The Holidays in a Few Pics
January 2, 2025
Well… as I begin blogging 2025, I have to fess up that I missed a LOT of 2024. It was my intention to backfill all of my missed blogs. I just hated that I missed so many days and fully intended to right that wrong. But as the year wore on and the missed days piled up, I realized backfilling was an increasingly daunting task and was probably never going to happen.
So, I am accepting that 2024 will remain an under-documented year and, in the interest of looking forward and not behind, I am NOT going to spend a single second stressing about that.
For the record, I do plan to do a Guatemala travel blog thing and an Italy-Dolomites-Germany travel blog thing, because I do want a record, and I especially want to enjoy those memories. I may also, from time to time, reach back into 2024 and write about some of the notable goings on, like some of the political stuff, and/or some family milestones…
With that in mind, how about a few photos from the holidays.. an easy place to start!
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On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, folks started to arrive in Davis.. Chris and Pam, Matt, Betsy (for just an overnight on her way to Karen’s), Peter and Maya (who will arrive later this night)…
A lot of catch-up conversation ensued…
On Wednesday, we celebrated Chris’s 65th birthday..
Pam made wonderful lasagna, and I made a spice cake that was amazing..
Thanksgiving day, Peter and Maya were assigned corn bread stuffing — Kamala Harris’s recipe (remember her?). It was beautifully made, but we all agreed we prefer traditional bread stuffing. (Other assignments: turkey and gravy: Jim; mashed potatoes: Matt; sweet potatoes: Pam; green beans, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, Harvard beets: Kari; other pies: Janet.)
Pam also took charge of appetizers again…
We played a bunch of poker while consuming those appetizers..
Here’re a couple of our TG day gang…
We managed some Zoom connections with family far away…one call with Jay and Saythong in Thailand, another call with Aunt Joy in Pleasanton and Heidi in the desert…
Day after hanging out…
Peter’s guitar playing has gotten really really good. Such a joy to hear him play and sing. Maya and Peter do a lot of singing & playing together.
Chris and Pam took off Saturday morning, and the rest of us headed first to Putah Creek Cafe in Winters for breakfast with the John Frames…
Then wended our way over the mountain to Napa/Sonoma for some wine tasting at BR Cohn, and dinner at Mustards Grill.
It was really pretty in Napa in the final days of fall…
And some holiday seasonal flora, Davis style (our front porch Japanese Maple and the colors at Putah Creek)
A couple shots around the house getting ready for Christmas…
A new thing I baked this year… a goat cheese/pesto/parmesan puff pastry Christmas tree, this was for a Christmas gathering with our hiking buds — Ricker, Susan, Heidi (Jimmy J got Covid)
Annual favorite holiday concert — Home for the Holidays…front row, always!
A fantastic holiday neighborhood open house at the Slabach’s. Holy cow they can entertain… this was one of numerous tables loaded with stuff Lisa had made. Ted made a fabulous eggnog martini.
Baking tasks… this year cheese crackers, butterballs and a new almond/walnut brittle with chocolate.. fantastic all.
Christmas Eve was so mellow.. the three of us and Janet for a cranberry pork tenderloin, roasted sweet potatoes and salad.. and plenty of tasty Christmas gifts for dessert.
Added some new ornaments to the tree this year.. photos on acrylic.. fun!
This was a Christmas day surprise… and this is us hearing the news.. that Chris and Pam got engaged!
And those were some of the highlights from Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2024.
2025 Baby!
January 1, 2025
I’m starting up daily blogging again! Yay New Year’s resolutions!
My intent, just so you know, is to not post publicly anymore. However, I haven’t figured out yet how to do that, so for now, you are still seeing this. I’ve lost track of who all gets my blogs.. some subscribe and I believe for them my blog shows up in an email, while some get my blogs in some other way… but honestly, I just don’t know how any of this happens. The truth is I’m feeling increasingly self-conscious about what I write and who sees it, so I’m planning to just make it all private. I’ve long said, I blog for me, and it embarrasses me to consider that lots of people, some of whom I don’t even know, are reading my daily musings. Like… who do I think I am to think these things have any kind of broad appeal? Well, I don’t. So as soon as I figure this out, it’s lights out. Thing is, blogs are, by nature, public. But don’t have to be. So… that’s where I am.
Anyway.
Long as I have you here (for now), I hope the dawn of 2025 finds you rested up after the holidays and recovering from all those sweets what was an exhausting year of body-shuddering politics. I’m deeply disgusted at the outcome of the November election and, as I write this, working mightily to find my way to a place of healthy resistance. That is, a recognition that it all sucks, and I will find a way to stay engaged, be smart about picking my battles and do what I can — when I can — to keep really bad things from happening. My goal is to be a useful cog in a large wheel. I trust the smart people who will be leading us in this fight and, importantly, building a foundation for victories down the road. I’m in.
It wasn’t all about politics though, of course. 2024 was full of all kinds of other things.. fantastic travel, exceptional family time, valued friend time, good health and fitness (minus two overworked knees)… lots of other stuff, too, from light to heavy: movies; puzzles; music; the amusements (and frustrations) of aging; life lessons; attitude adjustments; beautiful community; weathering the storms in friends’ lives.. and more.
This being the new year, I am in the middle of a 2024 reflection — a list, actually — of the year’s notable elements… always a satisfying look back and reminder of how wondrous life is. I’m addicted to list making and this is a fun one.
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With that… here are a couple of shots from the last day of 2024 and the first day of 2025.
Yesterday, Jim, Peter and I drove for the second time in three days down to Mountain View to take care of Marie’s kitty Tommy and then visit Marie in a hospital in Fremont where she ended up following a ghastly one-car accident on Christmas night driving home from our gathering at Monica and Dror’s. As of this moment, it seems as though she’ll not lose her left leg, though that is/was not certain after an accident that mangled her car beyond recognition and beat her up pretty badly (said leg, broken elbow, fractured cervical vertebrae, bruises overall).
As long as my blog’s still public, I won’t post a photo of Marie, but I will post some lovely photos from a walk we took at Baylands Park in Mountain View on the first sunny day in a long while! If photos were audible, you’d hear us mulling over Peter’s post PhD life and all the various paths before him. That conversation’s been happening a lot this past week and I imagine will continue for months. He’s still got a year to go..
Today was cold and dreary, perfect for hanging around the fire and watching the Rose Bowl.
(Yeah, no big screen TV in our living room… poor Peter has to watch pirated sporting event coverage on my laptop.. a bit pathetic.)
We had no real dog in the fight, but Peter was routing for the University of Oregon Ducks against the Ohio State team, because: Ohio (Michigan’s biggest rival). It was a blowout.. Ohio proved to be the far better team, much to Peter’s disappointment. Good to note: Ohio suffered two defeats this season, one to Oregon (who they beat handily today) and one to Michigan. So maybe there’s consolation there.
While the game was going on, Jim was fixing our garbage disposal which broke down (after 20 years) on Christmas Eve.
Not his favorite job.
And may I say, it’s great to be blogging again. Not documenting every little thing make me feel anxious. So.. glad to be back on the horse!
Life of Wry 