Ho Ho Ho!

RIVER KIDS:  The kids spent a few moments along the Columbia River on Christmas Eve.  It was so foggy, they couldn't see the Oregon side across the way!

We stopped for a bit of Christmas cheer at McMenamin's along the Columbia. It was full of people in ugly holiday sweaters, and travelers on their way to or from Grandma's house.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: Sorry no post yesterday. The Internets must have been overloaded with people trying to check Santa's status on the NORAD site. We were certainly checking, with CJ giving us updates throughout the day.

Annabelle had a case of the Bah Humbugs due to the computer foiling her.

THE WINTER OF '68: Forty-five years ago, in December of 1968, the Apollo 8 crew flew from the Earth to the Moon and back again. Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were launched atop a Saturn V rocket on Dec. 21, circled the Moon ten times in their command module, and returned to Earth on Dec. 27. The Apollo 8 mission's impressive list of firsts includes: the first humans to journey to the Earth's Moon, the first to fly using the Saturn V rocket, and the first to photograph the Earth from deep space. As the Apollo 8 command module rounded the far side of the Moon on Dec. 24, the crew could look toward the lunar horizon and see the Earth appear to rise, due to their spacecraft's orbital motion. Their famous picture of a distant blue Earth above the Moon's limb was a marvelous gift to the world.

 Image Credit: NASA

The photo was captured with a they custom 70 mm Kodak Ektachrome ASA 64 color transparency film loaded into a custom Hasselblad 500 EL camera with a 250mm prime lens set to 1/250 second at f/11.

On Christmas Day, , * ** three humans orbited the Earth. Frank Borman,  Jim Lovell and William Anders

 

There's a video about the 45th anniversary of "Earthrise" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE-vOscpiNc#t=28. Christmas Eve 1968 was when the trio read Genesis from on high, as well. It wa the most watched television broadcast of all time at the time.

XMAS EVE STROLL:  We spent a bit of time Christmas Eve morning watching the tail end of the spacewalk.

Approximately six hours into Tuesday's spacewalk, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio finished installing a new pump module on the International Space Station's truss. They bolted the ammonia pump in place, hooked up the four fluid lines that help route ammonia through the unit and attached five electrical connectors.  It was the second spacewalk on Christmas eve, the only other 1999 servicing the Hubble STS-103

                   
Astronaut Mike Hopkins works outside the International Space Station during a spacewalk Dec. 24.

 Image Credit: NASA TV

This "Season's Greetings from NASA Television 2013" gives me some great ideas for next time it snows in Seattle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYfwY1HzQF8&feature=youtu.be

COASTAL:  Our Christmas travels continue. We're down near Newport, Ore., now, visiting more family. We all had a wonderful swim earlier today, and another fabulous feast awaits. It's the most wonderful time of the year, indeed. 

Wherever you are and whomever you're with, we here at MPA hope you have a holly, jolly holiday.