Mendocino - Grandpa Tom's 80th birthday

Here are more pics from Grandpa Tom's birthday trip to Mendocino.   We drove up together and stopped at the Russian River Brewery on the way.  See me sporting my new beanie!

This was the view from the living room.  We played a lot of games and ate a lot of food.

Auntie D made lumpia and many hands made for quick work.  And what a treat they were.

Each family made one dinner.  We made super nachos, Uncle B's family made pasta and my folks made cioppino.   No one was ever hungry!

On the way there, there was a tree limb down in the road.  So we jumped out and moved it out of the way.  That was the first of the weather drama!  We had power outages, high winds and broken tree limbs.

 

Canine Companions at the Villages

Lydia being bored.

Lydia and I went to the Villages this morning to do an event for my Mom's Dog Club.   There was a great turn out and a lot of interest.   It was fun to see folks who were interested and asking questions.  Lydia was a good girl as were her friends, Brenda, and Gill, above, who is the SJ Shark's puppy!

 

Polish Pottery

I have wanted Polish Pottery dishes for years and years.   I finally pulled the trigger and bought some.  I will continue to get more pieces as I have extra $ and build up my supply.  It is so beautiful.

Family Shenanigans

 

Family Pics January 2023

 

Christmas 2022

We had Christmas this year in SJ.  We had originally thought we would go to the cabin but it became too much coordination to get it done so we stayed home.  We enjoyed a day of brunch, opening gifts, games and smoking a prime rib.  We ended the day with a huge dinner of prime rib and lobster.

This might be my favorite gift of the year - a Polish Pottery honey container.

We had lots of dogs for the holiday:  Ahi, Hops, Astrid, Oakley, Lydia and Chip!  And for the afternoon, Dan's dog Cali joined in the on the fun.

Grace took a break in the middle of the day and tied some flies.  She got a whole bunch of gear from Joey Z, that was his dads and his grandfathers.  

Lots of talking about, scheming and looking at the meat!

It was a meal where we said grace for our good fortune and remembered those who we miss:  Grandpa Roy, Uncle Don and Janet.

Thanksgiving 2022

Thanksgiving 2022 was a bit of a mess!  Jim came home from Stockholm with covid and as soon as I was confident he would be ok, I headed to the cabin.  That (hopefully) would mean I would stay negative and he would have the run of the house, instead of being isolated in the bedroom.

So it was just me and Ahi and Hops (Lydia was with Grace).  We had a lot of quiet time binging tv shows, making pierogis, reading, getting organized and getting a jump start on xmas shopping!   We also did hikes every day, including the hike above which was a beautiful example of fall colors in the sierras.  I love the way the selfies turned out and could not pick my favorite so included them both.  Old Ahi did a 6 mile hike today!