Merry Christmas

My favorite touch of Christmas this year.

I'm glad a decorated this year. The holidays are times to reflect on our lives, reminisce about the past, and enjoy our families and friends.
Mom opened her presents before she left.

Birthdays!

We went to Roy's to celebrate Jeff's birthday.

Jeff got a great shot of René.
A couples dinner was a new experience for us. Everyone had fun.


Happy birthday, honey. May the peace of Hawaii be with you!

BSN

December 17, 2009
Josh's BSN Pinning Ceremony at SDSU
Mom joined us for the week to celebrate with Josh.
She was thrilled that Josh asked her to pin him during the ceremony. She was a little nervous but did a great job.


Josh took two high honors.
Omkara joined us in the celebration and came back to the house and joined us for a meal. I can't even think of the last time we all sat down together. It was a treat.
All back together.
We got to include Nonny Sue and René.
It was nice to see Josh's other nursing friends, like Tess. It was funny to see people come up to Jeremy and say he must be Joshua's twin. Many had heard about but not met him. Rashida was happy. She will graduate next semester.
One of the highlights was to see Ashley graduate, as well. Josh and Ashley were so happy!

We also got to meet Ashley's family.

Summer's Past

Linda had a booth at Summer's Past Craft and Antique Fair at Summer's Past Farms the first weekend of December. She was so brave to put her hand painted items out for others to peruse and purchase. She ended up culling more than a third of her finished objects! The rest of us met her in her booth. What a wonderful way to start the holiday mood!

Winter Formal

My niece, the divine Ms. J, accompanied me to our school's Winter formal this year. She's a lovely young lady! Only in 8th grade but blended right in with the high schoolers.
We were out on December 5th, Nonny Sue's 78th birthday. I got to wear my clapotis again. It was actually cold enough for it in La Jolla on that drizzly night. In fact, it was chilliest inside the restaurant.
It was the same night I had a blow out on the freeway in the dark and was saved by my good husband.
Truly a night to remember.

Love those Apples!

Can you feel the Mac love?

From both of us?

Oh, yeah.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Sharon had all of us over for pumpkin pancakes this morning. Thank you, Sharon!
Josh went with us. Jeremy and René met us there, and her parents joined us, too. The surprise visitor was Evan!
The young muscleman came in dressed in his black leather motorcycle gear. I didn't even recognize him at first. He has only two more weeks in San Diego then he's off to a new assignment in Maryland. He'll drive his truck with his motorcycle in the bed. Ask him to show you the awesome picture (on a web site) of him riding on Mt. Palomar. It's enough to make a mother's heart quake!
Suzanne's husband and boys joined us for a while before they picked up Collin and Devon to go frisbee golfing.

My girlfriend, Jacquie stayed with us and helped with breakfast. She's looking so much like Sharon! Isn't she beautiful? Her disposition is as bright as her bedroom. We left in time to get Josh to the airport so he could get to Vegas to spend the weekend with Ashley's family. It was certainly a meeting the parents weekend!

Cheer Mom

Wow, I can't believe it. My sister is a cheer mom!

And my niece is at the lower right, holding up the flyer in practice.

Yep, the tall girl in pink. (She doesn't know I'm watching from above.)

Into Autumn

I looked forward to some crisp fall days this year. Even though it still gets quite warm and dry, we've had some lovely crisp mornings.

I pulled out old summer flowers and put in fall color.

Look how much the dymondia has filled in.

Cyclamen are my favorite winter flowers.

Halloween 2009

We trekked out at work.

Maria was the best as a vulcan.

San Francisco

We just met for our annual Girls' Weekend. This year was my pick--San Francisco. First we all met at Mom's house in San Jose.

We were greeted by Justin and Cory who surprised everyone with a photo like this taken in Vegas. Just kidding!

On the way in to the city, I finally got to go to Imagiknit, which met my expectations for a wonderful yarn shop. I bought some lovely Koigu and Habu yarn

I told an employee that I had heard about Imagiknit by listening to Nicole and Jenny on the "Stash and Burn" podcast. Because of their passionate discussion of patterns and yarns, I actually wanted to knit something. Imagine my surprise when she told me she thought one of them was in the next room. Not one but both! They were wonderful to talk with (and sound just like they do through my earbuds). They were also gracious enough to pose for a picture with me! Thank you Nicole and Jenny!

We pose in the spectacular lobby of The Fairmont, San Francisco.

This is our room on the 22nd floor of the Fairmont.

Look at our view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the top of the hotel.

. . . and Grace Cathedral

I took this shot of Alcatraz Island from the Embarcadero.

We had a lot of fun shopping for jewelry along the Embarcadero and in front of Ghiradelli Square.

Sonja was our favorite dealer . . . I mean jewel seller. She only gets to sell when she doesn't have too much work at the laundry. After what seemed an hour at her table, she gave us deals and provided outstanding service, adding chain to necklaces on the spot. She let Mom sit in her chair because we were such good customers.

Lori brought the craft this year, altered art using dad's first communion photo as the base. We each made our own version of an altered art pendant.
Mom worked on hers late into the night-oh wait . . . Sharon just crashed early.

Lori's
Mom's
Sharon's
Mine.

Lori wins for the best craft ever. The second best was also hers.

We had fun eating in the various colorful neighborhoods. Gary Danko for a 5-star dinner. Outstanding! Tadich Grill had very yummy sour, chewy sourdough bread but forgettable meals. Caffe Roma for breakfast and delicious coffee. Great!

An old standby--Fisherman's Grotto for delicious clam chowder.

The Jack o' Lantern on the counter of Columbus Cafe helped to usher in the season.

I gave Mom an ipod nano for an early birthday present so she can listen to my favorite podcasts!

It's hard to believe we've done this now for 13 years. Thank you, Jeff, for suggesting our annual get-together!