LCO, which is actually located in El Dorado Hills.
For that office, many workers are needed to gear up for the 2010 Census and I have been hired as one of them. I started out on the 2nd day of November with a full week of training in the Elk Grove Local Census Office (south of Sacramento). Then I had a week at the new Placerville LCO and another week (the week just prior to Thanksgiving week) working at the Stockton office.
All of this is to help get our new Placerville LCO open and geared up to do the work of the 2010 Census. I'm working as an office clerk (with hopes of moving up, eventually, to other positions in the office) and right now, our office is pretty small but will grow as "Census Day" (April 1, 2010) approaches.
Check out these websites:
- www.2010.census.gov – has info about the 2010 census
- www.census.gov – this is the site to find out about working for the census in your area
- There is an article in the Dec/Jan issue of Reader's Digest about the census—see the actual article here.
It's exciting to be part of a great group of people doing a job that comes along every 10 years and that has been going on since 1790!
Deb & the Christmas Tree

Deb recently helped her friend Ann, the owner of Annieberries on Placerville's Main Street, decorate a Christmas tree along Highway 50 just before Thanksgiving. Ann was a sponsor of one of the 80 Christmas Trees that now adorn the highway as it goes through our great city.
Ok, let me back up a bit... Up until about 3 years ago, there were decorated Christmas Trees displayed along Highway 50 as it passes through the heart of Placerville every year during the holidays. We have had major construction going on with Highway 50 in Placerville for about 2-and-a-half years (what a mess!). So, this is the first time our Christmas Trees are back!
Deb was there on a bright, crisp Saturday morning before Thanksgiving to help decorate Ann's tree. You can see the pic of the two of them (Ann on the left and Deb on the right) above after they completed decorating the tree.
The trees are mounted on poles just behind the barrier on the right-most eastbound lane and when all 80 trees are lit, it looks great!
And speaking of Christmas trees... We just got ours "out of the box" yesterday and Deb is busy decorating it—well, she is actually trying to get all the lights to work (she has much more patience than I do!) and will decorate it over the next couple days.
About 5 years ago, we bought an artificial tree and it was one of the best investments we ever made! We never thought we would have a "fake" Christmas tree, but it is a great one and looks great during all the time we have it up. It never dries out and we can keep it up for as long as we want!
Christmas Ornaments & Miniatures

For the last several years at the Gallery (Gold Country Artists Gallery), we have had a miniatures show in December and will again this year. For my miniatures this year, I decided to do some photographic art-looking pictures. One of them is shown right at the top of this blog (A Christmas Stagecoach), another one just to the left (Santa Dude) and another one is shown below, near the end of this blog.
Our miniatures show is called "Small Wonders" and if you peruse some of the web pages of our members at www.goldcountryartistsgallery.com, you will see some of the miniatures that members will have in the show. You can go directly to my page on the website by clicking here.
In addition to the miniatures, I've been making some Christmas tree ornaments using some of those very same miniatures. The miniatures pictures that will be on display at the Gallery will be framed 4x6 pictures. I took some of those pictures, shrunk them a bit and decoupaged them to small pieces of balsa wood with tinsel cord attached so they can be hung on a Christmas tree.
Years ago when Deb and I were first married, we did a bunch of decoupaged Christmas tree ornaments and they have become treasures that we look forward to seeing again every year.
Thanksgiving Day and Weekend

Since both Deb and I worked the day before and the day after Thanksgiving, we went to a restaurant this year for Thanksgiving. It's one of our favorite restaurants (Marie Callenders) and the dinner was great (you could even get seconds if you wanted them!).
After dinner, we went to see the new version of A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. We all liked it and will be anxious to see it again when it comes out on video for Christmas next year.
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we were both busy. I worked at the Census office during the day, then went to the Gallery in the evening to be downtown for our annual "Festival of Lights". That's where the big fir tree near the courthouse on Main Street (that's it on the left) is lit and Main Street is closed so people can wander and shop. There were thousands of people out and about and it was a great evening!

Coming Up
Now I have to get our Christmas letter going. I will do a paper copy and some kind of thing in this blog too—I haven't decided yet how I'm going to do it exactly. But, I've created a monster with the Christmas letter and if I don't do it, I'll never hear the end of it!
By the way—in case you are wondering—that picture above is called A Christmas Wagon and is one of my miniatures at the Gallery for our Small Wonders show.
So, stay tuned: You'll either see the Christmas letter here or you'll get one in the mail. We'll probably do fewer ones via mail this year just because of the cost and time involved to do it. But, if you don't see it in your mailbox, you can always see it here!
Have a safe and happy Holiday season and I'll talk with you again next month.
















