Baking

I am baking along here, trying to add my part to the holiday celebrations.  Here is a photo showing a sample of what I am doing this year.  It includes the annual toffee, ginger snaps (both with and without chocolate topping), chocolate dipped macaroons, pumpkin chocolate chip chookies, and the new kid on the block: shortbread cookies topped with chocolate and crushed candy canes.  Not shown, but maybe in a future post, are the mini-cinnamon roll cookies.  Later today I will be making Candy Cane Cookies with Chocolate Mints (Jr. Mints) and Red Velvet Cookies.  Stay tuned for how they turned out and I will share the recipe for the shortbread cookies which are really easy, but my version is an aggregate of a couple of recipes so I need to pay attention to how I did it this next time and write it down so it can be duplicated.

37: the latest lucky number

I suppose not many would think of 37 as a lucky number, but this year it is mine.  Last year it was 36.  So you can probably see where this is leading . . . . 37 years ago I was the lucky man who married Joanne Ottley.  And every year since has been a great blessing in my life to have such a wonderful, eternal, companion.  We celebrated today by just spending the day together doing stuff.  We took a walk this morning, then went around to various places and looked into moving our renovation project down the road a bit.  It was real joy just to be together.  Later this evening we went to Rocklyn to pick up a hitch bike rack that I found through Craig's List.  It was less than half the price of a new one, and in excellent shape.  So we can now throw the bikes on the back of the Honda and go different places to ride.  And because of where we went to pick up the hitch we got the added benefit of going around Pebble Creek Drive & Strand Road to see some of the most incredible Christmas light displays.  Then we went out to dinner at a great restaurant: Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ.  The food was great and the service was incredible.  I highly recommend it.

The stunningly beautiful sunset.

Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ - fortunately we had some left over and now have "take out" in the fridge.

The inside says "Still crazy about you."  So I may be crazy, but I'm crazy about the sweetest girl around.

The Return of Mrs. Claus

The other night we attended the annual Ward Christmas Dinner.  It was a lot of fun.  The program was well done and there was plenty of food and good company.  We of the HP Group had a hand in providing the food, assisted by many who cooked up the enchiladas and rice.  The chicken enchiladas were delicious, as were the tamales, refried beans, chips and salsa, and our favorite arroz blanco con vegetales.  But before the dinner there was lots of entertainment for the kiddies in the form of Santa Claus in one room for candy distribution and photo ops, and Mrs. Claus in another room reading books to the young ones and generally instilling a modicum of calm.  Here are some photos of us with Santa along with Mrs. Claus in action.

And Vice Versa

Last year mom bought a Ford Taurus, but it has been giving her some problems since we got back in town (and maybe before), and she has offered on a couple of occasions that it was a bit bigger than she cared to drive.  After it refused to start as we left Church on Sunday, we decided it was time to move on.  So yesterday we went to Dow Lewis Motors to see what they could do for us.  We looked at a pretty good variety of sedans, including a Chevy, a Toyota Corolla, and a Ford Focus.  And, of course, the car she ended up buying: a nice little Nissan Versa.  She test drove the Toyota and the Nissan, and they let her take the latter home overnight to make sure she liked it.  She did, and today she bought the Versa.  She was well cared for by Murray and they gave her a good deal, as well as giving her close to the maximum value for her trade-in Ford (based on my review of Kelly Blue Book).  They also pretty much just transferred over the extended warranty she had on the Ford to the Nissan.  So she has a good little car now and got it for a good price.  And best of all, she is happy about it.  Here are a couple of photos.

Thanksgiving Day

We had quite the fun Thanksgiving Day.  We got to hang out briefly with Peter O. & Leigh-Ann, and more extensively with James and family.  As we reflected upon our last couple of Thanksgiving Day celebrations we were saddened to not be gathered with those we love in El Salvador, but we did get a nice dinner down the street at Uncle Peter's.  We got stuffed instead of the bird.  We are thankful to them for the nice dinner.  Here are some photos of the day.

 To work up an appetite some of us went on a hike down to the river to look at the rapids.  here are a couple of photos of my nephew's sons.  They are plenty photogenic and have obviously been trained well by their mother how to look good in pictures.  We are glad to have Chris & Family living in California now.

 Y abajo tenemos los viejitos con los barbudos.

So why is it that the tall family got even taller kids, while the short family got shorter?

What we've been up to.

Baby, it's cold outside.

We have been experiencing a real cold snap here.  The lows have been pretty consistently in the 20's for some days now and it is predicted to continue.  In fact, this last Saturday there was a bit of snow mixed in with the rain for a time.  Nothing stuck, but what fun!  This photo shows the frost on the compost pile awaiting my return to yard work.

It's beginning to look like Christmas.

