Week 51

Hello and Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas holiday. We had another great week last week and are now looking forward to ringing in the New Year.  It's been very rainy here and snowy in the mountains with more to come. We'll get a good snow-pack built up to help us fight the drought by the end of this month and then any rain still to come in 2022 will of course further help to buil up or resevoirs. Hopefully we can avoid the extreme dry conditions that fuel our wildfires. It sure would be nice to have a break from all that next year.

Until then take a look at how our Chrsitmas week went down:

Day 354- Monday, 12/20/21

We're home all week to enjoy time together during this season.  I finally got these snowflakes hung in the entry which should be my last decoration that needed to be taken care of.  Rusty is happy to have everyone home and is very playful.  Since losing his beloved fish he's made fast friends with this rat and is often seen carting it around--too cute.  Later I met some work friends for drinks with the ladies at a cute litte winery in Winters (picture credits go to the winery).  It was a bit of the drive for me but there was a break in storms so at least the roads were clear and the company was fun.

Day 355- Tuesday, 12/21/21

We were out running errands today which included a COVID booster for at least on of them (the other will be done next week) and then we tried out the new Nation's burger in Natomas for lunch.  It was mostly dry while we were out but windy blowing another set of storms in.  The sky looked pretty angry during the evening walk.

Day 356- Wednesday, 12/22/21

Baking day #1.  Justin helped me make fudge, rasberry thumb print cookies and sugar cookies.  Tyler also came over to help decorate the cookies and play some pool with his brothers.  The new Matrix was released today.  Thankfully it was on HBOmax so we didn't have to see it in the theater.  I just knew it wouldn't be worth a theater vist and it wasn't--got off to a slow start and just didn't live up to the hype.  John fell asleep 15 min in.  LOL!

Day 357- Thursday, 12/23/21

Not on my plan for the--getting a nail pulled out of my front tire and patched.  Gotta love the curve balls life throws you.  Baking day #2 is what was planned.  We did still manage to finish making buckeyes, tea cakes and peanut butter blossoms regardless.  Thankfully I was able to get out for a nice long walk after a good rain and a crazy day indoors. 

Day 358- Friday, 12/24/21

Happy Christmas Eve!  It was another full and busy day.  Justin delivered cookie plates in the late morning, we decorated the gingerbread house, and the advent calendars were finished. I got a nice bubbly for the last wine that will pair perfectly with our homeade pizza dinner. Tyler also popped by to grab a cookie plate for his girlfriend's family party later tonight, and while he was here we opened our traditional 1 present for Christmas Eve just before Brandon headed off to work.  It was so weird only having 1 boy home this evening.

Day 359- Saturday, 12/25/21

Merry Christmas!  I got to enjoy some alone time by the calm and peaceful tree before others stirred.  Now that they are older they value their sleep more and are in no rush to start the day.  By mid-morning they had stirred to open stockings, eat breakfast and then take turns opening presents form their piles.  Later we had a nice prime rib dinner with our traditional yourksire pudding aka popovers.  John is a master at making them and of course they turned out beautifully. We ended our day with Christmas cake and a new Grinch animated movie.  

Day 360- Sunday, 12/26/21

Today I am not cooking or baking a single thing!  It's a slow-start day in my new comfy pjs and slippers that I got for Christmas.  I also pulled together a collage of all the wine pictures I took daily from the advent calendar and somehow I'll figure out a clever way to use all the corks I kept and numbered too.  If anyone is on the fence about trying this wine calendar from Costco don't be.  It exceeded all our expectations.  There was really only one bottle that was a bit too strong for us but all the rest were great and we enjoyed the variety of different counries they all came from.

Wait!  One more:

December's Family Photo

Taken in front of the tree Christmas morning just before opening gifts.  Tyler's girfriend Lupe had to work today but joined us later for dinner and dessert.

That's it for this very busy week.  See you in the new year!