Merry Christmas

This is the manger at Pablo's parish - Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Warner Robins

Walk Through Bethlehem

This weekend the whole family went to Warner Robins to Walk Through Bethlehem. We met up with Pablo and the six of us walked back in time. The "show" is hosted by a Baptist Church in Warner Robins, they have been doing this for 13 years!

The whole thing revolves around Jesus' birth - you go out with a guide (who is a shepherd) in a group of about 25 people and the shepherd takes you through Bethlehem, have to fill out the census card (the key way for the church to get more parishioners) and pay the tax to the Roman soldiers. Then our guide took us through the market at Bethlehem...


Spice vendors

A cart with junk


All the props are real

Bread makers (check out the little boy)

Carpenter making crosses

More real props




Candle Makers

The priests at the Temple

There were real animals, including camels

We were visiting the shepherds and the angel appeared to announce the birth of Jesus

We came around the corner and saw Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus - he was a real baby!


All of this - free. Absolutely free.

To all the Georgians out there - I highly recommend checking this out.

Happy Birthday Love!

Yesterday Norm turned 30!! Tonight we had a dinner party to celebrate his and our good friend, Jeffrey's birthday - he turned 40 on Wednesday. We had lots of appetizers, good drinks and a peruvian dinner followed by brownie sundaes. Fun times were had by all.

Tangerine

We loooooove tangerine time!



It is somewhat obvious that Cali girl requires additional training...

First Time

Usually, I'm the one that makes fun (well, not makes fun, but more like tease) people who do silly things like wear two different earrings not being aware of it (I know two people who have done this, I will keep them anonymous) or have other wardrobe malfunctions such as what I did today.



Yes - I wore one black boot and one brown boot to work today. I had to go in to work for a wedding and when I got to the parking lot and got out of my car I noticed the above. What did I do? I had a good laugh, pointed it out to my co-workers and went on with life as if nothing was weird.

After today, I am able to say: I've worn two different color shoes.

Thankful for Family, Food & Great Times

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! We were all (except for my mom) able to get together at our house and have lots and lots of food and enjoy the time together chatting and catching up.

This is what our menu consisted of:
Mrs. Lazio's clam dressing (the best in the world)

Broccoli

Corn Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole with Candied Pecans

Ham

Turkey breast (his mouth is actually very far away from it)

Croissant & Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding


Here are pictures of the day:






I might get an earful for this one, but I'll deal with that later, it's too good not to post:


I think this video might summarize it better:

A Dinning Experience

On Saturday night, Norm and I had dinner with The FourCoursemen. The FourCoursemen consist of a group of young men and women (25 - 35 years old) that throw dinner parties in Athens. They don't earn a living through this and they don't run an established restaurant. They do this totally on the side because they love food.

This is a new dining concept that is starting to creep up, you can learn more here, I think they do a better job at describing what they do than I do.

So we went on Saturday and this was our menu (click on the picture to zoom in and read all the wonderful menu items):

We had no idea what we were going to be fed before we got there. The dinner parties are usually advertised with a 24 hour window and the menu is not published - it is usually determined the morning of the dinner.

The dining room (below) can accommodate about 24 people. Unless you have a large group, you get to sit and eat with people you don't know (I'm not too fond of this part).


Here's Norm before dinner


The group is super laid back, they cook all the food themselves -
here they are getting ready for plate up.


Plating the beet salad


Norm and I after eating the beat salad (I tried taking pictures of the food, but the lighting in the room was very dim, so the food pictures did not come out...)


Getting ready for another plate up -
I think this might have been the quail


Right before each course Patrick (guy below) comes out, rings that bell to get everybody's attention, and explains the dish we are about to eat. He talks about how he came up with the dish and any other details about cooking or origin of products used.

The girl on the other side (Nancy) is the sommelier. After the dish is described, she talks about the wine pairing, history of the wine and the reason why she picked it.


This was a very fun and interesting experience. The food was excellent, so was the food presentation as well as the wine pairings. Definitely need to go again. They are just so popular that when their RSVPs open (after they send out the email invite), the dinner sells out in 1 minute... literally.

Cali Snores

Cali snoring is one of the funniest things (and very un-ladylike).

Finally I was able to catch it on video! Turn up the volume and forgive the poor quality of the video. Cali fell asleep under the computer chair (where I was sitting), due to the obvious circumstances, I couldn't get up from the chair to turn on the light and since my movement had to be limited, I had no idea of the image I was filming.

Lesson Learned

Today I learned that (non lit) incense sticks should not be laid down (for extended periods of time, i.e. 3 days) on wooden furniture. The result of such activity will be something like this:

Yeah, it screwed up the finish on the table. That's permanent. Which is not too too too bad, because I think things like these add character to furniture (just like Pellet's scratches on the coffee table). But I wanted to share it with the world just in case someone decides to lay incense sticks on furniture where additions are not welcomed.

Life in November

Well, it's November... next week we'll have a house full (well, 3 extra people, plus Norm and I plus the 2 crazy pups, that's a house full) for Thanksgiving! We haven't spent a Thanksgiving with Pablo in quite some time. This Sunday is shopping day! I have to plan it just right, I might go late at night, or I might wait until Monday to go (give them time to restock the shelves). See, here in middle Georgia, we only have one grocery store - yes, you read correctly, one grocery store. A couple of weekends ago I went grocery shopping around 2pm on a Sunday (thinking everybody is at home watching football - I don't like crowds at the grocery store) and the shelves had been depleted. It was not good.

We planted flowers last weekend! So far the dogs have not messed with them like they have in the past. I hope I did not just jinx it right then. We use this spray that smells really bad - the deer/rabbit one is worse than the dog/cat one. We just have to make a conscious effort to remember to keep spraying the pots. So now we have a stinky porch with pretty flowers...

Transition

Norm is now the Snack Bar Manager at work!

Yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

We are excited.

Not Supposed to be Happening!

This:


is not supposed to be happening! We are working on teaching the dogs that the couch in the den is off limits...

We have managed to teach them to not get on the couches in the living room... or on our bed... although sometimes there are "signs" that they have gotten away with it without us catching them.

It's tough and sometimes the energy to fight them is just not there. How can you resist this pup?

Until things get a little crazy...


Then there's Mello Pello, he's so cool

I Just Don't Understand

I was at the grocery store today - in the produce section. I stepped away from my buggy to get something, then, out of the corner of my eye I see that my buggy starts to move. So I turn quickly and notice that a lady is walking away with my buggy!!

So I say "Excuse me! Ma'am! That's my buggy!!". She looked at me, paused confused, and said she was sorry. So I grabbed my buggy and kept an eye on her and come to find out her buggy was on the other side of the produce section (nowhere near mine)! And on top of that, her buggy only had 2 things on it.

I have no idea how some people make it through life. Now, I do have to admit that I have by accident grabbed another person's buggy or gone to put something of mine in their buggy, but this lady put her stuff in it and was actually walking away. What an airhead! It did provide for a good laugh once it was all over.

Home Made Empanadas

The other night we made empanadas. They were so good!! Norm had to make dough at work and they had lots left over so he brought it home and we put it to good use:

And it begins...

Cali patiently waits for something to accidentally drop from the counter

Using the handy empanada maker

Close it up!

Pellet checking out the work area

About to go in the oven

Final product - lime and all!