Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas Now and Then

Annie
and
I
just
watched
Now and Then
the perfect
little movie
to watch
after
trimming
the
Christmas tree
It
is
starting
to feel
like
Christmas!

My
wish
of
finding
an
uNshEaREd
Fir
or
Pine
Christmas tree
(one that doesn't look like a upside down ice cream cone)
in San Luis Obispo
was
an
IMPOSSIBLE
task!!!

l
was
hoping for a
happy
tree
(like this one)
but
BIGGER
39 Arles 7
but,
alas,
we went
for the smell good tree.
a
Grand
Fir


Backing up
......

it
is
tradition
for
the whole family
to decorate
the
Christmas
Tree.
Sometimes
I sigh,
looking at the
Pottery Barn catalog,
or
Romantic Home Magazine
or
Country Living Magazine
The
Christmas
trees are
always
perfect!!!!
Our
Christmas trees
are
a
family effort..
a family event!
..
we
ALL
decorate
the
tree
into
a
handmade
beautiful
mess
of
Christmas Memories


It
is
increasingly
more difficult
to
corral
adult
children
-
I bribe them

food
always works!

This
year
we
decorated
our
fragrant
upside down ice cream cone
after
a bribery
of
delicious
cheesy
Fondue
paired
with
Four Vines Zinfandel


FYI
puppies
and
ornaments
NOT
a
good mix


Christmas 2010
IMG_0168

silliness
abounds
IMG_0157

IMG_0174
.....

Memories
of
Christmases Past


John and his three brothers circa 1953
SCAN0028

Santa, Andrew and Annie 1989
XMASS 2

After the SLO Christmas parade 1994
XMASS 4

First Christmas card as our "new" family 1997
XMASS 3

Serious Christmas card 1998
with Bingo and Betty
XMASS 1

Our first Christmas with Wally 2003
Wally1 017

decorating the tree 2004
145

Christmas with John's Family 2004
CHRISTMAS 2004 002

Christmas in Paris 2002 (just before we opened Petit Soleil)
80 Family 4

Christmas 2009
20264_1329414840728_1391696583_940499_5295354_n

Finding
Christmas
pictures
from
years
past was quite a
task

lost disks,
fried hard drives,
misplaced albums
etc.

It made me sad
to have
lost
photographs
of
Christmases
past.


now
driven
to preserve
Christmas
NOW
and
in the future


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

hair today - gone tomorrow

Remember
that
Bible story
about
Samson and Delilah?

Samson
believed that
he
got his
strength
from
his
hair
Delilah
had
Samson's
hair
cut
and
Samson's
strength
was
zapped
(or so he thought)
That story
reminds
me
of
the
most recent
adventures
of
Huck and Phinn..

Huck
with hair
(powerful, mischieveous, sneaky)
IMG_0097

Phinn
with hair
(punk rock - mohawk)
IMG_0065

Call
me
Delilah!
Our
Dog Whisperer,
Tressie,
suggested
we
call
the
doggie salon
at
PetSmart
and
make
an
appointment
for
Huck and Phinn
IMG_0143


...
Saturday
...

the report cards
Phinn
IMG_0142

and Huckleberry
IMG_0141
(Huck
wasn't
really very
receptive
to having
his
strength
aka
hair
shaved)





The
new
complacent,
non punk rock Phinn
IMG_0132IMG_0132">

and,
Samson,
aka
Huckleberry
notably
hairless,
calmer
less mischieveous
less powerful
IMG_0139

.....

Kind of
nice
right now
..
I wonder if they will realize that it really isn't the hair




.........to be continued

Monday, December 6, 2010

Toulouse
and
I
have been
slacking
in the adventure department
...
maybe
because
of the
holidays?
or
the rains?
or just
because
we are
slacking
..
I take
that
back!!!

We
DID
go for
kind of
an adventure..


to
Target!

last Saturday,
the 1st Saturday of December
not
a
great idea


too many shoppers
all the cool stuff gone
I went
to TARGET
because
Kasey,

(from one of my fave blogs)


showed
this cute
little
bird ornament
for a buck
from
Target.
I
adventured
to
TARGET
(with Toulouse)
to buy
20
of
those
cute
birds
decoupaged
with
sheet music!

We
scooted about
30
miles
to
Target
and this was the only bird left
IMG_0124
it
was in the
"broken thing tub"
...
I asked
the
Target lady
for
more
birds

nope!
...all gone
The nice
check-out girl
gave
me
broken
bird
for
free.
She felt sorry for me,
I think.

She said
"Merry Christmas"

that was nice...
but
no
birds

I do have a
new
FAVE
recipe,
though!
IMG_0122
it
is from
Tyler Florence's
new
cookbook
so so easy
and
the
chicken
was
really yummy!
IMG_0121
Yup,
Chicken Strips!

I cut up two chicken breasts
seasoned them
and set them aside
IMG_0118
Toasted
four pieces of TJ's sourdough wheat bread
IMG_0117
and whirled them
in the
food processor
with fresh parsley and
about 1/4 c. Manchego cheese
...ta-da! fresh bread crumbs!

So,
on one plate - flour
on another plate - two beaten eggs
and on the third plate - the bread crumbs
IMG_0115
Dregded the chicken in flour, then the egg and then the bread crumbs
and on to the cookie sheet
(I made some sweet potato fries to cook along with the chicken)
IMG_0119
They
all
baked
for
about
30
minutes
IMG_0126
We had them with
German Curry Ketchup
and
Hartley Ostini Syrah
IMG_0125
I
ate
all
the
leftover
chicken!