A great way to end the year: with GOOD friends (part two) Phyl and Dave; also with GOOD food.
Our tradition (second year of rekindling after a 13-year break) is to watch a couple of movies, and drink and eat too much. I spend the night of course. Our menu this year was so good, we’re thinking of repeating it next year:
Red plate: veggie bars. Flowered plate: pineapple wrapped in bacon, sausage/crescent roll bites, stuffed mushrooms, meatballs wrapped in bread dough.
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Coffee with friends
A great way to end the year: with GOOD friends (part one) Linda and Ade.
Happy Birthday Val
Val and I drove up to Penn Valley to have dinner and spend the night at Maria’s. Always a ton of fun.
Poor picture quality. Time to buy a new camera.
Christmas Day
The shopping bag moved mysteriously across the floor.
And finally, a belly comparison. Thais is 8 months along and Justin is …
Get-together with friends
We met at Adrienne’s. We are all retired teachers from RLUSD/TRUSD, except Ellen was a speech therapist. All of us did CELDT testing last September/October, except for Linda who works part-time as a teacher for home-schoolers. Back row L-R: Val, Adrienne, Georgene, Linda, Ellen. 
Terrible picture. I need a new camera, but being the terrible shopper I am, it’s taking a long time.
Christmas party
At Archie and Sandy Sanders. An annual event and lots of fun. L-R: Jim & Kathy Smith, Archie, Bev Ruby.
I always have to check in on the progress Archie has made on his elaborate model train project.
Susan Trautman and Sue Bastian:
Jim Reed at right:
Lucy Reed at right:
Christmas program at Milestones
Avery’s preschool, Milestones, went “caroling”. Each group rotated while the adults stayed put. 
While everyone else sang the songs, these two did their own thing. Hilarious.
Christmas program at St Ignatius
Front to back: Justin, Thais, Lenin, Avery on Uncle Jeff’s lap, Aunty Leah, Lala/Rita.
The first and second grade classes:
Field Trip: Galleria in Roseville
The Galleria, the best mall in the Sacramento region, has been open for more than 15 years and I have never shopped there … until today.
Oh my, I was wide-eyed, so many stores. Phyl kept us not-lost. Obviously I am not a good shopper.
The lesson we learned today was a good one: beware of (fly-by-night) kiosks with hidden signs that say:
and don’t buy the following “reusable forever” pocket warmers. They work great once, maybe twice, and then they don’t.
At the Rio Linda Library
What a surprise! About 30 minutes into my browsing, a performance by local musicians – a relatively new ukelele (mostly) group with members mainly from the First Baptist Church of Elverta. 
They were really good! A few were longtime musicians, but others had only been playing the ukelele a few months. In the back row left is Ken Tomlinson. His daughter Sarah was a student of mine.
arletelouise 