Yes, we have our tree and it is up.  There are even lights on it.  These are the lights we used on our tree in El Salvador the last two Christmases and we love the way they twinkle.  One of these days we will put the rest of the ornaments on.

 And the lights are up outside.

This also happened before it got really cold . . . or else it would still be waiting to be done.  Also responsible is Peter O., who kept me motivated through the whole job.  I even got a trip to the hardware store out of it.

And a wreath on othe door.

I love Christmas wreaths and have been begging to buy one every time I go to the hardware store (which is just about as often as I can come up with a reason to go).  But I was told we have one already, although a synthetic one.  But it looks great anyway.

 

 We also got to spend some time in Elk Grove this past week tending our granddaughter.  She got to dress up in my hat and scarf.

 And we let her play outside in the sandpile.  Don't let the sunshine fool you, it was colder than a brass monkey out there.  Grandma braved the cold all bundled up, but grandpa stayed inside.  Notice that she has no shoes on.  She must be related to that little girl who went wading in the Boise River recently.

And of course I found some time while someone was taking a nap to get in some reading.  That is a fascinating book I have there, but that is another blog post.

Fun in Elk Grove

About a week ago our ward had a sealing session assignment at the temple, so Grandma Hall, Peter O., Leigh-Ann & I all went to participate.  It was a great morning with lots of folks in attendance.  Afterwards, as we were in the "neighborhood", James and Sabrina were gracious in inviting us to their home for lunch.  The grilled chicken was delightful, as was the company.

A good morning in the temple.

James' award winning jack-o-lantern.

They got a new back yard!

Peter and Chelsea playing ball.

Listening? to the coach.

Kickin' it.

Looking out the back window.

 They had just acquired something that came in a big box, and grandpa could not resist making something of it.  Actually, there were two big boxes, and I had the idea to join them together but ran out of motivation, so I just set them side by side.

Out the other.

In one door.

My birthday gift from the southern Halls - yummmm.

Thanks for the great day.

Coop finally completed

Well, the chickens are getting big enough to lay pretty soon, so I finally got back to adding the egg collection door in the rear.  Three of the eleven chicks turned out to be of the male variety that are illegal in the City, so they have departed.  The other eight are beautiful and should keep us all in eggs once they get producing.

Fifth Avenue Theatre

While in WA we all piled into our car and went to downtown Seattle to watch a musical presentation of Second Hand Lions.  Withholding comment on the production, I will say that the theatre was beautiful.  And it was obvious that a lot of effort had been put into the production.  Looking at the line up of shows, this looks like a place I would probably frequent if I lived in the area.

The place was really ornate.  This is the dragon in the ceiling.

A close up of the dragon and the peacocks surrounding it.

Very ornate chandeliers as well.

We had great seats, up in the balcony, but down toward the front of it.

Riding the Ferry

Now back to Washington.

I believe when I was young we went on a ferry somewhere, maybe across the SF Bay.  All I remember was that it was very cool and that I wanted to do it again.  While visiting in WA we had a chance to do just that as we took the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston.  This time we left our car parked and just walked on board.  But it was still really a great trip.  Just going along for the ride, we did not spend much time in Kingston, just long enough to get some great ice cream at Mora Ice Cream.  They had so many flavors that looked good that I could not make up my mind and had to have 4 of them on my cup (2 scoops split in half).  Although I about froze to death eating it, it was really good.  We stopped at Ivar's for some good fish on the way home.  The only disappointment of the day was that I did not take a photo of a "onsie" inscribed with, "There's a nap for that."  As one who is well acquainted with the restorative benefits of naps, I thought that was a great message.  It wasn't until a few days later that I got the real joke that has more to do with apps than naps.  But enough about my "thickness", here are some photos of our day:

Looking through the fog toward Kingston.  Not much to see to get started.

As we approached, however, the fog lifted so we could see our destination.

Disembarking at the pier.  The fog lifted even more as long as we were there, then settled back in.

On the way back this interesting rainbow appeared of the front of the ferry as we plowed through the water back to Edmonds.

We came back on the Spokane, but went over on the other ferry, the Puyallup.

This is the top deck - very windy and cold up here.

The Puyallup.  Looks a lot like the one we were on. ;)

Looking back at Kingston.  As we left the fog gathered again, but the Olympic Range in the background looks impressive.

Pulling into port in Edmonds.  You can see the water being kicked up be the reverse of the engines.

A better sight than the coast of Kingston.

It was exceedingly windy right in that spot, making all of the few hairs I have left on top stand straight up.  Everybody got quite a kick out of this.

Our wonderful tour guides.

On the way back it was even more windy and cold out on the bow of the ferry.  What a fun day!

Downtown Edmonds - quite a nice little town actually.  This is a fountain in a roundabout.  Did I ever mention how much I like roundabouts?  They really are great.  And this one has a structure that appears to have escaped from Rivendell.