Christmas Miracle

Just kidding... not really a miracle but a long time coming!  Justin and Sarah are engaged!  Saturday night at our family Christmas party, in front of all our loved ones, Justin proposed to Sarah and she said yes!  Justin had told us a few days earlier so it wasn't a surprise for Jeff and I but we kept it quiet not even telling Jessica.  Sarah's parents were at the party and they knew, too, as Justin had gone to their home the day before to ask for their blessing.  Everyone was very moved by Justin's proposal and cousin Matthew had the presence of mind to pull out his cellphone and begin recording a video once he realized where it was going.  He says he will try and get the video to me so when I get it, I'll post it if it's okay with Justin and Sarah.  They just had their 2 year first date anniversary this past week so I think this is good timing for them... long enough to know each other well but not too long to wear out Sarah's patience.  Here's a photo of them taken a little after the proposal.  You can spot the ring on Sarah's finger... it needs to be resized as he did all the shopping on his own.  I'll try to get a better photo of the ring when they are here Christmas Eve.

   Happy Couple!

Merry Memes

Wanted to pop in here quickly to do a couple of memes courtesy of Annie and Kim.  The first is from Annie.  Housekeeping Meme: 
1. Do you enjoy housework?  Enjoy would be an overstatement but I do like a clean, organized house
2. What chores do you dislike most?  The constant battle with pet fur/hair and paw prints
3. Which chores do you enjoy?  Changing decor seasonally
4. Do you have a favorite cleaner?  Spraywell Glass Cleaner from Costco, Bona for hardwood floors and the always amazing Magic Eraser!
5. Household appliance you can't live without?  Roomba/Scooba, dishwasher and washer/dryer
6. Powder, liquid or new drop in?  Liquid
7. Softener? favorite brand?  Dryer Sheets
8. Softener sheets or liquid?  Sheets
9. Dryer or clothes line?  Dryer
10. How often do you change bedroom linen and bathroom towels?  whenever they need it
 11. What one thing would you just love to have to aid in your housekeeping?  A maid

And a Christmas meme from Kim:

1 Eggnog or hot chocolate?  Hot Chocolate 

2.Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?  Wrap 

3. Colored lights on the tree/house or white?  White

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes

5. When do you put your Christmas decorations up? After Thanksgiving

6. Favorite holiday dish?  All our favorites but Honey Baked Ham for our Christmas Party 

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?  That we actually had an aluminum Christmas tree with a color wheel! 8. When did you learn the truth about Santa?  Maybe six?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?  One gift on Christmas Eve

10. How do you decorate a tree?  Lots of special ornaments for our pets, grandkids, Li Bien Ornaments, ornaments from friends... a lot of meaningful decorations that we've had many years 

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?  Love to visit it

12. Can you ice skate? Yes 

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?  No 

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you?  Being with family 

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?  Anything chocolate 

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?  Our stocking tradition where we all buy a gift for each other's Christmas stocking

17. What tops your tree?  A very fancy bow

18. Which do you prefer-Giving or Receiving? Giving because I never need anything

19. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

20. Candy Canes-Yuck or Yum?  Yum

21. Favorite Christmas show?  Love, Actually followed closely by The Holiday

22. Saddest Christmas song?  I'll Be Home for Christmas 

Cyber-Monday

Hoping to get some more shopping done today online.  I'm not getting a lot of cooperation from people on their "wish lists!"  I remember the days when Justin and Jessica were little and they would rattle off a list a mile long.  I didn't go out shopping at all, either on Thanksgiving evening or Black Friday.  There are no deals good enough to make me want to go through that!  So many of the "doorbusters" are products I wouldn't want anyway.  We had an excellent Thanksgiving and I did really like the White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cake that I mentioned in my last post so I'll probably get another for our family Christmas party later this month.

