As our tradition is, we start out Christmas morn' refueling with the Great Tommy Burgers chili burgers and chili fries!!
Nothing says Christmas like a Tommy burger!
Cleaning up, I noticed how sparkling clean Taylor's room was, great job Taylor!
But what did you do with all the car seats, parts and equipment that was in here?
Nevermind, I see where! Oh, Sean, you weren't even gone a couple days. . .
People arriving, Dan. . . wow! What a surprise, and get that turkey roasting on the grill!!
The party crackers opened and dinner is on, the party goes wild!
Hi everyone who got seats at the big table!
Mom's got a great joke, "what's worse than a giraffe with a sore throat?". . . Pat yells out an elephant with a runny nose? No, she says, " a centipede with sore feet."
As I've shared before, Taylor has been doing photo shoots for his class. (these are photos of the photos, can't upload the 35mm, so quality is much better, actually)
This one he actually shot at the same place as the photo booth I blogged earlier. Just as a portrait. He liked it so much that he printed it. I though it was great too. (That's me in the background. He wanted movement there.) It was the end of the day, can you tell by Terry's expression? His professor loved it. He wanted a copy to use in his
class next semester. Another professor saw it and also wanted a copy. He's seen Taylor in the darkroom working on photos and asked him to take his class next semester. Now, Taylor has been asking professors for approval to get these classes specifically for art majors. He's got an "in" now! He's booked, though with his major next semester. I'm so impressed! This next portrait his professor also loved! It's got imperfections all through it . . . done on purpose in the darkroom! You can't even appreciate the lines running across it that are stamped onto the negative, suggested by the professor. Art! I guess!?
We dropped off Grandma the other night. This is what we found in front of her house. Now, she has complained to us before about inconsiderate neighbors doing this, but I'd never seen it quite like this! She lives next to the steps and these people bring up the cans for pick up the next day. Unfortunately, only about 1/2 of them ever go away! They leave them there all the time because they don't want to drag them up and down the stairs. The city has cited them, but they never go away!
We have a family tradition of going to church Sunday morning followed by going out to breakfast/brunch.
When you have a birthday, you get to choose the restaurant-anyone, your favorite. And you choose anything on the menu.
Of course, when the kids were kids, this was a very big deal. They felt like a King.
Sean had a bithday in Sept. However, his choice was the Empress Pavillion for dim sum. Unfortunately, he has Senior Design on Sunday and had to hurry to school on Sunday. You don't hurry dim sum! This Sunday was his first Sunday off, this being a Holiday weekend, so off we went to Chinatown.
We got in without a wait! Usually, a minimum of 1-2 hrs is the wait. And we got a seat near the kitchen, usually in most restaurants not desireable, but not for dim sum.
The hot dishes come out of the kitchen and you just ask what it is and either order it or pass it until something you want comes by. This was pot stickers! A winner!
We had tea, rice, pot stickers, chinese broccoli, a chicken noodle thing, a shrimp and pork dumpling, ooh so good, scallop dumpling, it was so wonderful and fun!
Don't these look yummy!!
Grandma at Sunday brunch is another family tradition added about 10 years ago. She was having a great time!
I was just getting ready to post and WOW!! What was that?? Oh yeah, the space shuttle just landed at Edwards Air Force Base and broke the sound barrier! Cool, everyone in So. Cal. was just reminded of that!
Here's Maureen and Terry working on the gravy. Now this gravy has a 20+ year history of being made ever so carefully by Pat. Over the years, Maureen and I stood by year after year after year as we were so studiously taught the art of gravy making. This is the "culinary masterpiece" of the Holiday dinner. We were taking it on ourselves!!
Too thick, a little more broth, and keep stirring.
The student meets the master. . . success!! She approved.
LA got rain! Over the last 24 hours we got wet in the amount of about 2 inches of rain. That kind of rain got 1500 people evacuated and flash flood warning to go out all over the place! Thankfully, we survivied without mud slides and houses going down hillsides. So. Cal. just doesn't do well with Weather! I enjoyed it, might even get out a winter scarf!
