A Laid-Back Christmas Morning

What a pleasure it was not having to hurry through Christmas morning. In fact, it felt rather strange to take our time opening gifts and kicking back enjoying the morning. We almost had to force ourselves to "slow down" and not feel rushed. Some of us stayed in our jammies until nearly noon. We all agreed that we like our new tradition.

Christmas Eve with lots of presents stashed under the fourteen-foot tree.
PDV read the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew. . . the kids opened the jammies so they could be adorable for pictures in the morning . . . then off to bed so Santa could arrive.

It was fun watching KL discover that there was a matching pair of jammies for her American Girl Doll "Kit."

So soft and cuddly . . . ready for bed on Christmas Eve!

Here is JD showing off his new bathrobe.

JJ was all smiles when she discovered the Raggy Diamond Quilt. I made one for her sister living in the snow-covered midwest too. They both loved them, as I was hoping they would. Lots of work but so worth it when you can get smiles like this one!

PD enjoyed a leisure Christmas morning, too!

Christmas day was spent playing with the kids.

KL wasn't sure she liked playing the new Scrabble game. She'll soon learn how much fun it is!

Life is Good spending the holidays with family!

A New Tradition

Christmas party with the extended family took a turn this year. Rather than the big family breakfast on Christmas morning, we decided to get together before Christmas. Gathering at the Varner's home on the 23rd at two in the afternoon we played, chatted, laughed, crafted (making gifts for each other), nibbled appetizers all day, and enjoyed a Sloppy Joe dinner, indulged in Lemon Dream Bars and Million Dollar Fudge for dessert, played games with lots of prizes for the kids, traded gifts (or stole from others), and ended the day . . . seven hours later . . . with smiles all around while being quite content singing carols next to the beautifully decorated 14-foot Christmas tree. A beautiful time feeling the Christmas spirit in the air. A new tradition beginning with the next generation hosting the festivity. What a great idea.

The hostess with the mostess . . . JJ provided all sorts of crafts from which to choose to make for our "Secret Pals" - we were given a gift bag to fill with handmade treasures (painted ornaments, decorated gingerbread men, felt ornaments, candies and other goodies. The bags were given out at the appropriate time with joy in our hearts having spent special time creating the gifts while keeping our secret all day as to whom the recipient was to be.

One of the great grandmothers (my sweet mother) had more fun painting her ornaments and just getting pleasure out of enjoying the four-generation gathering.

We were especially blessed to have a second great grandmother this year—
PD's gramma visiting from Cambria. She is such a joy!

Everyone got into painting the ornaments—men, women and kids. All took the project very seriously and created some beautiful one-of-a-kind ornaments to be hung on the recipient's tree.

Nice job!

Mom even painted two ornaments.
She had such a good time.

And some used their imaginations to the max!
M created a surfing thing-a-ma-jig out of felt
for her Secret Pal!

KL having fun creating a masterpiece to give away.

And KL loved chatting with AP while they both painted their ornaments.

It's always good to be with family.
We've spread out more than ever now that the second generation has all retired.
Here is my younger sister, SS, with her daughter and son-in-law (my niece and nephew).

Such a Treat

It all started by a phone call from JJ saying that SS was going to fly out to LAX on a business trip and the two sisters were going to spend the afternoon and evening together. JJ thought it would be fun for the two of us to surprise SS by showing up at her hotel room. Not knowing that K and I were "camping" in Santa Barbara—much closer to L.A. than we would have been had we been back in Coarsegold—SS would really be surprised to see me. And she was! I was so excited to be able to spend time with both of my daughters—just the three of us doing "girl-things"—a very rare opportunity I could not pass up! We had a great time catching up with what's going on in our lives, shopping, dining out, laughing—just enjoying being together. I love'em both so much.

A Four-Generation Thanksgiving Celebration

A Thanksgiving Feast from olives and pickles to turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans Southern style, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and cranberry chutney, rolls and butter . . . to pumpkin pie with whipped cream and carmel apple pie ala'mode . . . nothing is better than being with family. We enjoyed indulging in a four-generation Thanksgiving Feast!