On the 1st, we decorated our Christmas tree and changed over a lot of our decor to Christmas.  I'm saving a few ornaments for Ryan and Jacob to add today.  From what I hear, they are both sick with colds so that's always a challenge for Jeff and I not to get sick, too.  I did really well last year avoiding their germs so hopefully will fare as well this holiday season.  Here's a photo of our tree:

Here's a close up of the ribbon that Mr. Jeffrey so tastefully adds:

   Can't remember if I showed you my latest Christmas pillow cover from Pottery Barn?  It's a woody.

We have a couple of warm days ahead- in the 80's- so Jeff will hang up the outdoor lights while the weather is nice.  By Wednesday, the temps are dropping into the 60's so it will start to feel a little more Christmassy.  Even though it's warm, I still made a Southwest Turkey Chili with some of our leftovers.  That'll be nice to have later this week.  Happy December!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We will be having the family over today for Thanksgiving.  Jessica, Pat and the boys will be here as well as Jeff's mom and Aunt Joy, and Jeff's dad and Robin.  Justin will be here but Sarah is still in Spain on her 5 week work/vacation.  She is due home on Saturday.  She's been to London, Spain, Portugal, Casablanca, Morocco among other places.  We'll be having the traditional menu of turkey, dressing (this year I'm making dressing with cranberries and apples,) mashed potatoes and gravy, my special yam casserole, Aunt Joy's Zesty Carrots, steamed French green beans with slivered almonds, a kale side dish with asiago cheese in a bechamel sauce, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls and a green salad.  Our dessert is never the traditional pumpkin pie as most of the family can really take it or leave it so I'm auditioning a White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cake from Costco.  If we like it, we'll have it for our Christmas Party next month.  Here's a tiny photo of it from the Costco website.  You can see that it will make a nice Christmas dessert!

So what to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers?  Can't beat a good turkey sandwich with cranberries on the side but if you have a lot of leftovers from all the dressing and side dishes, you can make what I call a "Pilgrim Pie!"  It's similar to the British Shepherd's Pie.  You basically line a casserole dish with leftover dressing, add turkey, top with some gravy, add leftover veggies and make a top "crust" with mashed potatoes.  Here's a more formal recipe but you can pretty much improvise and it'll turn out great!

~ Pilgrim's Pie ~

2 cups leftover stuffing

2 cups cooked turkey

1 cup gravy

2 cups leftover cooked vegetables

2 cups mashed potatoes

Preheat oven to 350°F

Press stuffing into a greased casserole dish

Layer with turkey, chopped into bite sized pieces

Pour gravy over top

Top with leftover cooked vegetables

Finish with a crust of mashed potatoes

Bake in 350°F oven for 30 minutes or until warmed through

Serve with cranberry sauce

Halloween 2013

Jeff and I went Trick or Treating with Ryan and Jacob last night.  I wore my leopard pjs and painted my face with whiskers, etc which the boys enjoyed.  "Silly Nani," they like to say.  Ryan was really brave this year and marched right up to every house and said, "Trick or Treat," "Thank you!" and "Happy Halloween."  Jacob did well, too, even at one point when one house was slow at coming to the door, yelling out in frustration, "Come on!"  Not a day goes by that he doesn't say something that makes me laugh and wonder where he gets these things from.  Just this week he said, "I'm freaking out here!" and also, "Speaking of Halloween time, when will it be Christmastime?"  But there is always this one house in their neighborhood that scares them.  The people go all out decorating their entire front yard and even their roof.  The have a bunch of skeletons climbing up their chimney and the homeowner sits outside wearing a pumpkin head and "surprises" (or in Jacob's case "frightens") the children.  I didn't have my camera but took this blurry photo with Jeff's iPhone.  You can see the pumpkin man and Ryan with Jacob behind him leaving the porch.  At this point Jacob was in tears crying, "Mommy, I scared!"

