In the morning

Here is Patrick with his favorite new toy and my fabulous slippers. Later, mom and I tortured Patrick by making him watch episodes of one of our favorite BBC mystery shows: Rosemary and Thyme. What a great day.

Holiday Tradition

Cheryll started a great new tradition of giving Owen a holiday book after dinner and having us all take turns reading it to him. It was hilarious because all references to Christmas became Hanukkah on my turn and Kwanzaa on Grandpa's turn. We were very multicultural!

Dinner

Here we are enjoying our dinner. Owen didn't quite make in through the whole thing, but isn't he cute!

Holiday House

If you haven't seen it lately, I thought I would post some pictures of my parents holiday extravaganza - yes, my dad puts up all those decorations and more.

Cooks at work

Here we are in the kitchen. For Hanukkah, Patrick bought me a professional knife skills class at a cooking school nearby. I can't wait to chop like the chefs on Food TV!

Sunday

Sunday, Patrick and Garrett went to the 49er game on the Party bus. The 49ers won and Patrick said it was a great example of really bad football. I told them to take picture, but they forgot. Typical! Here is a picture of Patrick's incredulous face later that evening. Garrett went our to get a pizza and this is what it looked like when he brought it in. We are still not sure what happened.

Gumbo

My dad's tradition is to make a Gumbo to eat on Christmas eve. He and I make it together since Patrick and Garrett are terrible cooks, Cheryll watches Owie and mom is busy baking, wrapping and attempting to clean up after us. This is my roux, the creole chicken and some veggies that go in the pot. About 12 hours later, here is the final product. Mmmmmm. I know it looks like to large vast of brown goo, but you can't knock it til you try it. (Everyone who has ever tasted it, Loves IT!!)

Cookies from Wisconsin

Patrick's mom, aunt and sister made cookies one weekend and sent us a bunch to enjoy over vacation. We took them to Sacramento to share with the family. My favorites were the coconut and chocolate chip!

Cookies

This weekend, I started my holiday baking and Patrick had a cold so he was no help. (Although he did build cozy fires at night.) I am giving out cookies to my co-workers so I slaved over the stove for three days and here are some of the fruits of my labor. We also went to a Christmas party at a friend's house in Sausalito. They have a house in the hills that overlooks the city and the bay, lucky dogs! Last, I tried to work on my gift shopping, but after four hours of fighting the crowds, I only had one boring thing for Patrick. Patrick pretended like he wanted a list of gift ideas from me, but we all know he never sticks to the list so I refused. (He likes to come up with his own original ideas. I only have a week left, so send us some good shopping vibes.

Owie Bear's 1st Christmas

How cute is my nephew?! This is a preview from JCPenney portraits, where he gets his picture taken every month. This picture is being posted in order to celebrate his first few times sleeping through the night. Garrett and Cheryll are thrilled and not as exhausted. Hooray!

Bye Bye Baby

Our little two-year-old is being adopted by an awesome couple! He is leaving us this weekend and moving into his permanent home. There are a lot more court dates and hearings before anything is complete, but he has a chance a for great life! We are so excited for him and a little sad that he is leaving us. In honor of his departure, here he is running away from me for the last time.

The Tree

Patrick has been bugging me to go to a cut your own tree farm for years. He is such a good sport about Hanukkah, that I gave in this year. It just so happens that there is a cut your tree lot about five minutes from our house, so we went on Saturday. Patrick tromped all over the five acres with me running behind him carrying the ax. He cut down the tree and carried it back to the car. Very exciting. He was a little disappointed that there weren't any Blue Spruce trees, but he thinks his choice is, and I quote, "Very Friendly!" On Sunday, he put up a few lights on our back fence and walkway and I decorated his tree. Here it is done and lit up.

Ornament

So here is our first family ornament from Apple Hill.

So you think you can dance

Patrick and I love to watch this TV show called So You Think You Can Dance. We critique the dancers (and occasionally dance along in our family room.) Anyway, over Thanksgiving, the traveling show from Season 3 came to Sacramento and my mom got us tickets. Here is the clan on the way to the show. It wasn't until we were in the car that Garrett and Cheryll realized, much to their dismay, that we were not going to see Dancing with the Stars, which is their favorite dance show. Needless to say, nobody really liked it but us. I think they appreciated the skills, but there was too much wacky modern dance and lyrical routine. For me, it was fabulous. In my next life I am coming back as a singer and dancer! Here is a picture of Neil, my favorite dancer. He reminds me of Patrick - blonde hair, blue eyes, skinny and cheesy.

Apple Hill

On Saturday, we took Patrick's mom to Apple Hill. It is a large orchard area outside of Placerville. There are several tree farms and vineyards around as well. Garrett and I went here every year as kids. We remember going on pony rides, fishing in a pond, corn mazes and the mini train. We looked at crafts and made a cheesy ornament. There was a fudge shop with caramel apples. I tried an apple doughnut with my fresh cider, but it only tasted like a regular pastry :< We bought all kinds of fruit (59c/lbs - so cheap!), olives, juice, chocolates and pie to take home.

Thanksgiving

We had a fairly mellow Turkey day this year. Patrick's mother came out from Wisconsin; she brought us all kinds of Wisconsin cheese. Our favorite kinds are Brick and cheese curds (because you can't get those in California). Poor Owen was sick as a dog and our little guy was an eating machine. I made green beans and brussell sprouts and everyone refused to eat the sprouts (even though they were delicious). Dad's turkey was tasty, but he tried to sneak dried fruit into the stuffing again and it ended up slimy. Everything else was great. Mom always bakes the best pies! (Mine are never good: hard fruit, bad crust, gooey on the bottom; I don't understand it.)