Nothing better than the drumstick!

Four generations of the female variety.

Me and the Best Mom Ever

Great Gramma and three of her "Greats"

Happy Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving—a time we Americans celebrate the first Thanksgiving many years ago when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans shared what they had and were thankful for their bounty of crops.

Here is JD and CD getting ready for the big day. JD is learning to make cranberry relish while CD is dressed in his costume he wore in the kindergarten Thanksgiving program this morning. May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving day, sharing your love with whomever you are with.



Our little family will be gathered here at the V-Party-of-Five and venture over to get our 86-year-old Mom and bring her back to join us. Six hours of driving but well worth it. We'll be missing the rest of the family - especially our midwestern family - but we've all moved too far from each other to have the family gathering we've had for the last fifty years. New traditions will start with the new generation growing to include their new extended families.

Four generations sharing a Thanksgiving Feast!
Life is Good - Happy Thanksgiving!

How Time Flies

It seems just like yesterday that K and her dad went to their first Father/Daughter Dance at K’s school when she was in first grade. Last night they went to the sixth-grade version of this event. Dressed to the nines K wore a beautiful black velvety-lacey dress accessorized with a necklace, bracelet, and new earrings to match. And she looked adorable – all grown up. And P was one proud Dad escorting his daughter to the dance. They came home with a prize for best “Sprinkler” dancers . . . JD later demonstrated this dance, as only he can, with the perfect moves.

Life is good . . . especially spending time with family!

I Love Sunday Mornings

On Sundays my routine is different than most any other day of the week. Upon arising from a good night's sleep I mosey out to the living room passing through the kitchen (a special smile on my face) with full knowledge that I don't have to think about breakfast because it is Sunday, which to us, means it's K's day to fix breakfast—I really should say he "creates" breakfast rather than just "fixes" it.

I make my cup of cappucino and turn off the TV (he's usually been up a bit longer and has been watching the fishing shows). I sit in the lounge chair with my feet propped up getting all cozy and comfy and getting ready to admire the "chef" in the kitchen. Now I never know what he has planned for breakfast and sometimes he doesn't know either. . . I just have to watch the chef open the fridge and start hauling out the fixings for a beautiful meal. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sunday mornings! Sometimes the meals are really good and sometimes they are so-so —but always great because HE prepared them.

This morning the meal was FABULOUS . . . an egg-white omelet (actually he took five egg-whites and added two yolks back in for color - "that's the way Dr. Phil does it"). The filling was made with onion, bell pepper, mushrooms (both white and crimini) and one chicken sausage—all chopped to a uniform size—and simmered in a bit of "E-V-O-O." Then— while the omelet filling was cooking he prepared a side dish of sliced apples seasoned with cinnamon and freshly ground nutmeg —all simmered in a bit of Smart Balance and cooked to perfection. A beautifully toasted slice of Orowheat Winter Wheat bread finished off the dish. The omelet was topped with a glob of light sour cream and a few slices of avocado . . . YUMMO!

We're trying to practice our "portion control" hence we use the lunch-size plates for meals . . . that's why the meal just barely fits!

Park Sierra Homecoming

That's what it seems like when we come home after a fun summer in Oregon—a homecoming. We love getting back home, visiting with all our friends—our extended family—hearing all their stories and sharing ours. We've been very busy with meetings—both hosting some and attending others, dinner parties, organizing new committees, unpacking and finding places to put "stuff" we brought back from Oregon. But it's great to be back, we love it here—especially this time of year. Fall is a fun time—with each day bring more vibrant colors on the trees as they make ready for winter.


We enjoyed having guests: sister P and her husband H with their friends S and L. P and H came for a couple of days and to take their trailer back to their house in Big Pine. Here we are enjoying four games of Pegs and Jokers. I'll have to admit that the guys won three of the four games. However we all had a good time and lots of laughs.

Summertime . . . Summertime . . . Sum-Sum-Summertime

I'm relaxing in our little piece of heaven in Coarsegold, with a smile on my face just thinking about what a fabulous summer we've had. So I thought I'd just give you a recap of our adventures.