We got home around 7:30 and actually got a few trick-or-treaters.  I had left out a bowl full of candy in case anyone came while we were gone but we had several groups show up after we got home.  Then Jeff and I watched American Horror Story that we had DVR'd and that was a good end to Halloween night.  Now on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Annie has started a new meme and since this weekend is the end of Daylight Savings Time, we are stepping "Back in Time."

1.  What games were popular with you as a child?  Candyland, Chutes & Ladders and Uncle Wiggly
     Any TV program that you looked forward to?  Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and so many others.... always an animal lover and avid TV watcher!

2. What subject rocked your world in school?  I'm answering all these questions back as a little girl so I would say I loved spelling because I was good at it.  I also loved PE for the same reason.

3. What subject did you really dislike, if any. Why?  I don't recall disliking any subject.

4. What did you want to be when you grew up?  Did it happen?  I think I always wanted to be a mom and a teacher.  I wish I had grown up in an era when girls thought bigger and had less sexist aspirations.

5. Do you still keep in touch with old friends from school days?  Yes, several.  Helen who I've known since 1st grade, I believe, and Christine who I've known since 7th grade.  I'm in touch through Facebook with quite a few others from elementary school and beyond.

6. If you could turn back the hands of time, would you go back in time?  Hmm... not if it meant any change in my husband, kids or grandkids but there are things that I would do a little differently if I knew then what I know now!

7. What did you consider a good time when you were a teen?  Summertime!  Going to the beach every day of the summer and Drive-In movies at night.

8. What or who influenced you most from your younger years? Why?  My mother.  I was her only child and we were close.  There wasn't anything she wouldn't do for me.  My dad died when I was only 15 so it was just the two of us until I got married at the age of 23.  I think she influenced the mother that I became.

Ryan's 6th Birthday

Ryan turned 6 on Thursday, the 17th.  He got really sick on Wednesday and Jessica kept him home.  We weren't sure if he'd be okay by his birthday but he was.  Jessica brought in Halloween-themed cupcakes for his class to share.  He wore a crown with his name and 6's in glitter and they sang Happy Birthday to him.  Here's a photo of the cute cupcakes and Ryan with his birthday crown.

 I remember when I was growing up having a girlfriend, Katie, whose birthday was really close to Halloween and she would always have Halloween-themed birthday parties.  We would dress up in our costumes and her garage was turned into a pretty great haunted house.  Her grandmother would dress up as a witch and tell us ghost stories.  I think Halloween is a fun holiday.  I like to drink out of my Halloween mugs.

Another fun thing about this time of year is all the craft fairs and local farms that have pumpkin patches and hayrides, etc... We have our local Thousand Oaks Street Fair to go to on Sunday.  I guess one of the things we miss in Southern California is apple-picking.  I never even realized that apples were associated with fall until about 10 years ago when some of my graphic artist friends made fall graphics with apples.  Have a great weekend!    

Happy Labor Day!

Never like this end of the summer holiday time but in SoCal we have plenty of summer left ahead of us.  The last few days have felt more like Florida or Hawaii with the high humidity.  On Saturday, Jeff and I went to Fiesta Hermosa which takes place over the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends.  It sort of kicks off and wraps up the summer.  Ryan started 1st grade last Wednesday so we mainly have Jacob here with us during the week.  Ryan's school doesn't get out until 2:30 and his dad picks him up here at 4 so he's only here for a little over an hour in the afternoon.  Here's a photo of Ryan walking to school on his first day back.

Not too enthusiastic!

I can relate!  I always thought the last day of school was the best day ever!  All the anticipation of what the summer ahead held!  It seemed to go on forever...all those lazy, hazy crazy days... and now summer is over in a blink of the eye!  

September is a busy month for us.  Jessica's birthday is the 7th, Justin's is the 10th, our 39th anniversary is the 14th and Jacob turns four on the 22nd.  Jeff and I are determined to do something really, really special next year on our 40th!  This year was kind of spoiled by my back problem.  I see my doctor this Friday and I'm sure I'll be able to cast my back brace aside and begin physical therapy!        

