Sanamluang Cafe

Aunt pat treated us to lunch at our new favorite Thai place in North Hollywood. It was sooooo good! We each got a different dish and shared.

Christmas Morning

 The kids waited ever so patiently for Christmas morning without rumaging through their presents - better than I can say for Suki. He opted to explore the Christmas tree and ended up knocking down a couple of glass ornaments. Next year... plastic!

Favorite gifts for Eli this year: Jump rope and hall bowling, a big fuzzy blanket, and Nintendo toys!

Favorite gifts for Abi this year: iPod and tons of new clothes!

Christmas Eve Family Dinner

Angels' Yule

 

Angels' Yule was an intimate event this year - only about 30 showed up. But the feast was delish, and the entertainment was delightful. Shaun was ever so good to drill out spots for candles on our Yule log for the table decorating competition.

 

Part of the evening festivities was a bardic competition. Abi lead the group in the 12 Days of Christmas. She didn't win, but she was recognized specially by the B&B.

I entered a gluten-free chocolate yule log cake  for the dessert competition - and it won!

Other events of the evening included the firing of the table-top marshmallow catapult. It's small, but effective!

 

This last pic is not actually from Angels' Yule, but Altavia Yule. We ended up arriving after the feast and just got to hang out for the rest of the evening chatting and enjoying time with friends.

Holiday Organ Spectacular at the Disney Hall

 By popular request, we attended the organ recital at the Disney concert hall again this year. It did not disappoint!

The organist was funny and incredibly talented, and the singer was lovely. As soon as she came on stage in her dazzling burgundy dress, Eli exclaimed - "purple!" I think he enjoyed it, too :)

Abi's Ready for her Winter Dance

Thanksgiving at Our House

 Abi dressed in floral to match our decorations. The theme was Country Color - we had golden yellow sunflowers, deep red chrysanthemums and berries, royal blue napkins, green rosemary and eucalyptus leaves, and of course, the Polish stoneware.

 
At the end of the night, the dishes did actually all get done!

Thanksgiving Cookies

Here is the new and improved Eli-friendly Gluten-free Casien-free sugar cookie recipe... just in time for Thanksgiving!


1 cup shortening
1 cup baker's sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp xanthan gum powder

Cream these together well, then mix and sift the flours and add all at once:

1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 cup corn starch or tapioca flour
1/2 cup white rice flour

Mix at least 1 minute to make sure the dough is moist enough to come together. If the dough doesn't come together, add a little rice milk or water and keep mixing. You can't overmix or overroll this dough!

Let sit 1 hour, then dust with more all-purpose flour and roll to 1/3 inch thick (very thick!) and cut out. Bake on a non-stick film or parchment paper at 350F for 12-13 min. Edges need to just start to get brown. Cool on the sheets for 10 or 15 minutes before moving to racks. Frost with colored powdered sugar mixed with rice milk and almond extract.

He's on the Roof...

The shed that Aunt Pat and Uncle Bear ordered for us required some assembly... But with some help from Phil and Michael, Uncle Bear and Shaun got it assembled over the course of a couple weekends. Shaun even got the shingles on just in the nick of time - the very next weekend (this weekend) it rained 3 days in a row!

Peppers!

I'm really enjoying the long growing season down here in Pasadena. Even though the heat killed off my tomatoes and vines, the mini pumpkins and squash decided it was time to set their fruit and dry up, so that was fine. My peppers are in full-swing right now, and the chard is STILL hanging in there! Even the garlic and scallions that wilted away in the summer heat are poking back up. I can almost garden all year!

Rubber-Band Experiment

My little scientist, Abigail, has decided to do a rubberband car for her project this semester. She is learning about force and mass and potential energy (such as gravity when something is on a slope or suspended). I helped her build the car, and then she piled on different amounts of weight (washers) to see what the best ratio of mass to potential energy would be. She found the doubling the mass of the car worked best. Next project: redesign a Tesla .... !

Weaver's Guild (Garden Outting)

It's that time of year again - we pile in the Suburban and get a little inspiration as well as holiday shopping at the Southern Californial Hand-Weaver's Guild Fiber Festival! The halls were packed with vendors and fun new toys... but the highlight for kids was the Japanese Garden on the otherside of the courtyard. Once we made our purchases, including sponsoring their bake sale, we strolled around the garden before heading home.

Happy Halloweeeeeen

We went all out to set up a 'treasure hunt' type of party scene for the kids so that they could have one last big 'kid' Halloween this year. Aunt Pat, Carlean, Abi and Shaun strung lights and cobwebs on the side of the house. Shaun and I set up a stone wall 'graveyard' in and around our garden with styrofoam tombstones. Abi and Aunt Pat hunt more cobwebs and vampire bats from the trees on the side. Shaun and Uncle Bear set up the spooky fortune teller tent complete with dangling lanterns and a crystal ball. We got pieces from an old costume Shaun wore in one of their SCA quests - a giant or ogre - and set him up with a bubbling cauldron full of candy. There also was a ghostly dancefloor and a dragon's cave, complete with dragon head poking out to guard the remains of valiant but unlucky knights and a bowl full of glowing gems and chocolate coins. Inside the kids got to decorate cookies and discect a Jell-o brain while the (exhausted) adults watched Labyrith.

On Halloween night, Eli - dressed as Mario - and Abi - dressed as an angel - made their last trick-or-treating rounds. It's hard to believe they are already nearly in high school! Next year we will probably do movies and pizza and maybe a costume party without the trick-or-treating. Growing up doesn't mean they have to stop having fun :)