Redmond, Part II

On Wednesday, Stace and Violet made crepes and banana sauce in the morning. Yum.

Cora went mushroom foraging - Aunt Patty has learned a lot about this ancient pastime, and has books on the subject.

Later, Stace and I went out shopping and had a date, while the girls stayed home to bake.

They baked pies for Thanksgiving, and mini pies for an afternoon treat.

Later Wednesday, Anna and Will came over for pizza night, along with Anna's mom, and later, Alison and Tyler.

We all had brought different types of hard cider, mostly Washington varieties since they are America's apple-growing state. Perfect for a taste test! Cheers!

The girls made s'mores over the fire, since it was too cold to make one outside.

And we all collaborated on a puzzle of Paris I'd picked up at Costco.

Done!

We then had a very late night, playing fun new-to-us games. It was so fun hanging out with my much-younger cousins and their spouses, and getting to know them in a new way, as adults. Cora and Violet LOVED hanging out with them, and especially loved getting to stay up until 1:30!

California Christmas

 We are off to England for Christmas, and Melanie and Nick are heading back East on Tuesday to celebrate with his family. 

Therefore, we held our California family Christmas on Saturday, with food, fun, gifts and a cider-making contest.

Along with Grandma, Grandpa, Mel and Nick, we were joined by Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty.

 Stace and I had the girls open some of their gifts from us on Saturday, and we'll take some others to England. We let them open up their newest Beanie Boos, a sparkly dolphin for Violet and a raccoon for Cora.

 Cora experienced the joy of watching others open her gifts to them - she gave me a necklace with bird pendant, because I love bird-spotting, and to Stace she gave a bag of one of his favorite treats.

















You spend money on gifts, and all they want to play with is the box - or bag.

Spence and Seb received some lovely gifts, too, from Grandma and Grandpa. We were reminded how much Spencer loves catnip!

 The other fun of the evening involved fermented apple juice. Bill and Patty, and Stacey, spent hours juicing apples to create their blends, which then fermented for weeks.

On the day of the contest, a surprise entry came in, from my mom.

Nick, Melanie and my Dad participated in a blind tasting, and each chose a different brew. Therefore, a new judge was needed. Because Stace, me, Bill and Patty knew the tastes of the ciders too well to judge, we brought in my mom.

To her later shame, she (unknowingly) chose her own cider as the winner.

You can see Bill's shock and horror when he removed the label from the bottle brought in by my parents, only to find ANOTHER label. It was store-bought!

We all had a good laugh, and my mom went home with the coveted tin mug that represents the cider-contest trophy.

Cider Making

 Last month, Uncle Bill reissued his cider-making challenge to the family. We eagerly accepted, and are well on our way to nearly two gallons of the hard stuff.

We bought a gallon jug of juice, but when Stace's coworker offered him a big bag of homegrown apples, Stace decided we'd mix in home-pressed juice.

He used a high-powered blender to turn the apples into mush, and then rebuilt the press.

The girls enjoyed helping, by tightening the crank on the car jack. (Redneck? Naaaaah.)

Within the bucket is the the apple mash in a net bag.

Yum! Now we have a quart of juice for the girls to enjoy, and nearly two gallons fermenting. Next month, we'll taste, enjoy, and maybe even win a taste test.

Last few days together

 Stace eagerly broke open his latest cider creation. This time, he skipped making his own apple juice, using store-bought instead.

Similar to last year, Stace was the biggest fan of his brew.

 On Boxing Day, we took Nan and Pop to Mentryville for a walk. It was peaceful and beautiful, with perfect weather for a hike.

We were happy the weather cooperated so completely, with the SoCal sun shining warmly each day of their visit. It made a welcome change from the flooding back home.

 The only fox or coyote we saw on our jaunt was the one perched on my shoulder.

 Before our walk, Cora exchanged her long-awaited Flutterbye Fairy in for a gift card at Toys R Us. This toy had been No. 1 on her list, and she was so pleased to open it Christmas evening.

But after a few flights Christmas night and a few more the next morning, it stopped working. Stace, Fixer of All Things, took it apart and found the gears were stripped.

When we returned it, the employee noted that they had already had lots and lots of the fairies returned that morning. For most of the day, that was little consolation to Cora, who was so disappointed that the toy that looked so cool flying in the commercials would break so quickly.

It's a tough lesson, and one we all have had to learn.

 Cora and Violet also made and decorated a gingerbread house-in-a-pan with Nan.
This was high on Cora's list of Christmas things-to-do with Nan and Pop here.

Also on the list was a hot chocolate-fueled trip to the lights at Wakefield Court, which sufficiently "wowed" them. We also drove them around to some more "normal" neighborhoods with nice lights, and they loved those too. 

 Speaking of hot chocolate, Violet enjoyed hers at the mall on one of our several shopping trips with Nan and Pop. Stace was a trooper, spending more time at the mall in one week than he had the prior two years.

Violet had to try on these amazing leopard pumps.

Our time with Sue and Gord was amazing. Sadly, they could only stay a week, and the time passed by quickly. But, on the positive side, their week here coincided with Stace's week off from work. It was lovely to be together all week, a real vacation in our own home.

Giving Thanks, Drinking Cider

 

Our family Thanksgiving celebration this year included a cider-making competition, as you loyal blog-followers already know. Above, we have the label Cora made. Nice work, don't you think? 

(A Violetism story from the art-table photo - Violet motioned to the hole puncher and asked, "Have you used these before, Mummy?" With her cute raspy toddler voice, it struck me as such a mature, articulate question.)

 Here are the Thanksgiving cooks, in Bill and Patty's new house. We certainly feasted on some delicious food!

The company was great, too. Nick, Melanie's boyfriend, joined us, as did Bill and my mom's brother Bob, and cousin Elizabeth and Jerry.







After filling our bellies, we went for a walk and just missed the sunset, but caught a nice view of dusk over the Pacific. Bill and Patty's new house is walking distance to the beach in an incredible neighborhood. They are so blessed! And so are we!

 

When we returned, it was cider time. You can see the small cups, set out for a blind taste test. Sadly for Stacey, Elizabeth and Jerry's cider took home the prize mug. Stace attributes our loss to the fact that our American judges aren't accustomed to traditional hard English apple cider. He has a point. Our cider was definitely a proper English cider, alcoholic, and very dry. We enjoyed it more when a bit of apple juice (as a sweetener) was added in. Still, the experience was a lot of fun and we're looking forward to doing it again next year.