Friday, December 22, 2017

Fall & Winter Celebrations in the East Bay Hills

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends and grandson's Michigan grandparents, Carol and John. Thanks to John's photography, we have a photo of Erick, Erika, Michael, Stanton and me ready to dig into our turkey dinner.


Knowing that we are puzzle people, Carol and John, had a photo of our Thanksgiving table made into a jigsaw puzzle as a Christmas gift.  We were delighted. It will be an especially fun one to work on.


The next cause for celebrating was Stanton's first birthday, December 7.  What amazing changes a year can bring!

I made it to 12 months; I deserve this sticker.
He'll be walking on his own soon.
He's already climbing stairs.
The kitchen Chaos Monkey
(credit to Erick for the photo)

Adventures in self-feeding

No birthday celebration is complete without a cake.

A homemade carrot cake
On December 17, we had our Manzanita Christmas celebration.

Our holiday door wreath
Gingerbread cookies
(after removal of a dozen or so for gifts and some serious munching)
Stanton views the tree - from a safe distance.
Mom & dad watch Stanton explore his play garden 
An enthusiastic response from Stanton
We all got presents, but there's no doubt about who had the most fun.
(credit to Erick for the photo)
On the 18th, it was off to Michigan for the threesome, and a chance for Stanton to experience snow for the first time.

A bit like his reaction to a new finger food...
(credit to John for the photo)
Our home is unusually quiet right now.  Erick and I are getting some things done around the house. For example, Erick set up his Christmas gift weather station.  If you want to know what the weather is like on the front side of our house, you can find out on via the Weather Underground's Montclair-Manzanita Station. (https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/ca/canyon/KCAORIND72)

Our weather station
And we finally finished this one:

Puzzle 24
A holiday dinner with friends Valerie and Michael, and golden retrievers Greg & Lana:

Their tree
Greg & Lana chilling out
The dinner table, complete with Christmas Crackers



Some Solistice day photos:

Our Chrismas tree at sunset
Lights in the dining room
Our trees:
The little tree downstairs
Tree on the main floor

Flora, fauna and more scenery:


Christmas cacti actually blooming for Christmas 

Geranium looking very Christmasy
Manzanita in bloom Christmas Eve

Bumblebee visiting Manzanita
Migrating pigeons at rest
Crane (for neighbor's tree removal work)
 & plane (above the tree on the right)
Nearly full super moon, December 1
Full supermoon, December 3
Sunset with rain on the way
One sunset, three different times - December 22, 2017:





Wishing you all the blessings of the season.





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