MERRY CHRISTMAS

We spent Christmas Eve at Meredith, Clyde and Sofia's house. It was lovely, warm, yummy, precious and all the things we wish Christmas with our kids to be . . .

After dinner, Sofia spread some reindeer food in the yard to help Santa's reindeer find their way . . .

The house was so festive . . .

Sofia also set out cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer . . .

Christmas day we all gathered at our house . . .

Elizabeth came by . . .

We opened lots of fun and thoughtful gifts . . .

Read some books . . .

Went on a delivery to a neighbor's house . . .

Barclay and Dylan opened presents too . .

Played some games . . .

Popped crackers and wore silly hats at dinner . . .

Ate too much . . .

And ended a perfect Christmas with a concert of Christmas carols . . .

CHRISTMAS TIME

One day a couple of weeks ago, Sofia had a slight cold and just wanted to cuddle up on the sofa and watch Seasame Street until Mummy came to pick her up. She was with us for dinner, so we had a little pasta salad picnic-style . . .

At Christmas, we put out our Polar Express candy dish with M&M's in it. For obvious reasons, we keep it up on the counter on the days Sofia visits. However, it is still within sight and we do get requests, which we are happy to indulge . . .

Meredith set up her office's Christmas dinner at a lovely Sacramento restaurant and invited us down to have dinner with Sofia while she and Clyde were out. They left us hot, yummy homemade soup and fresh bread. Sofia finished her dinner first, but stayed at the table to keep Papa and me company . . .

After dinner, we all sat down to watch "The Polar Express" together . . .

We love Christmas time.

CHRISTMAS COOKIES !

Apron on, dust the cloth and rolling pin with flour, roll the dough, cut the cookies, decorate, into the oven, set the timer, let them cool, taste test and package them up. The pictures pretty much tell the story, except for one thing. If the process seems a little heavy on the supervision side, it's because the step stool that Sofia was using kept slipping out from under her. It didn't seem to bother her much, but it required that we keep at least one foot against it the whole time. We've since replaced the step stool with a better model, ready for next time.

This was the container going home to Mummy and Daddy. We think a smile would have accompanied this pose, but that was too hard to do with a mouth full of cookie.

SOME CUTE PICS

THANKSGIVING

Clyde, Meredith and Sofia have made it a tradition to join the Sacramento Run to Feed the Hungry on Thanksgiving morning, and they invited us to join them this year. So we were part of the 28,500 people who ran or walked on this beautiful, happy day.
Our crew: Friends Kristin and her dad, Bob, and Clyde . . .

. . . Sofia, Meredith and me . . .

. . . Dan (his wife, Meg was there too, but she ran the 10k, while we walked the 5k), and their son, and Sofia's best buddy, Jake . . .

Meredith and Clyde brought and shared coffee cake and mimosas while we formed up and waited for the run to start . . .

There were several live bands playing along the way, people dressed in funny Thanksgiving garb, friends and families, gorgeous weather and general good cheer and great fun . . .

Back at our house, we all gathered and prepared for the traditional feast . . .

Meredith and Clyde took pictures of Sofia in her beautiful holiday dress, hoping to capture the perfect Christmas card image. How could they miss with such a cute subject . . .

A person can only be so tolerant with all this picture taking . . .

Hanging out . . .

Elizabeth brought champagne and visited for a while. Mom brought the pies. Meredith, Clyde and Sof took care of the vegatables. Sofia helped me mash the potatoes and Clyde carved the bird.

YUM . . .

Christmas Snoopy came to kick off the Christmas season, and he and Sofia rubbed noses in greeting . . .

Relaxing after a full and lovely day . . .

Clyde and I are so incredibly fortunate to have our health and a happy life. We are most thankful for all of the people in our lives who we love, whether or not they were with us on this particular day.

BUSY WEEKEND

We had a busy, fun weekend. On Friday night we made an excursion to hear Clyde play in a Davis community production of "Amahl and the Night Visitors". It welcomed ticketholders with Christmas carolers in the lobby and the evening put us in the spirit of the upcoming holiday season.

On Saturday, Meredith, Clyde and Sofia came up to Roseville for the morning. We had breakfast together and then headed off down the street to Darlene and Jon's house, where Darlene was hosting an open studio as part of Placer County's Autumn Art Tour. . .
Darlene explained and demonstrated some of the techniques she uses in creating her pieces and she encouraged Sofia to try her hand with colored pencils,

and a cookie . . .

The guys . . .

This is "Happy Village" which we fell in love with and bought . . .

This is where "Happy Village" now proudly hangs at our house . . .

We visited a few other studios and bought this print of a cycling pelaton. We loved the colors and the depiction of movement, and it represents our love of the sport . . .

Here's where it now hangs . . .

Today, Sunday, Scribner Bend Vinyard on the delta hosted an event to introduce their new port. Sofia, Clyde and Meredith and Clyde and I spent the morning food and wine tasting, listening to lovely, live music and enjoying the beautiful grounds and the perfect weather . . .

Sofia had her own version of grape juice . . .

Great weekend.

CELEBRATING OUR NEW DINING ROOM FURNITURE