New Year's Eve, Part I

 Stace and Violet took a New Year's Eve walk at Placerita Canyon Park, to check out the river since we've had so much rain lately. 

They had a great time together.

Meanwhile, Cora and I helped Melanie with a wedding in Malibu.

Cora was on napkin-folding duty here.

Post Christmas

Following time-honored English tradition - or at least Stacey tradition - we took a walk on Boxing Day.

Sadly, Cora no longer enjoys going for walks or hiking. It's like pulling teeth to get her to join. She prefers doing D&D stuff at home, inside. I hope she changes back to the outdoorsy girl she used to be, as she continues to grow up.

Anyway, we had a nice time together at Quigley Canyon.

Violet enjoyed her Christmas presents - she made a crystal hedgehog, and she carved her soapstone elephant that Nan and Pop sent her. She then used Christmas money to buy another soapstone carving kit.

Stace was off the week after Christmas. We got a lot of rain that week!

Violet and Stace worked on sailing a little boat down our gutter river.

Stace grew another beard, and then shaved an interesting facial hair look before going cleanshaven.

A cooper's hawk has discovered our bird feeder! See it here on the fence? 
 

Cora captured this photo a couple of days later, the hawk hanging out in the bush near the feeder. 

Christmas 2021

Christmas Day! 

The main course - we didn't think to take a photo of all the side dishes and the ham, but here is the BEEF.

We shared a laugh because most of Stace's presents were not...um...present. The girls and I wrapped up heavy, random things, so it wouldn't feel like he was opening *nothing* at all, and included a note on what he could be expecting next week.

Violet generously bought Cora a Dungeons and Dragons Critical Role book she was very much hoping for.

Cora painted this for me, with the logo of a favorite television show, The Chosen.

Violet painted a wood slice with a cartoon-like image of Grandpa's doggies, Benny and Summer.

Happy Ellie!

More gift fun.

Merry Christmas!
 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve! Stace was home, and we all made it to church. 

Thankful and blessed to celebrate Christ and His coming to earth to bring us to God.

And a silly picture - because the "real" picture is easier to get if silly pictures happen, too.

Seasonal Tidbits

The girls were out of school this week, so we had a bit of fun with cookie baking. 

Melanie and Ellie came over and brought all the supplies; I supplied the larger kitchen and dining table. 

Stace is ready for Christmas - his work cubicle featured this lovely fireplace this week.

Stace made a big batch of sausage rolls to take to work on the last day before his Christmas week off.

The changing weather has brought lovely color to some of our trees. Here's our liquidambar in the back yard - it looks brighter than I've ever seen! 

 

Stace and I spotted these on a walk - I love seeing the colors!

Riley's Christmas Dinner

We traveled back in time to Colonial Virginia on Saturday, when we thoroughly enjoyed our dress-up Christmas dinner at Riley's Farm in Oak Glen.

Here, Cora is being helped into her shoes, which came with our clothing rental. I can't use the word "costume," because our outfits were completely authentic to the period! Getting outfitted was a process, and we had help, with all the fitting and tying and pinning (no zippers on our gowns!). 

When we were all dressed and ready, we went into the pub, where we truly were stepping back in time. Seeing everyone all dressed in the period wear added immensely to the atmosphere! We had appetizers, and then went back outside to the farm's axe-throwing are for a competition. The winner got an apple pie!

It was cold in the foothills, with a bit of snow still on the ground from a midweek storm. We were glad for our wool shawls.

 

Yes, Stace was able to wear a British Redcoat! We had submitted very detailed measurements for all four of us, and when we did so, I mentioned that Stace was English and he'd love to wear one. We knew they had them because when we went last year, we saw the Revolutionary War reenactments.

The employees were all tickled to see Stace, too, a real Englishman, wearing his real Redcoat.

The lighting inside was also authentic - meaning, not so bright! Lots of candles, no LED or other lightbulbs.

The costumer created Cora's gorgeous emerald dress for the occasion, and she and the other employees were also eager to see it in action. Cora looked gorgeous!

Our food was delicious, and came in several courses. We also had some dinner theater, with Mr. Riley playing Patriot Patrick Henry; live music; and group carol singing and a reading of the Christmas story from Luke in a replica 18th Century Bible.

Cheers!

Look at the size of this chicken pot pie!  We learned by watching Tudor Farm that meat pies were made in this fashion back before pie pans were common.

We actually took most of the pie home, and enjoyed it for dinner Sunday. We had so much food Saturday! The bread pudding for dessert was especially yummy.

After dinner came the dancing. We were led in a couple of formal 18th Century dances, and then the floor was opened to normal dancing.

We had been looking forward to this special evening for a full year, after we tried to buy tickets for last year's Colonial Christmas dress-up event and they had sold out in October.

(Riley's holds the Christmas dinner on many December evenings, but only one night a year is designated as the dress-up occasion.)

I bought these tickets nearly a full year ago, during a New Year sale. Riley's is a long way from our house - two hours without traffic - and I so wish it were closer so we could go more often to their various dinner theater events.

It was a special festive night, one we'll never forget!

Here I give an explanation to my complicated clothing.

Week in Review

On Sunday evening, I enjoyed a fabulous few hours with these beauties. I'm blessed with some awesome friends.

This was the girls' last week of school before Christmas break.

The photo here makes me happy and sad at the same time. It represents the first Christmas celebration at school that I wasn't able to help with or even attend, for elementary school, and it was Violet's last one.

I love her teacher, but she didn't want parent helpers at the class party. And she doesn't send photos of classroom activities, as most of Violet's teachers have done. 

Here, Vi is exchanging gifts with her kindergarten "buddy." I lucked out that another mom and I were chatting, and her daughter is IN the kindergarten class that Violet's class is buddied with. She graciously took this photo for me, so I can use it in Violet's 6th grade yearbook.

We gave Violet's buddy beyblades (a toy), and he gave her a very nice art kit. She was very appreciative!

Signs of the season - the trees on my favorite Summit walk are again decorated for Christmas!

On Wednesday night, Violet's KidZone/Pioneer Club group had a bake sale to raise money for charity. These two cuties sold a lot of cookies!

On Thursday, Violet's class performed their hip hop routine, as the end of their hip hop unit. A special teacher had come in weekly for the last few months to teach them.

The kids seem to either love or hate this experience. Both of mine hated it.

But Violet was lucky - her group did one routine all together as a class, and then her group of four kids did another short routine on their own. 

When Cora did it, the whole performance was MUCH longer, and the kids were called up individually in a sort of "dance off" fashion.