School's Out for Summer!

I still love the last day of school.  I didn't dislike school as a child but I sure did look forward to summer vacation...which in those days, seemed endless!  Now it seems it's over in a blink of an eye.  I went to Ryan's school on Thursday for his last day celebrations because Jessica and Pat were both working.  They had lots of activities, games and a big pizza party.  There was a lady doing face painting and Ryan asked for Spiderman but she said that was beyond her talent so he and Jacob settled for batman masks.  Jacob loves red so his had to be red.

Weekend Plans:  on Saturday evening, we have a retirement party for a fire chief friend.  We've known Jim and Vanna since Jeff first got on the LAFD around 35 years ago!  It is being held at the beautiful Getty Museum overlooking all of Los Angeles.  Should be fun.  Also on Saturday is the annual "Touch a Truck" event in Thousand Oaks.  The boys wait all year long for this.  And then Sunday is Father's Day!  Wishing all of your dads and husbands a Happy Father's Day!

Hot Mamas

We had a super hot Mother's Day!  As I write this on Sunday afternoon, it's 102 degrees!  As I mentioned, we celebrated on Saturday and we had a really nice day with lots of good food that Jeff fixed for us.  In addition to our taco salad, Jeff BBQ'd two pork loin roasts.  You can never go wrong with those...they are always good and tender unlike a beef roast which can be hit or miss.  Ryan had a great time with Uncle Justin talking all about Star Wars.  Ryan is usually a little shy around Justin because he doesn't see him that often so it was nice they could nerd bond over Star Wars!  I neglected to take any photos but I do have one of Ryan and Jacob from Friday.  We are going to be watching them a lot more for a while because Pat started a new job.  I have found a summer program that Jacob might be able to attend but in the meantime, I'm entertaining them with fun things and a few educational things tossed in.  They are still into "The Avengers" big time so I found some coloring pages and masks online to download and print.  Here's a photo of Jacob and Ryan as Captain America and Ironman.  

Annie's back surgery is tomorrow so sending prayers and good wishes her way for a successful outcome and speedy recovery!

Mom

Kim has started a weekly meme called Wednesday Chatter and this weeks topic is Mom since Mother's Day (in the US) is this Sunday.  Typical for us, we are celebrating Mother's Day on Saturday.  Justin is driving Sarah to the airport for a business trip and since LAX is half way here from his house, he asked if we could celebrate on Saturday.  Jeff will fix us dinner and we have 4 moms coming:  me, Jessica, Jeff's mom and Jeff's aunt.  George and Robin will be here, too.  Jessica requested taco salad so we'll have that along with a BBQ of something... not sure yet.  And for dessert, Costco's tiramisu cake!  We only have dessert on special occasions.

So about my mom.  She was the quintessential mom of the 50's... a real June Cleaver!  On Wednesday, the Harris Poll announced that once again, June Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver) was number 1 on the Top 10 list of Best TV moms.  Just like June, my mom was a stay-at-home mom who always wore a pretty dress even while doing housework.  She was calm, nurturing and never raised her voice.  The only concern I had growing up about my mom was that she was an older mom.  While most of my friends had moms who were in their 20's and 30's, my mom was almost 40 when she had me.  I always worried that she was going to die and leave me but boy was I wrong!  She lived to be 90 and saw both her grandchildren grow up and graduate from college.  They loved Nana and she was every bit as good as a grandmother as she was a mother.  No one could ask for a better mom and role model.  I should scan a photo but I do have this one on my computer that looks to be from the 1930's.  She would've been too young for it to be the Roaring 20's!

\

  Happy Mother's Day!

Happy New Year!

We will be spending New Year's Eve at home...as always!  When Jeff and I were dating and also first married, we would go out on New Year's Eve but were usually disappointed with how places would have special (expensive) menus or cover charges.  There was also something phony about the forced merriment that bothered me.  Maybe I'm just a Scrooge about New Year's Eve but I'm happiest staying home and off the road that's filled with drunk drivers.