MAY
• With trailer in tow we spent ten days at the Russian River TTN Resort "playing" with R and J.

JUNE
• Ten days in Mendocino with G and C, volunteering our time to making abalone wreaths for them to sell at the Ford House. A great abalone diving adventure brought in three abalone which are like jewels from the sea.
• One of K's clients suggested to visit Fern Canyon since we were so close when camping overnight in Trinidad . . . are we ever glad we did . . . awesome hike!
• A week in Florence, Oregon at South Jetty, another TTN Resort. Beautiful accomodations with hot tub and pool to enjoy. We explored the pretty beach town, which has been on the ten-most-desired-city-to-retire list.
• A week in Newport, Oregon at Whaler's Rest Leisure Time Resort - another great place with a walking path to the beach. It was pretty windy, though, which made for some time inside enjoying reading and quilting.

JULY
• Our Cascadia stay started with a fun Fourth-of-July birthday party with our friends of over 40 years. T turned 43 this year . . . doesn't look a day over 30!
• Daughter J with three fun grandkids came up for a five-day visit. We crammed as much fun as we could into the short time we had together. Their accomodations was our "guest house in the woods" - a large tent which housed them quite comfortably.
• Blueberries, raspberries, marionberries . . . you can't beat 'em . . . and we picked, with J and the grandkids, about 16 pounds of berries!
• Sister's Annual Quilt Show was a highlight of the summer, especially fun to attend with daughter JJ and granddaughter KL.
• Did lots of sewing . . . Christmas projects . . . and a couple of quilts. . . I love my sewing machine.

AUGUST
• Spent a week in the midwest with daughter SS and family. We had lots of fun with them, including a trip to the zoo; a warm and humid morning at the Children's Garden; a trip to the "club" to enjoy the lake-side beach watching the kids swim until they were shiffering cold and wrinkled, and watching the guys sailing Yankee Doodle, enjoyed a picnic lunch and then a nice dinner lakeside; teaching T how to make a fruit tart which he was thrilled to be able to make all by himself; K had an exciting morning playing Battleship with R . . . lots of fun! Plus I really enjoyed creating cards in S's new craft-room in the basement . . . the whole trip was busy and loaded with fun. Our last evening out on the deck we tried something we've never tried before . . . a litre bottle of Diet Coke (it HAS to be Diet Coke) with a couple of Mentos (the mint candy) creates a fascinating chemical reaction:

It must have reached about 5 feet!

• Shortly after returning from the midwest we headed up to Seattle for Mom R's 90th birthday party, Samantha's 1st birthday, and a celebration of our 43 years of marital bliss. It was great to see the whole R family together at one time . . . it had been five years since we enjoyed all of them at one time!
• Got in some Kokanee fishing, and some salmon-smoking time.
• We discovered we had a hazelnut tree! We were able to harvest just a small bowlful due to the fact that the blue-jays had discovered them first.

SEPTEMBER
• More sewing fun . . . finished up sister's quilt made of yo-yo's (We just spent a couple days with them and got to see it on the guest-room bed. It's pretty cute, if I do say so myself!) I discovered a local quilt shop and took a class learning to make placemats in using a nice pattern. And I learned that the owner does machine quilting! I'll be using her a lot in the future, I'm sure.
• We discovered a great local farm, called Grampa's Produce, where we bought some gorgeous peaches and using them I made a dozen jars of peach jam...yummo!
• Time to make blackberry jam . . . ended up with just over a dozen jars.
• K finished up some cabinets he had started at the end of last summer for his shop. They really are nice and will be put to good use.
• We packed up Cascadia on the 20th to start our trip south, via Winchester Bay.
• A week with the RoVing Rods camping along side good friends, G and C, and R and J, bringing in over 130 crab. That made for a whole lot of steaming and picking! But the results were awesome: fourteen jars, and about the same in frozen packages. . . it'll be fun to share with family and friends.
• We began the summer and ended it with a fun trip to Healdsburg.

