Just Another New Year's Eve

I'm excited for New Years Eve. We will be celebrating with our friends & neighbors - as we do each year. I've already set the table for our extravaganza. Can't wait to spend a fun evening together filled with good food, good drink, and always lots of laughter!

Surprise Snow Showers

Salem was surprised today by the amount of snow that showered upon us. Portland was even more surprised! Many commuters were still on the I-5 freeway at 11pm. I'm SO glad we were home safe and sound.

A pair of squirrels took cover on our deck for a short while!

We Saw...

photo from upintheairtrailer.com

The movie "Up in the Air" today. It was really quite good. Of course, I'm very partial to George Clooney. (Known to all my family and friends as "my George"!)

Richard and I enjoyed the movie and our visit to the newest theater in Salem, Cinebarre. We liked the service and the food. We will definitely go back to this theater again.

Wishing "my George" good luck at the Golden Globes this awards season.

Movie Time

photo from moviecarpet.com

We saw the movie "Avatar" today. When I originally saw the previews I wasn't very interested in seeing the movie. But having heard from people that saw it - and hearing all of the reviews, we decided to go. Well worth the time and money. It was quite a bit better than I expected. I think it's another "win" for James Cameron. It should most certainly win all of the Visual Effects awards this year.

Christmas Day

We didn't take a lot of photos. Not exactly sure why. Probably too busy opening presents and enjoying our day. We had a wonderful Christmas filled with love and family. Went to dinner at Richard's sister's house. Had a delicious dinner with the family. Then back home to relax and watch some movies on our new Blue-Ray that Santa brought for us. Thanks Santa!

Before the presents were opened
Our niece, Holly and beautiful Canon
Kelly, Richards Sister, and our niece Erin

From our home to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. We hope your day was beautiful and bright!

Quilting Time

This is the quilt that I made for our newest grand-nephew Canon. His mom is our niece, Holly. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm giving it to Holly for their Christmas present. I hope she likes the pattern and colors!

Christmas Brunch

We hosted a Christmas Brunch this morning with our friends Kerry, Dodi, Rob and Scott in attendance. Fun was had by all - complete with tons of laughter, lots of good food, and full bellies.

Kerry & Dodi

Rob & Scott

The Whole Gang

JJ was taking the photos... things got a little silly towards the end!

My Friend Laura...

...and I got together tonight to visit and exchange Christmas presents. I am so excited about the present she gave me.

It is a cookbook that contains recipes from Mother's Bistro & Bar - one of my favorite Portland restaurants.

I can't wait to try these recipes. I'd venture to guess that many of them are going to make it on to my recipe blog - Gumbo YaYa.

Taking a Brief Break...

...during the holidays from writing my weekly Sentimental Sunday posts.
We are having so much fun preparing for Christmas and visiting with family and friends... something's got to give. We'll still do postings of our gatherings and Christmas, but just need to put these on the back burner for now.

Hope everyone is enjoying the season! Happy Holidays to all of our blogging buddies!

Brrr....

It's been extremely cold in Salem the past week. And when I say cold - I mean FREEZING cold! We're talking 10 degrees in the morning. That's frigid!!

The fountains around town have frozen solid. Here a couple of pictures "for your enjoyment"!

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Those are NOT suds in the fountain... that is ice - SOLID ICE!

Oh Christmas Tree - Sentimental Sunday No. 37

As I write this, I’ve just finished decorating our Christmas Tree. It’s quite a process that I usually spread out over a couple of days. When each ornament is unwrapped I am flooded with memories of Christmas’ past. There are ornaments from my childhood – and one that belonged to my Dad when he was a boy. There are ornaments collected since Richard and I married, and some that belong specifically to J.J. Each one has a story and most are quite unique.

I remember tree decorating with my parents. Dad strung the lights and Mom and I decorated. I even recall the year that Mom “redecorated the tree” after I had already decorated it! Wow - way to bruise a girls self confidence! Ha Ha...

Today I do most of the decorating alone. Richard and JJ help a little and love looking at the tree – but they aren’t very enthusiastic about the work involved in decorating it. But, that’s OK. I’m pretty persnickety about the ornaments and their placement. I would probably take a page out of my Moms book and be rearranging the ornaments when they weren’t looking.

Another YaYa Christmas

Fun was had by all the Ya Ya sister's tonight.
We celebrated Brenda's birthday

as you can see from her cake - she's only 29!

We exchanged our homemade Christmas presents.

We ate great food, had lots of laughs and ended the evening with delicious cake.

Another perfect evening for the YaYa Sister's!

I'm Very Excited...

...to share the news that I was quoted in an article for our local "Salem Monthly" magazine. Click here to read the article "Eating with the Eyes First". The photo featured in the article is mine, from my recipe blog "Gumbo Ya Ya". It is of my Grandma Julia's Pumpkin Pie. I think she would be pretty darned proud of her granddaughter today!