We've been busy setting up all our electronic gadgets which always present issues to overcome.  Jeff is busy downloading apps on his new Kindle Fire HD and since we have Amazon Prime we decided to get a new Blu-Ray player so we could get free movies from Amazon Prime Instant Videos.  It also allows us to use things on our TV like Pandora and we were also able to watch all our Vimeo movies on our big screen TV.  It was so much fun to see things like Cooper as a puppy and the boys when they were so much younger.  We have so many TVs that we just take the old bluray player and move it into our bedroom and then take that DVD player and move it into the boy's room and then we usually offer that DVD player to Jessica and Pat.

Justin gave us a new wireless router for Christmas because our old one was having trouble reaching areas of our house.  We have a trilevel house so you need a special router that reaches multi-levels.  Jeff usually takes care of all the hardware installations like modems, routers, blurays, etc,,, and I handle the software.  We make a pretty good team.

Hope 2013 is a great year for all my blog friends, hope we don't fall off the fiscal cliff and I really hope we can get some meaningful reform to ban automatic weapons that our forefathers could have never imagined when they wrote the second amendment.  As for the idea of arming teachers.... seriously?!?  Teacher's don't get paid enough as it is and now you want them packing heat?  Pay me a teacher's salary PLUS a cop's salary and maybe I'll think about it!

'Twas a Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas!  Justin and Sarah were here on Christmas Eve and on the all important (to me) Christmas morning.  On Christmas Eve, we had tamales and played the board game Wits and Wagers.  In the morning, Jessica, Pat and the boys arrived followed by George and Robin and Jeff's mom, Audre.  We opened our stocking stuffers then had our usual brunch- see last post- and then continued on with opening the gifts.  Ryan was most excited about a Spiderman that climbs up walls.  Jacob was happy with tools and his Bob the Builder DVD's.

Jessica and Jeff both got new Kindle Fires.  Sarah surprised Justin with plane tickets to Denver towards the end of January.  Her best friend lives there and it's her birthday and Justin will be able to bring along his snowboard for some fun in the Colorado snow.  As I write this, I'm smelling white chili with chicken cooking in our new Cuisinart Slow Cooker.  I don't make Jeff abide by the "no gift with an electrical cord" rule!  We had four dogs here (Justin's Sierra and Sarah's Buddy in addition to our two) and our three cats.  The dogs all got Christmas presents and the cats shared an electronic mouse with flashing lights that made squeaking sounds.  So on to 2013.  I signed Jacob up for a little class called Busy Bees that takes place in our local recreation center so will be taking him to that on Tuesday mornings.  Sarah gave Jeff and I the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die, two passport applications and a suggested itinerary (complete with flight, hotels, etc...) that would take us from LA to Dublin, to London, to Paris, to Venice, to Rome, back to Dublin for a flight returning us to LA.  She's hoping we'll take the hint and make our travel plans a reality!    

Merry Christmas Eve!

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas Day!  Also, a Happy Birthday to Jessica's husband, Pat, whose birthday was yesterday, the 23rd.  Ryan and Jacob have had colds and Jeff also caught a cold so we took it easy this weekend and watched holiday movies.  We finished up our Christmas shopping and all the presents are wrapped and under the tree and stocking stuffers are ready to go.  I ran out of gift tags so made some that Kia had shared on her blog.  I also had some from Julie in my graphics folder so printed them, too.  They turned out really cute!  Thanks Kia and Julie!  Here's a photo.

Everyone will be here Christmas morning to open presents.  We will be having our usual Christmas Brunch of lox, bagels, cream cheese, Jarlsberg cheese, tomato slices and Bermuda onion slices.  We build them like an open-faced sandwich and serve them with coffee and Mimosas.  

Warm Winter Wishes

Happy winter!  Are we all still here?  Guess the Mayan calendar was wrong!

