Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and are looking forward to 2014!  I know a few of our friends are really ready for a new year!

We had a great holiday visit with our nephews.  We spent a lot of time with Craig in the evenings after work while Claire was studying.  We had some dinners, some wine and some shopping...what more is there!

We had dinner one night with Stephen and Marissa.  She was going to a cheer competition for her little sister and we weren't going to see her on the weekend.  They came over to see the new motorhome and Stephen is in the driver's seat!

Claire's mom and dad, Linda and Ernie, were interested in seeing our new motorhome so we invited them over one night for wine and appetizers.  We had a really nice evening with them and they seemed to really like our new home!  They are in the process of downsizing from a home they lived in for 28 years.  They had put an offer in a 1750 sq ft condo and their offer was accepted.  They will be living closer to Craig and Claire and right by Fig Garden, a shopping center near Craig's law office.  Ernie is not thrilled about moving but Linda is happy to downsize!  We went to dinner after seeing their new condo with Ernie, Linda, Craig and Claire and had an enjoyable dinner.

The night we were doing our Christmas, Stephen was sick, Marissa was out of town and Chip was coaching a wrestling tournament so we spent the evening with Craig and Claire.  Craig arranged for a chauffeur for us.  The lady drove them over to our house so Claire could see our new home and then took us to The Palms Restaurant for a really great dinner.  Our food was delicious, the atmosphere was wonderful and it is so much fun to be with the kids!  Craig even brought the bottle of Silver Oak wine we gave them for graduation (they had already polished off the Dom Perrignon) and another bottle of wine which we managed to polish off (hence the chauffeur)!   They dropped us old folks off about 10:00 and off they went to other parties!  

Even Sophie posed for the picture!

We got down to San Diego on Tuesday the 17th.  We visited with friends and were getting ready for Christmas until I started getting lower back spasms!  We spent time at home so I could get healed.  Went to the doctor and got some muscle relaxers and pain pills which really helped me get through Christmas!  Today I'm feeling almost myself again...thank goodness!

Ted and I had a great Christmas Eve lunch with my long time friend Peggy and a lovely Christmas Eve evening with our friends Jeri and Stach and their son Tony and Gina and their kids, Mallorie and Trent.  Christmas day was spent with Gina's sisters family and we all had a good time and a good Italian Christmas dinner!  On Sunday we had brunch with Jeri and Stach at the Hilton.  It was a beautiful day but we forgot to take any pictures until we were leaving...

Of course I have to add a picture of Sophie who is sleeping with Dad!

Happy New Year..."Ain't Life Grand!"

A new blog…can you believe it? And, I have a lot to report!

We had a great time in Las Vegas.  Our friends Jeri and Stach arrived on Monday, November 25^th.  We had a nice dinner together and did some catching up before gambling!  The highlights of the week included dinner at David and Debbie Hawkins’ home on Wednesday evening, Thanksgiving dinner at Boulder Station, Christmas lights in the cactus garden at the Ethel M Factory, Lunch at the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel and mainly our time spent with our friends!

We left Las Vegas a day early because we had some really good news!  Our nephew, Craig, passed the bar on his first try!  He took the 3-day exam in the end of July and just found out end of November whether or not he passed!  I didn’t realize that all the attorneys’ in his firm passed on their first attempt so he really had pressure to do it also!  So we left Vegas early to get to Fresno to attend the Swearing In Ceremony!

The ceremony was on Wednesday at the Fresno County courthouse.  There were about 30 that were being sworn in.  There were about eight judges there and representatives from the Fresno Bar, California Bar and one other Bar (and not a saloon)!  They gave some good speeches and then they called each name and they all stood and were sworn in together.   After he was sworn in, we were able to take pictures and they had a small reception. 

We then went to dinner with Craig’s brothers, Stephen and Andrew (Chip), Chip’s girlfriend Laura, Claire’s mom and dad (Linda and Ernie), Craig’s mentor from his law firm, Kim and of course Craig and Claire.   We had a wonderful dinner at this little Italian Restaurant.  The owner is a woman who doted on us and made us feel very special and the food was really great too!

So we left Fresno Thursday morning for Atwater, California.  It is a small town south of Sacramento and just north of Merced.  Our friends Billy and Vicky live there.  Ted went to High School with Vicky and they graciously host a Su-Hi Christmas gathering at their house for a weekend party.  It was a small group this year but we still had lots of laughs and a great time.  Our Christmas gift exchange was fun as always, especially when our Hostess, Vicky, selected a pretty platter and threatened us if we tried to steal it.  I think her exact words were that she needs the platter for this Christmas party she has every year for a bunch of Assholes, and they better not steal her platter!  Phil (a classmate) got an unexpected surprise!  He thought he won a great gift but instead received one of his own gag gifts back…a beer bottle doll with his own ponytail on it.  We ALL had a big laugh over that!  It was really really cold up there and yet Vicky and Billy’s son had a group of guys come over on Saturday afternoon forming a band and playing older surfer music for us!  It was a lot of fun!

 A couple of the classmates came over to see our new RV!  Sophie believed they were there to see her, (some were)!

On Sunday we were all meeting for breakfast.  We were almost late because we didn’t think about the fact that we might have a bit of ice on the windshield!  I think it was about an inch thick!  We finally got it defrosted and made it on time!  This picture was taken after about 5 minutes of defrosting already!

After breakfast six of us headed south (us in our motorhome) and stopped at Tehachi Palace Casino for gambling and dinner.  We spent the night in the parking lot and then came back to Fresno today!  We will be here for a week visiting with the kids and preparing for Christmas!

A lawyer in the family…”Ain’t Life Grand!”