Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The weird time just before Christmas

For the last few week I have been off of school, but with the holiday almost here I really couldn't get organized to find some part-time work. So we spent our time together hiking all over Sonoma County. We did a rainy day hike in Armstrong woods down into Austin Creek Trail.



I cooked every opportunity I could. This sweet potato with pecans and goat cheese dish came from my favorite food blogger Smitten Kitchen. It made it as an appetizer for Christmas dinner and it was a hit.



We also did some mushroom hunting. This was our loot from one day out in the forest. For the following three days we made mushroom this and mushroom that. Delicious and FREE!

Mostly we have been doing some serious resting. A good nap cures all ills. Lily and Tuxedo agree.

Monday, December 13, 2010

December fun with Christmas lights.

Since August 2010, Kayla has been a steady presence in our lives. Once a week we get her for a 24 hour period from Friday night until Saturday afternoon. Since Mom is busy with six-month-old Baby B at home Kayla gets some fun just-me time with us.

In December we did do all kinds of fun things.
We discovered a free carriage ride in Rail Road Square. FREE! Thanks to all the merchants in the area she and I got to meet Willy the horse and his gracious owners.


We sang Jingle Bells and now she tells people she rode a one horse open sled. That works for me.

On another Friday we drove around our neighborhood looking for Christmas lights. Well we found four houses decorated to the max. This house has been dressed up in lights for over 40 years. Kayla and I counted 42 Christmas trees on the lawn all with lights, some twirled, some were small, it was all so fun. Her favorite was a Santa train right at the base of the big tree.


We don't decorate for Christmas, it has never been our thing. So we enjoyed the lights and enjoyed Kayla's reaction. At this house she named all the story characters, "that is Snow white, there is Pooh".

It was all smiles.

My favorite reaction was watching her dance for joy under the snow-flake making machine at the last house we visited that night.



In spite of all that snow making fun, her favorites were the angels. Kayla has a thing for angles.

Since our Friday night outing we have been looking for lights and discovered Lights of the Valley a website were you can look for and rate decorated houses in most of Northern California. The following week we made it to Walnut Court and saw more story characters.