A great summer . . . Life is Good!

Crabbing in Winchester Bay

We've been here about a week and we're having a very busy, but fun time. The guys have been going out faithfully at least twice a day pulling crab pots and keeping the bait fresh and have brought in nearly 90 Dungeoness Crab. It takes 15 minutes to steam a pot of 7-8 crab at a time, and then hours to pick the meat out of the shell. The guys do the work from the inflatable boat, I do the cooking of the crab, and the three women do the picking. It's a whole lot of work, but so worth every bit of it. So far we're freezing our catch . . . of course we pop a succulent piece in our mouths every now and then. Tomorrow I may start canning the rest of the crab we get since my freezer is getting full of crab and blueberries!

Life is good in Winchester Bay!

K and G checking the pots yesterday when it was beautiful
and sunny. Today was pea-soup-foggy all day. This picture
compliments of our friend, Padraic.

Half of this morning's catch . . . hot out of the steamer.

The three pickers working hard at keeping the shells out!

A small bowl full of freshly picked crab meat . . . yummmy!

Winchester Bay 2006

When we arrived last Thursday we were surprised to see so many RVers camped out here. We didn't get in the same area as last year and are parked in the "low-rent district." But we're still having lots of fun with our friends, Cecile and Gary (who were with us last year), and Jane and Russ (who haven't crabbed before so it's been fun showing them the ropes! Actually Janes doesn't "do" sea food of any kind but Russ does and he's lovin' it. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days. The crabbing hasn't been as plentiful as last year, but we have brought in 14 so far. . . as I write this blog the men are out now to harvest the evening catch.

K and G ready for their first launching of the Zodiak,
and set the baited traps in place.

Checking the traps for keepers!

First steamed crab of the season.

C and I picking the meat out of the first batch
of steamed crab.

Here is Gary barbecuing fresh oysters.

Already for the barbecue sauce . . . I didn't think I was
going to like'em but was I every surprised. Delicious!
Especially the barbecue sauce!

Here we are having a great time.
Gary and Cecile seated, us on the left,
and Jane and Russ on the right.

Typical Winchester Bay sunset . . .
I stole this picture from my friend, Padraic.

Nothin' to it but to do it!

We're packing up to leave this little piece of heaven in Cascadia, Oregon. One of the things we do is empty the freezer. And you guessed it, there were lots of berries in there, especially blackberries . . . six gallons, in fact. So I spent all day Sunday making blackberry jam.

Six gallons of berries (one gallon is four quarts which is the same as eight pints so there were a total of 48 pints of berries) along with a whole lot of sugar made only 18 pints of jam. Because I don't like seeds in my jam I guess I lose a lot of the bulk of the berry. But with acres and acres of blackberries to pick, who cares? The jam is oh-so-good, if I do say so myself, and I don't get seeds caught in my teeth!

Six gallons of berries out of the freezer . . .

And into the pot with just a bit of water to get them cooking. . .

Berries starting to defrost and start cooking . . .

Once they are hot the juices seep out and go into the sieve
where the berries get crushed and the juices seep down
into the pot. Add the pectin and a bunch of sugar . . .

Distribute into the jars . . . after the "bath" in the
canning pot . . . Voila! Jam!
The peach jam is made from some wonderful
peaches we bought at a local farm stand.

A Spruced-Up Shop

K has been working real hard this last week getting his cabinets and shelving units finished for the shop end of the pole barn. It started when he received a copy of ShopNotes where they teach you how to make one cabinet and one shelf unit out of one sheet of 3/4" plywood. He bought two sheets to make his two sets.He cut the wood into the pieces he needed at the end of last summer, so it's fitting that he put them together at the end of this summer. They look great and he really needs them to store "stuff" that clutters up his workspace. Way to go, KFR!

Featured on the cover.

Drilling the holes for the shelf pegs.

Ready to be glued and screwed.

Waiting for doors.

Door hinges screwed in place.

That ought to be high enough from the counter.

Note how level they are hung!

Glad the job is done . . . and they're awesome!

Life is Good!