Year In Pictures

We've been watching "Year In Review" on tv today, and I chose a few of my memories from this year to make a 2010 collage.

Cultural Exchange

Yesterday my Canadian cousin's husband learned a few things about life in America. First, he had never seen a garbage disposal before and was intrigued to learn about its function. Then he went to the grocery store and was a little stumped by the question "paper or plastic". He wondered if it meant something about the type of card used to make a payment. When he asked and found out that it meant the type of bag, he asked if he had to pay for the bags. In Canada, when they ask about bags, that means you have to pay something like 5 cents a bag, and usually for cheapo plastic ones. He was so excited to find out that he could have paper bags for free, he opted right in. Now he has an American souvenir to take back with him!

39 Books - Year in Review

Last year I read 41 books; this year I managed 39. My very favorites:

• The Help by Katheryn Stockett
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
• The Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy
• The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
• The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

I look forward to reading:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
• The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
• The next installment of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book, whatever it is

Leftover Turkey

What to do with Christmas dinner leftovers? Here's a recipe for Turkey Pasta Casserole which not only makes great use of the turkey, but also the stuffing. Not having any asparagus in the house, I substituted frozen peas, and instead of just the bread crumbs, I put the homemade stuffing on top.

I think tomorrow I am going to make turkey vegetable soup with more of the turkey. It will be raining tonight and tomorrow, so it will be a great day for soup.

Hotel VR

As my daughters headed back to their lives, my cousin and her family have arrived from Ontario, Canada to enjoy our post-Christmas weather. Their kids are waiting to use their Santa present which will be a day at Disneyland tomorrow. Today they are off to downtown LA and Hollywood to see what it is all about. (Aboot, actually, with the Canadian accent!)

Yesterday we wandered the colleges to see as many fountains as we could, which is always a favorite activity of ours when people come to Claremont for the first time. It's very quiet there with all the students and staff on holiday.

And To All A Good Night

Christmas 2010

• Took a group photo on Christmas Eve, adding Bryan to our celebration
• Only managed one game of Settlers of Catan
• Everyone helped make a great Christmas Eve dinner (turkey, homemade stuffing from homemade bread stuffed into acorn squash, sweet potatoes and apples dish, couscous salad, homemade cherry pie)
• 5:00 Christmas Eve service
• Opening gifts on Christmas Eve, opening stockings on Christmas morning
• Enjoyed the beautiful sunshine on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day after about 10-12" of rain the week before
• Learned that it helps to write lists like these so we can remember what happened from year to year

LA Adventures

The original plan was to go to the beach on Wednesday. Rain interfered with that idea, so we postponed it until Thursday. While it wasn't raining yesterday, we gave up on the beach idea and drove to Griffith Park instead with Liesl and Chris. The clouds were pretty for a little while, making for some nice photos of the Observatory. Liesl is pretty sure she saw Alan Tudyk there, but none of the rest of us saw him.

While browsing the gift shop at the observatory, I looked at an LA guide book and found the page on Griffith Park and saw that we could get to something called Bronson Caves where some tv shows and movies had been filmed, including the original Batman series with Adam West.
The nice gentlemen directing traffic in the parking lot gave us directions, which was good since there is NO signage to these caves (really just one cave/tunnel with a variety of openings). Last night I found a great youtube video showing not only how to get to the cave, but some shots from tv shows and movies using the cave.

We capped off the day with a trip to the Kogi truck - introducing Bryan, Liesl and Chris to the wonders of Korean/Mexican food fusion.

Stockings

Last Christmas, Liesl brought Chris home for the holidays. We had four stockings, so, of course, we needed one more. In order for them all to be similar, I decided to go to the 99 Cent Store to get five. While standing in the store, I had the thought that perhaps Claire might fall in love one of these days, so I should be forward thinking and get six stockings.

It's a good thing I did (and I will take credit for Claire meeting Bryan this summer). Here are our six stockings, hung by the chimney with care.

The reason that the stockings are already bulging is because yesterday was our traditional trip to the 99 Cent Store where we all find something a little crazy for every other person's stocking. Don't let the blue sky in the picture fool you, though. It's been raining like crazy, and we managed to get out during a short dry period in the middle of the day. Look at the wet parking lot in front of the store.

Christmas Mid-Week Update

• Claire and Bryan home on Monday - flights slightly delayed
• Liesl and Chris home on Tuesday - flight slightly delayed
• Rousing game of Apples to Apples last night
• Today is 6th day of rain - we are very, very soggy
• We are going to watch The Dinner Game which will come on Netflix today

Journey to Bethlehem

Sunday brought our annual Christmas pagent, the Journey to Bethlehem, at church. Every year the newest baby gets to be Jesus, along with his or her parents as Mary and Joseph. (We get creative when there are twins...)

What was special about this year was that the Holy Couple are two who grew up in our church, fell in love and got married a few years ago. Three of their four parents played the Magi. It was very sweet for those of us who have known them for 25 years. Baby Benji was a perfect sleeping baby throughout the whole ordeal.