Ultimate Date Weekend

After a week in Kennewick I came back to CA. Why didn't I just stay out in WA? Well, months before my offer from HP Danny and I had gotten tickets to go to the Nutcracker. Then a few weeks before my trip Danny's company told him to take his wife out for a really nice dinner on them! Talk about the ultimate date weekend!! I definitely wasn't going to miss out.

We got reservation's at Alexander's which has a Michelin star. It was good! We're now obsessed with Truffles. It was fun to spend the evening with Russ and Kirsten.

The food was so amazing we couldn't decide which dessert to get so we tried three! They were all totally fabulous. Our favorite though was this molten chocolate pudding cake. Yum!!

Yeah for fancy dates!

The next night we went to the Nutcracker. We started off with dinner. We wanted to try a German restaurant in the city that has rave reviews on yelp but after waiting in line for 45 minutes we didn't get in. Luckily we were able to get into the Italian place across the street. It was pretty good minus the fact that we had to wait forever.

Awesome seats!

Christmas lights!

Our friends Jordan and Pat that went with us. After the ballet we hit up Max's for dessert and fries. It was an awesome weekend!

Meet the Family - because Becca really likes to see pictures of her toys on the computer

Danny really hates when I refer to the toys as my family. But many people refer to their pets as part of their families but we never had pets. We have toys instead.

I really enjoy my visits to Kennewick that are more low key. I get to spend time getting things done that I wouldn't normally get to do. For example - sewing up and washing my sister's toys. She has some really funny ones. She is really into the weird or giant stuff animals right now. Here are a few of my favorites.

Three Generations of Dressy Bessy (a.k.a. Abo) - The only word my sister can say is not "Mom", "Mama", "Dad", "Dada", or "Liz" but "Abo". Awesome. The original (the one in the middle) came into the family around 1994. We now have 1983 and 2008 versions. She's a classic.

Frankie - He was THE favorite until he and Becca got in a fight. He now lives at a shopping center in Bend, Oregon.

"Mer-bear Pops. Mer-bear."

The Patches - They know what they are doing. Despite losing team members to Muir Woods and Splash Mountain, they have maintained their spot at the top.

Glitter Skunk - Best white elephant gift ever. If he wasn't so big I would have brought him home.

Darth Vader - "You don't know the power of the dark side." He's always good for a laugh.

Ghost Boy - He freaked me out so bad I threw him away.

Bobbie - Brother of Abo. He's been a favorite long enough to earn local fame. After a fight with Becca in which he was banished to the parking lot at Toys'R'Us someone recognized him and returned him to Santa to bring back to Becca. He was, of course, forgiven after such an adventure.

The Arm - He likes to nap.

Sometimes I really wonder what companies are thinking when they come up with these toys. I would love to know the story behind Mer-Bear or Frankie.

Pre-Christmas Kennewick

After the week of Creche I went to Kennewick to see my family. We had lots of fun shopping for cars, decorating for Christmas, baking goodies, meeting Santa, and watching the Holiday Boat Parade (which I had never seen).

Sisters at the boat parade

I was so impressed by the decorated boats. I thought they were just going to be boats strung with Christmas lights but they had serious, expensive, light decorations. The one above was a dragon that moved!!

Meeting Santa at my Dad's company's holiday breakfast. Becca takes meeting Santa very seriously.

Creche

As part of my offer from HP I negotiated the whole month of December off. It was kind of a big deal but I won't ever work during the month of December ever again. There is just too much going on in December to be stuck at work. The first week of December I volunteered with the Creche exhibit as part of the Marionette show. I did it last year and loved it. It is soooo much fun!!

Danny cannot take a picture to save his life

I'm the red wiseman.

We love the Creche!

Taking a Break

Well friends, we're still alive. If you haven't already figure it out we're taking a break from the blogging world for awhile. The reason? We don't really have a computer and honestly we don't really want one. In the mean time drop me a line on facebook or via email. I've got an ipod at least.

Things I'll eventually have to blog about

• My December off work
• My sister's toy collection
• The Creche
• The holidays
• Hearst Castle
• Danny's birthday
• Valentine's Day
• Almost moving to Baltimore
• The YW's fundraiser
• Ano Nuevo

Good Health!

My favorite holiday drink is Wassail. It's a traditional English hot cider. I like to think the recipe has been handed down through the generations from my ancestors who immigrated from England but really I have no idea. Here is the recipe. It's delicious.

2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp whole all spice
1 whole nutmeg
Simmer in:
4 qts apple juice
1 can frozen orange juice
1/3 c lemon juice
1/3 c brown sugar

I usually half the juices and sugar because we don't have a pot big enough and it turns out great.

Part of the reason why it is my favorite is because it brings back good memories of my Christmas Tea Party my mom threw for me when I was little. Everyone got dressed up in their best dresses and we used the nice, fancy tea cups from my Mom's tea cup collection. I spent weeks deciding which friends would use which cups (they were all different). We had Wassail and yummy treats. It was a good day.

I also crave Wassail every time I get sick. It always leaves me feeling healthy and strong. Perhaps it's the orange juice in it. How approriate then that Wassail means "Good Health".

Enjoy!

Danny gets lost at the airport (Thanksgiving)

Thanksgiving was a real blast this year. The Saturday before Thanksgiving my family flew into SFO, and my Mom and I spent the day seeing the Post Impressionist exhibit at the De Young and shopping in the city. Despite the pouring rain the stores were packed and we didn't really do much shopping. Sunday we had a early Thanksgiving meal that took way longer to prepare than expected. Cooking for Thanksgiving is hard!! For a good laugh ask Danny what a white yam looks like. Monday we drove up to Sacramento to stay with my Aunt and Uncle. On the way my Mom and I stopped at the outlets in Vacaville and went crazy. Then we went to my favorite shopping mall, The Galleria, in Roseville. By the end of the day I was getting worried Danny was freaking out at getting "Large Transaction" notices from Mint. haha. Merry Christmas to me! The next day we woke up early and endure the cold weather and rain to find bargains at the flea market. We are definitely die hards. Tuesday night I drove back to Palo Alto to pack my bags for our flight to SLC the next day.

Wednesday started at 2:45 am. Why did we even go to bed? We got to the airport at 4:45am for our 6:05am flight. It was the craziest I have ever seen an airport. It took 45 minutes to check our bags which ended up giving us 15 minutes to get through security before our flight left. Too bad the security line was all the way around the whole baggage claim. TSA showed us no sympathy. Danny was freaking out about missing our flight. I finally decided to suck it up and ask someone to let us cut in front of them. Danny and I got split up trying to get through security the quickest. With 5 minutes till our flight was to depart I got through and sprinted full speed (shoes in hand...not on feet) and made it on the airplane. I explained to the flight attendant that my husband was just behind me and asked if they would wait for him. She said he had 4 minutes till they had to push off from the gate. Four minutes went by and no Danny. I was calling and calling and no answer. WTF. I was panicked that he gave up and stopped to use the bathroom or something. Finally he called me back and said the monitor had sent him to the wrong gate at the other end of the terminal. A minute after our flight was supposed to depart he got on the plane. Thank goodness they waited! Never again. Next time we will be at the airport 2 hours in advance!

We spent the rest of the week in UT having fun with Danny's family. We had a super yummy Thanksgiving meal. I convinced Danny to go with us to the Park City outlets at midnight for Black Friday sales only to have him go on a huge shopping spree to get back at me. And we went to see Harry Potter. It was a great week!