Christmas in Portland 2010

I love Christmas because it is time for the family to be together and have fun. We were so busy doing that. We went to Christmas Eve service at Chris & Jess's church. Then was came back to their house and had our traditional tamales dinner with Jess's parents joining us. Earlier on Christmas Eve, we took Maryn and Lucy to our hotel for a swim. They loved that. While some of us were at the pool, Chris and Don worked on the bathroom plumbing. After 4 trips to the hardware store, they actually fixed it. (That's amazing because Don hates plumbing) When we returned, Chris focused on his computer that crashed earlier in the morning. Another miracle happened. With the help of a friend of Laurel's and two trips to Best Buy, Chris was able to replace the power source and the computer worked. Chris said he couldn't imagine that both of these big projects could be fixed on Christmas Eve. It was a good Christmas Eve for him. The girls also had fun opening some of their gifts. Then there was the horseracing game that Maryn won. What a wonderful Christmas Eve.

The next morning the we arrived at the Portland Ballanti's early and watched more opening of gifts. It was fun to see the girl so excited about their presents. At 11 we gathered for Christmas brunch. We had exotic fruit provided by Laurel, Nancy's Egg Dish and Christmas Bread made by Jess and smoky links. Yum! Jess's family including her brother Tom and his wife Brit, who just flew in joined us. This was great family time.


Later in the day, we had an outstanding Prime Rib for dinner at Kathy & Doug's house. This was a great Christmas! Check out the pictures for a glance of our Christmas.

Here are Chris and Laurel.
This is Doug working on his fabulous meal. Check out that hunk of meat!

This was the table all set for brunch on Christmas Eve.

Oh, here is the plumbing and computer projects. I can't leave those out.

Here is Maryn all set up for "horse" racing.

This is Matt with Eli. Chris and Jess used to live with Matt and Jess in Carpenteria. I was glad to meet their new addition. Here is Maryn busy with her leapster Explorer.

Oh, and I had to include the picture of everyone playing bananagrams.

And here are two of my favorite girls dressed in their costumes that Santa brought them.

It was a very Merry Christmas!

Early "Christmas Eve" in Southern California

This was our Southern California Christmas aka Tamale Party aka Meet Claire for the first time.
We had a wonderful party at Katie and Kevin's. I'm just sharing a few of the pictures. We opened lots of presents and ate lots of wonderful food and got to see cute babies, happy children and a wonderful family.
Here is the first tamale dinner. Notice that Erica got the "special" tamale with the M&M's in it. Here is Grandpa Smylie with 3 or his 4 grandchildren. I think DB was holding Claire at this time. Megan got a few princess outfits for Christmas.

Here is papa Kevin with the very quiet star of the show. I think we all got a chance to hold sweet Claire.

Maureen thinks that Claire looks like Steven and after looking at a baby picture of Steven, I think she might be right.

Merry Christmas to you from Carol and Don

Every year I try to send out a Christmas Letter filled with all the things we have been up to during the year, but if you scan my blog, you will get the idea about what we have been up to. I love pictures, so I post them often. I've posted lots of trips and things we like to do. What the pictures don't say is that I'm so thankful for our family. As we celebrate the birth of Christ, I am so thankful for all He has giving us.

Chris and his family are doing great. Chris continues to work at Standard Insurance. Jess is a wonderful daughter-in-law who makes sure that Maryn and Lucy talk to us often. She is also a wonderful and creative mother. Maryn and Lucy constantly entertain us. They are sweet and adorable. They have been to California 4 times this year and that makes us very happy. We will go up to Portland for Christmas. So, there is always a chance we will have a White Christmas.

Laurel is doing great. She recently moved to a great place in Berkeley. She continues to work at a software company and is an amazing jock. She gets up at 5 AM a couple of mornings a week to go to "boot camp" where she is on staff. She is constantly busy, loves to travel and having a great time. She managed to spend 2 1/2 weeks in Maui while her Maui cousin toured the mainland. She is a great housesitter and loves to have fun. She also rowed the Rogue River this summer. It's fun to see her thriving.

Don and I seem to be stuck in a fairly predictable rut. Now, that's not a bad thing. We work, volunteer, play, walk, talk about aches and pains, take trips, skype and eat more things than our aging bodies should. But, Life is Good and we feel very blessed. This picture should be of Don fishing because that is what he loves to do and he does it often. But, I loved this picture of us cross country skiing at near Bader Pass in Yosemite.

Here is the recipe that I always love to include in my Christmas greatings. It is a simple but delicious cookie recipe. We make this in the kitchen at church and it is always a success. If you need me to email this to you, just let me know. I hope you like like. By browning the butter, it gets a really nice flavor.

BROWN SUGAR COOKIES

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter (10 Tbs plus 4 Tbs Separated)
1¾ cups packed dark brown sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (about 10 2/3 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Combine for rolling cookie dough in before baking.
¼ Cup Brown Sugar
¼ Cup White sugar

1. Melt 10 tablespoons of the butter in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring the pan constantly until the butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer browned butter to a large heat proof bowl. Stir in the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into hot butter to melt. Set aside for 15 minutes. . Add 1 ¾ Brown Sugar to cooled Butter mixture.
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Beat Sugar Butter Mixture until there are no lumps. Beat in Egg and extra yolk and vanilla. Mix for about 30 seconds until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture and mix until combined, about 1 minute.
4. Scoop into 1 ½ in balls and roll in white & brown sugar mixture. Put on parchment. Tap down a bit.
5. Bake at 350 for 12 to 14 minutes. Centers should be cracker but look raw in between the cracks.

Dolores First Birthday on the Intrepid

Today I celebrated Dolores's first birthday on her new sail boat with her. What a picture perfect day in December to have a boat party. Evelyn and I were able to join her for a fun little celebration at the Berkeley Marina.
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOLORES! ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
Here is Dolores with her Olson 25~

It just makes my day when I see Great Egrets flying right by me.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a snowy Thanksgiving at our cabin. I don't remember it being this cold at the cabin before. But, we had a wonderful time with Steve and Debbie. It was just the 4 of us, but it was very pleasant. The guys got to fish and Debbie and I got to visit and relax. It was a wonderful winter wonderland. Or Don would point out that it was a fall wonderland, as it isn't winter yet. Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are bless with so much to be thankful for. Here are picture of our new outdoor sport, "Pond bowling". Steve and Don tried to see who could toss the snowball across the pond. It added a bit a competition to our weekend.

Here we are on the back porch on Thanksgiving. They had to shovel snow so we could BBQ the turkey on the back porch.