This was the first year that Mom and I didn't get up at 5:30 to hit the shops. Some were even open at 4am, but the early offers were pitiful. We were very disappointed that no stores had any free stuff or great specials this year. Well, that is not completely true as Mervyns gave a free $10 gift certificate to the first 200 shoppers. However, so many people all slept outside the door that we, mere early risers, didn't have a chance. Even JCPenney did not do the annual, morning, Mickey Mouse snow globe giveaway (this has been around for as long as I can remember.)We all went to the movies instead.

Grape Jelly

I brought home some Zinfandel grapes and S. Blanc from this year's harvest because I thought it would be fun to make my own grape jelly. We tried two years ago and failed (not enough gelatin I think, but the juice was tasty.) Vanessa tried to protest, as usual, because she claimed I was going to mess up her kitchen. We decided to use our new electric juicer (thank-you Greg, whoever you are.) Last time it took me over an hour to crush the grapes. This year took only five minutes, but was just as messy! Vanessa reluctantly helped and sent me to the grocery store twice. Once for jars and again for more sugar. We made three batches, two red and one white. We were not sure how the box recipe would turn out because wine grapes are at least ten times sweeter table grapes. The first batch is a little watery, but set enough to eat. The subsequent batches are still liquid, maybe I'll try more gelatin. Any suggestions? I have decided that Vanessa is going to retire and start she will selling my R&G Wine Jelly. I'm sure there is market for this and we will become millionaires:) I will be forcing everyone to try it over thanksgiving. Otherwise our weekend was uneventful; we cleaned out the garage and closets in the house. For some reason, nothing really looks any tidier, but we fell better about our mess.

Vegan

So I have been trying make healthier food for myself and Patrick after reading a new nutrition book and watching several episodes of my favorite BBC show of the month "You are what you eat." I found this blog: veganlunchbox.blogspot.com
Its so creative and inspiring; perhaps if I was a stay at home mom, I would cook like Jennifer. The blog about this mom who packs healthy, fun lunches for her son. Now, I have tons of new ideas. I paid particular attention to the posts about being sneaky at hiding vegetables in food. (I have been doing this for years because Patrick is a picky eater when it comes to anything healthy, but now I have lots of new techniques.) Last night I made General Tofu (like Chinese General Chicken) and the boys scarfed it up. Ha, they had no idea!

Vanessa told me to write something, so here goes.

Ok so the eye surgery was ok, it was rather painful for a couple days as Vanessa wrote, and I am not completely healed but it is pretty cool to reach toward the alarm in the morning and actually see the numbers. As for me obviously harvest is done which is nice, I can actually see Vanessa for more then a couple hours and catch up on sleep, oh and see the rest of the gatewood clan as well.
Oh my mom is coming out to Ca for Thanksgiving, it will be a fun, I can't wait. That's it for now good reading???

Ha

This weekend, Patrick and I went to the city with my brother and Cheryll. We were celebrating Garrett's 30th birthday and the second anniversary of our engagement. We stayed at this wacky Victorian hotel, had a dinner of Tapas and saw a comedy show. We saw David Allen Grier and a few other comedians. All three of them were funny, which never happens! Patrick got tickets for the late show, it started at 10:15, and all four of us were almost falling asleep waiting for it to begin. When did we get so old? But it was good to have a night out away from the kids.

Eye Surgery

On Halloween, Patrick had PRK laser eye surgery. He picked this instead of Lasik because there is no cutting of the eye are is therefore safer. However, PRK is much more painful and has a slower healing time. Here is a picture of Patrick after the procedure and this is pretty much how he stayed for a week. He lay in bed for the first three days with the curtains drawn, sunglasses on and frozen grapes over his eyes. He was in so much pain that he intermittently cried and shrieked. Our doctor said that Patrick had the worst reaction to PRK than any of his other thousands of patients. Lucky boy! We had to go to the doctor everyday (even on the weekend) to check on his eyes. They were healing really slowly, but he was able to return to work a week later (wearing a hat and sunglasses all day). He just got the contact bandages out yesterday and he is feeling sensitive again, but nothing as bad as before. He is still not enjoying the lack of glasses, but his optometrist said in will be a few months before his eyes see best. He says that car lights glow at night and he still has trouble reading up close. This should go away and I am this is almost over. Patrick says that it wouldn't have been as bad if he had been better prepared for the after pain. We are just crossing our fingers that he won't have to go back for any touch-up surgeries!

Wedding pictures - reception

Here are some pictures of the party! Our photos were done by Holly Istas Photography in Davis, Ca. Our ceremony was in Newcastle and the reception was at the Library Galleria in Downtown Sac.

Wedding pictures- ceremony

Patrick and I were so excited when we got our wedding photos yesterday! Here are some of the ceremony pictures.

LEP

Yesterday I passed the state exam to become a Licensed Educational Psychologist. I will now be charging a fee for all advice given including phone consultations and emails. Don't be surprised when my bill comes in the mail; you have been forewarned.

Pumpkin Patch

Today I got to go the pumpkin patch with one of my classes. This may have been my first hay ride in over ten years. We visited a farm practicing sustainable agriculture. The chickens, pigs and sheep were all eating left over squashes. Kind-of cool! I bought a sugar pumpkin, French pink pumpkin and gourd. I am determined to try to bake something out of these.