Imitating Jesus

Tuesday night family dinner wouldn't be complete without a bath for the boys. This gives the adults time to chat and brings calming for the wee ones before dessert. The water is filling in the tub and E is ready to jump in. I say "hey, you can't get in the water with your clothes on" and he tells me "Jesus gets in the water with his clothes on". I then have to break it to this sweet child..."yeah, but you're not Jesus, so take your clothes off before you hop in the tub".  He's always good for a chuckle.

We Have A Winner

We continue to have Family Night...aren't you proud of us? We're keeping this up and I 'm having a great time.  I'm enjoying searching the internet to find tasty recipes. My rules are something that can feed a group, is tasty, and I can prepare and get on the table while still being able to visit with everyone. I still need to get some work done during the day too.

Most of my searching is done on Pinterest......hello, my name is Edie and I am a Pinaholic. My Food Boards are very full and I've actually prepared many of them. There's a whole lot of crappy websites, and so many people think they explain things well and they don't. The reason Pioneer Woman has so many followers, well, she is fabulous. Decades ago I found new recipes in the Wednesday edition of the local paper. Things change some, but not that much.

I think I've found a new favorite website to checkout, DeepSouthDish.com. With the cold and dark days, I was looking for comfort food and found a winner......Hamburger Steak with Creamy Onion Gravy. This is fabulous! My SIL told me to double the recipe the next time I prepare this.....this will appear on my table again....and again....(So sorry Jessica that there weren't enough leftovers for your next meal).

Here it is while cooking.....please notice the camera trouble continues. I'm wondering if the mirror is not lifting up quickly enough because it seems like the first photo has the blackness and then the other frame taken right after does not....I think I need to find a camera shop.

Here it is on the table....

and here's my youngest grandchild....now I'm just showing off....

and yes, that is an owie on his forehead.....he face plants in the same spot so much that I think he's rubbing his skin down and bleeding....he'll learn.

After dinner we clean up, have dessert, and then bathe the grandchildren. Honestly, I ask you, does it get any better than this? No it does not!!!!  I'm leaving out the parts where Lucky is dragged in and furniture is rearranged, the boys make a huge mess, balls are hurled down the hall, little hands are dragged along the white walls, snuggles are handed out freely, books are read (and tossed and gnawed on), the lights are turned on and off when the switch can be reached, and so many other activities all crammed in to two plus hours.

Too Much Fun?

If you've been reading this for any length of time you remember that after so many years of marriage and being uber responsible, we're trying to take a little time each week to have fun. This is such a challenge. Seriously. We struggle to think of fun activities. Please feel free to leave any ideas for fun below in the comment section.

It has come to our attention that we may be the only people who have NEVER been to a Dollar Store. Yep, that's right, never been. We hear about it, never went. We figured it was full of junk. Now a new store has opened up right here in town.  Since we're in our very busy season and do not have much time for fun, we thought we'd grab an hour and visit the Dollar Store. If nothing else, we'd have something to giggle about.  Well, call us pathetic, we had a blast!

We had not been to this area of town in ages, so now we're up-to-date on everything there. It's a little sad because what once was a vibrant center is now dull. Plenty of empty store fronts too. We did find a parking spot right up front. It may look odd to some people to pull up to the Dollar Store in a Mercedes.

As soon as we walk in, we notice several women shopping and talking VERY loudly on their cell phones. And the clerk? He is a hoot! So cheerful, joking with all the shoppers. We were very entertained.  We grabbed a little shopping cart and started walking up every aisle just to see what we could possibly want to buy.

We did find plenty of junk, things that we are not interested in, etc. Then we found a few items that were fabulous deals. You need to know prices, but there were enough finds that we spent $19.35! We forgot our bags in the car and had to carry everything out and then put it in the bags in the trunk. We're not yet trained with the new bag law.

The fun didn't stop yet.......we went to Starbucks and bought lattes. Fun? Yeah, we can do fun!

Stay tuned for the next installment of fun...........

Crazy Grandparents

Our two grandsons ( 3 yrs & 16 mos) spent an afternoon with us at our home. It's freezing cold outside so we're stuck inside. What to do?

Yep, bring the toy inside. That's the Harley Big Wheel, with flashing lights, horns, music, and various loud noises.

We got the motorcycle for Ezra, well he was the only one way back then. He is sharing it with Theo now. At least he's learning to share with Theo. First E rode it, then T got on it...until E sat on it too and squished T and I rescued T by lifting him up and off of it, and then T was miffed that his brother did this, and then I had to snuggle T and kiss him repeatedly on his ears and neck while saying sweet Grandma things about how marvelous he is.

Then they moved on to have T follow E and push him along. Oh, and please notice the cute sweaters. As E likes to "match" with his baby. He told me they bought them at Target.

And what is going on with my camera? I thought it was my lens, but now I'm pretty sure it's the camera.

Hair....don't like it when it gets in the eyes...a bit too Bieber if you ask me. Oh, you didn't ask me?

The boys haul down the hallway and they may have crashed in to the door once or twice. Which is completely crazy if you knew how much we paid for the solid wood doors that go perfectly in our home. Oh, and then there were the times that the wheel dragged along the wall as they were racing....no worries, we'll have that painted in the Spring. See? We are crazy grandparents. This would NEVER have happened when we were simply parents.

Family Night

We have a new tradition. I didn't want to tell you about it until I believed it really had become a tradition. Since we've been doing this for a couple of months now, I thought that I'd share.