It's very wintry here in Southern California.  Our temps are dropping down into the 30's overnight and only in the upper 50's, lower 60's during the day.  That's cold for us!  

I posted this photo on Facebook so you may have seen it there.  It's our 2012 Christmas cards received so far.  I kept that card holder up all year and used it for photos so just covered up the photos with cards.

You can see that Cooper and Kanan photobombed the shot.  I got the card holder at Pottery Barn last year when they sent me a "Spend $50.00, get $25.00 off" gift card.  I received another one of those coupons this year so I finally found something to use it on.  I ordered this.  It went on sale first so I got an especially good deal, I think!

It's a "Sleigh Bell Crewel Embroidered Table Runner."  It's just the right size for my dining room table when both leaves are in.  I like the little bells on the ends.  I ordered it on Wednesday and by Thursday they were all gone.

Have a great weekend!  I'm going to try and slow down and sit by the fireplace and enjoy the tree.  It'll be over before we know it... Christmas, that is!

Highs and Lows

Didn't mean to disappear on you but it was a busy weekend of many highs and lows.  Of course, I don't need to go into it because we've all experienced the profound sadness of what happened last Friday in Connecticut.  Jeff avoids listening to most of the coverage but I need to watch it and try and come to terms with it.  As heart-wrenching as it is, I find it cathartic to experience it.  Just like Columbine and other similar tragedies, I am always so in awe of the phenomenal character that so many people show in such times of tragedy.  I really don't know how they go on but their courage inspires me.

We had a really nice party Saturday night and then we had another party to attend on Sunday night.  Sunday was also the one year anniversary of Justin and Sarah's first date so I thought I'd post a photo of them taken at our Christmas party.

   

Jacob was here with me on Monday so it was good therapy to be with this little sweetheart.  I guess he said to Jessica the other night, "Goodnight sweetheart" so she figured he must have heard that from me because she doesn't say sweetheart.  I took this video of him being super silly.  He's really faking this laughter just trying to be a little goofball but I thought it might brighten your day just like it did mine.

Jeff said I pulled that curl down on his forehead.  I swear I did not!

Christmas Party Time

Getting ready for our Christmas Party this Saturday night.

The tree is decorated, the Department 56 Villages are on display and my console table welcomes guests with the Merry Christmas blocks that we made so many years ago in girl scouts.  I was a leader of Jessica's troop and I always made sure we did crafts that the parents would like and use.  No popsicle stick crafts!  I love console tables and they are especially effective if you have a floating seating arrangement like we do.  You don't want to walk into a front door and see the back of a sofa or loveseat.  You can see our Department 56 Christmas in the City village on display on the server adjacent to the fireplace.  

We are having our usual Honey Baked Ham.  Since Justin's girlfriend, Sarah, is a vegetarian, I have lots of side dishes and appetizers that she can eat.  I have mini quiches, pita chips and hummus, a broccoli slaw, salad with cherry tomatoes, pomegranate arils and feta cheese, mashed potatoes, BBQ beans, fresh pineapple and for dessert another Tuxedo cake and also a Red Velvet cake.  We'll play our silly gift exchange game and do our usual terrible rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas and other carols. 

Visiting Santa

Happy 12-12-12!

Jessica and Pat took the boys on their annual visit to see Santa Claus.  I'm still not over losing our long-time Santa but this year they found a suitable replacement.  I didn't go along but apparently Ryan was fine with the Santa visit and even sat on his lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas.  Jacob, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with him and would not sit on his lap.  They worked out a compromise by having Ryan and Jacob sit in Santa's chair while Santa stood along side.  Ryan gave a little smile but Jacob wouldn't smile but he still looks cute and, as Robin pointed out, has his signature curl in the middle of his forehead.

This is a scanned photo so the color is a little off.  Jacob's hair is not dark like it appears in the photo and Kat, I don't know where he gets his curly hair.  No one on our side of the family has curly hair and I've never noticed any curly hair on Pat's side either.  

