Solstice

MR. GOLDEN SUN: Sunrise to sunset-wise, today is the shortest day of the year. That means starting tomorrow, we'll start to get a little more daylight each day. Hooray! I'm so happy we've turned the corner. Naturally, we had to have some cookies to mark the occasion.

The 3D ones above made me want to make more 3D cookies in the future. Stay tuned. ;)

And imagine our delight that today we also got some (are you sitting down?) SUNSHINE here in Seattle. It was well-timed as we made our annual visit to see Santa at the Space Needle this afternoon. Happily, Rick and Ken's schedules permitted them to join us. Here's a joyous photo capturing the visit. ...

I love it. :)

Speaking of clear skies, tonight we were actually able to spot the ISS flyover!!!  It seems like it's been months since the skies were clear enough for us to spot it.

CHUTES: Since my earliest space program memories are of Apollo missions, I'm a sucker for a capsule drifting down to earth under the canopy of a big, colorful parachute. So photos like these ...

of Orion descending in said manner, make me very happy. (Photo credit; NASA)

This photo is from a test at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground on Dec. 20. The three red and white chutes are 300-pound main parachutes. The test was designed to make sure the parachutes would work in the event that one of the capsule's two drogue parachutes malfunction.

DESTEMBER: A Facebook post by Washington STEM today let me know about a calendar featuring 31 days of STEM fun. It's on the Web page of girlstart, an organization empowering girls in science, technology, engineering and math. With topics like water bending and edible slime, it looks like tons o' fun. We'll be checking it out in the days to come!