I didn't think of this entirely on my own. When we first worked together, our partners were both Mormons and went home for a Family Night the same night of the week, each week, even during busy season. We weren't big fans then because while they were home with their families, we were at work. Then I have a friend who has a family night. She comes home early from work and prepares a big dinner. All of her children and grandchildren come over every week, three generations. They all live nearby, but this is the only time they're all together at the same time. I thought "Great idea, I can copy that", so I did. Oh, and we include a fourth generation!

We have had many a delicious meal. Tonight's may have been the absolute best. We're finding many of the recipes off of Pinterest. We had the best good old fashioned Yankee Pot Roast, mashed potatoes (using a new way of preparation thanks to Pioneer Woman), and roasted broccoli. We need to tweak the broccoli recipe, it was a bit too tangy.

After dinner we have entertainment. This is mostly the boys.....reading books, chasing them around, giving them baths. By the time the boys are clean and in PJs, things are cleaned up and we have dessert. Then everyone leaves with their leftovers and we grab a glass of wine, sit on the sofa, and smile.

Elephant Seal Walking Tour

There is so much that is out of the norm with today's adventure. The first thing is my husband. He would NEVER take off a weekday in January. EVER. He is a VERY responsible CPA and this is the very beginning of a crazy busy time. He is so disciplined and responsible, my bizarro opposite or my model, sometimes I get so confused.

I have longed to go to Ano Nuevo and see the Elephant Seals up close and personal. I shared this with my husband (of over three decades) and he was surprised. He had never heard of the Elephant Seals coming to a local beach and did not know of my desire. I'm pretty sure we're doing something wrong. Why did he not know of my desire? And how could he not have heard about the Elephant Seals appearing each year at Ano Nuevo?

As I was sitting next to him, surfing how to make reservations for the walking tours (during the mating season you must have a reservation to walk among the seals) he said that he could go any day before January 8th. So I booked January 7th.  The fee is $7 per person and then a $10 parking fee, such a deal.

Today turned out to be a lovely winter day in California, sunny and around 55 degrees. It was foggy when we left at 10 am, wild waves when we hit Pescadero, but sunny with a very slight breeze when we arrived at Ano Nuevo around noon. We checked in and got our tickets, then took our picnic lunch to one of the tables. We ate quickly, used the facilities, and then went to meet our group. You need to check-in to get your tickets about half an hour before the time because it takes about 30 minutes to hike to the staging area. Well, most people take 30 minutes. We walk quickly so it was less than 15 minutes. The groups are limited to 20, but we got lucky and we were in a group of 9. We did see much larger groups, some were school groups.

A docent leads the group down to where the seals are located, stopping to tell you about the area. Indians lived here and of course were wonderful stewards of the land...and we're so blessed that we didn't make the seals totally extinct in spite of our greed and stupidity. We listened and silently rolled our eyes.  When you get to the seals, the ranger takes over.

If anyone knows why I'm getting that black border on top of some of my photos, please comment. I thought it was that my old lens was broken, but this is the new lens. What gives?

The males arrive around Thanksgiving and the females around Christmas. The pups are born within 5 days of the female arriving. We think we saw a brand new pup, since the sea gulls were circling and they get excited at the time of birth (they like to clean up afterwards). We saw elephant sex, new babies, screaming females, and plenty of seals just laying around. When we say laying around, we mean laying around...they look like giant fat blobs. And we mean GIANT. Even the pups are huge. We were on the early stages of all the activities, seems later in February is when more action happens.

We were walking right by them, but I would suggest you bring binoculars and a zoom lens.

The total walk time (getting to and from the staging area along with the tour) is at least three hours and three miles. Part of the walk is in the sand. I would not take a small child on this tour, or someone who is not in shape. It would be particularly difficult if the weather wasn't as wonderful as we had.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and do not do this, HUGE FAIL.

Wedding Time!

Our niece was married just before Christmas. Danielle & Forest have been dating for YEARS! And engineer and a chemist....took them forever to figure romance thing out.

We headed up to wine country on a stormy day. Our route was detoured because the road was flooded. Not that unusual in the area when it rains, but it has been pouring with high winds for days. With the timing, we had allowed time for a pre-wedding lunch. We dined at the girl and the fig which is a top rated restaurant located a block from the Square in Sonoma. We didn't have reservations and lucked out with a table on the patio. This wasn't bad since it is entirely enclosed in a plastic tent with hot air coming in at our feet via a noisy machine. MIL was a trooper, she hiked the half block in. We snagged a parking spot right in front to pick her up when we left. Again, this is miraculous for this area. We were appreciating everything.

The wedding was just up the street. Interesting building. It's a First Congregationalist/United Church of Christ that shares the building with a Jewish Temple. Probably the people that established this place years ago did not have this in mind when it was built. They most likely aged and faded away without growing the next generations. Anyway, the building is well used. Great deal for $650. It allows the reception on site and you can serve alcohol...SCORE!!!

 Look at the Groom's face, that is one happy guy. He should be ecstatic because he's marrying a wonderful young woman. And check at the dress...it is fabulous and she rocked it.

 The decorations were simple and lovely. They had a timeline with photos of them as children and while they were dating....over the 9+ years....LOTS of photos.

 Here are a few family shots...can you figure who is who?

There was a small "cutting" cake and then cupcakes...the BEST cupcakes EVER.

Wishing a Happily Ever After to Danielle and Forest!!!