We had a power outage Tuesday morning.  I was sitting at my computer which is adjacent to a window and I saw a big flash of light and all the power went out.  It was a transformer blowing on a power pole down by the church below us.  Jeff got on the phone to call the electric company and two more times the transformer blew with big arcs of electricity flashing across the sky.  The pole is right next to several trees but luckily they didn't catch on fire.  I was surprised that they had the power back on in about one hour.  

Window Wreaths

Every Christmas since we've had an artificial Christmas tree, we've been searching for a way to get that wonderful scent of pine that is missing.  I've tried sprays, candles, oils, you name it.  I decided I'd try using wreaths indoors.  We bought two fresh large wreaths at Costco for $15.99 each.  They come decorated with pine cones, berries and even sprays of different types of pines.  We used some of our extra gold ribbon that we use on our tree to hang them and Mr. Jeffrey made a couple of gold bows.  Did we accomplish our goal of getting the pine scent?  The jury is still out.  It's definitely not as fragrant as a fresh Christmas tree but we think the wreaths add a very nice touch.  I ordered some of Restoration Hardware's "Starry String Lights" which are teeny-tiny battery-operated white lights on a silver bendable wire.  I'll take another photo of the wreath close up once the lights arrive.  I did find what look to be the same lights cheaper HERE but I can't be sure they're the same...  For now, here's a photo of the living room and you can see the two wreaths in the windows.

 I already have one five-foot strand of lights that I use on our mantle.

Here's a close up of the lights.  See the tiny silver wire?

Most of my Facebook friends have already seen this video.  Jeff was at the dog park with Cooper and Kanan on Saturday and something spooked them!  Watch the video to see what scared them so much!

Cool Candles!

I spent all day Thursday working on my Christmas cards and now I'm blurry eyed so going to make this a quick post.  I noticed when Jeff and I were on our trip to San Diego that my eyes are not adjusting like they used to.  I'd be looking down while driving (Jeff, not me) at my iPhone at Yelp, Gas Buddy or Waze and then when I'd look up it seemed like it took forever before my eyes would adjust.  Anyway, I got my cards done and in the mail so one more thing to cross off the to-do list.

I took advantage of a Groupon, actually I think it was a Living Social deal where for $25.00 you could get a $50.00 gift certificate to use at Brookstone.  Since Brookstone is pricey, I thought this would be a good way to get some of their candles I've been coveting.  I waited for them to go on sale after Christmas last year and they never did so I bought a deal for me and I had Jeff buy one.  He really loves these candles, too.  Now I'm sure most of you have seen the battery-operated candles but these are really special.  They have a flickering flame that looks incredibly real!  Here's a video that shows what they look like.

Aren't they cool?  Hope you have a great Friday and weekend ahead!

Halls are Decked!

The thing I like about an early Thanksgiving is that it gets you going on your Christmas decorating and shopping.  Since we had a rainy weekend, we didn't get the outdoor lights up but we did get the tree up and one of our Department 56 Christmas Villages.  On Saturday morning, we had Ryan and Jacob come over to decorate the tree.  I put all my expensive, breakable ornaments aside and let them go at the tree with all the soft, country-type ornaments.  I didn't correct any of their placements because I knew that later that evening, Jeff and I would fix it the way we want it.  They had a great time and were most anxious to place under the tree a lot of the presents for them that I had wrapped.  Ryan, especially, is so anxious for Christmas that it's going to be a long month for him.  I had him assemble my advent Santa Claus that has a tree that you add a numbered ornament to each day.  That will be good for him since he's learning all his numbers and counting.  Here's a few photos of our Christmas decor.

Our tree and stockings

Front Door

Kalani, Hunter and Hayley's Ornaments

Dylan, Kanan and Kali's Ornaments

Cooper's Ornament

Li Bien Ornaments

(Painted from the inside)