A Funeral for a Friend

Erin's Dad helped me send off my old buddy Yuki this this morning. We buried him on the farm down by the pond. It's a final resting place I think he'd like. We'll probably put some kind of stone over his grave in the spring. Goodbye old friend.

Goodbye Yuki

I lost my best buddy Yuki today. He was great dog who led a fantastic dog life. Yuki died in his sleep this afternoon. Even this morning, he was still acting like a puppy. We'll all miss you Yuki. Here are the last two pictures of our friend, taken over the last couple of days. R.I.P. Yuki 2000 - 2013.

How To Train Your Dragon!

We won tickets to see the How to Train Your Dragon live show and went this morning. Jack loved it and even Elle warmed to the dragons after a while.  The special effects were great with huge life-like dragons walking and flying around.

Puff The Elf Says Goodbye

Puff, the name of our scout elf sent by Santa each year after Thanksgiving, left a number of friends upon his departure this year. (he leaves on Christmas Eve night in case you didn't know). He also left a note for the kids indicating he felt sure Santa would be coming to their house and encouraging them to continue to be good listeners and sharers...

Snow Time

We took a quick trip up the hill to let the kids do some sledding (and introduce Elle to the snow).  At first she was a bit leary of the white stuff....

But eventually learned to enjoy some mild sledding...

 



















Jack had a bit more fun...

Holiday Remnants

Here are a few cool snaps I didn't get posted as we cap off a fun holiday season. We had an exceptionally good Santa for this year for the kids' pictures. Elle wanted nothing to do with it though so we gave her a waiver.

Here, Jack is in the middle of his "holiday hop" where he dances around in pure exuberance which he tends to do on Christmas morning and a couple other times of the year...

Christmas morning mayhem!

Ready for Christmas Dinner! Three things to of note aside from the table. 1. Our new purple piano makes its blog debut, feature story to come later, 2. Our new crystal chandelier meant to accompany the piano, and finally, Jack's new Darth Maul light saber in the corner of the window stands at the ready in case in rebels mean to disrupt dinner.

Jake & Yuki

The two animals wish each other a merry Christmas.


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Jack the Paleontologist

Santa brought Jack a science kit that included a dinosaur digging kit that lets Jack hone is paleontology skills. He spent a good hour patiently chipping and brushing in an attempt to pull out the T-rex bones.

Elle Loves This One!

Elle's expression upon opening Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (or Lotso as he's known as in Toy Story) is priceless. She just refers to him as "big bear" but she's now got another favorite when it comes to stuffed animals. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Santa Arrives in Cali!

As we head to bed this Christmas Eve a quick peek into the family room indicates Santa has found us! Jack appears to have scored exactly what he asked for including a science kit, legos and a wallet. Santa continued the tradition of sticking a Beanie Baby at the top of the stocking as well!

Elle scored an extremely cool kitchen along with a princess doll.
 

And a close-up of the stockings!

Feeding the Reindeer!

Won't be long now!

Shortest Day of the Year Scores a Cool Sunrise!

Today was the shortest day of the year with only 9 hours and 28 minutes between the sun's rise and set times...but we did score a pretty cool sunrise out of the deal with a storm moving in...

Oh Deer!

Poor Elle wasn't feeling great but still tolerated us posing her around with antlers. She's much better now and the kids are ready for Christmas!

The Ghost of Jacob Marley????

Just the ghost of rack space once dedicated to selling Twinkies, Ding Dongs, King Dons, Cupcakes, Ho-Hos, Pies, Suzie Q's and all the other Hostess style cakes...

Christmas Kiddies

Jack's hat seems to channel Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation!

Soft Molasses Spice Cookies

Soft Molasses Spice Cookies

These chewy molasses cookies with all of the right spices are perfect for the winter season. They are reminiscent of ginger snaps, but soft and chewy with the hint of vanilla and molasses. Don't cut back on the amount of sugar called for in the recipe, and don't overcook them or they will come out hard and crunchy. This recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated The Best Recipe cookbook.

Preparation time: 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/3 cup for rolling cookies
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsulphered molasses

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice together in a bowl and set aside.
2. Use an electric mixer and beat the butter for 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer set at medium speed. Add egg, vanilla extract, and molasses. Beat until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.
3. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
4. Place remaining 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Working with 2 Tbsp of dough each time, roll dough into 1 3/4 inch balls. Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.
5. Bake until the outer edges of the cookies begin to set and centers are soft and puffy, about 11 to 13 minutes [I only leave them in for 10 minutes, and without convection... that will mess up the cooking time]. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks .

Note: Do not overcook. The centers of the cookies should be somewhat soft and spongy when you take them out of the oven, otherwise they will end up hard and dry.

Optional Glaze
When cookies have cooled, lay out over a sheet of wax paper. Sift 1 1/4 cups of confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) and then whisk with 2 Tbsp of milk until smooth. Dip spoon into glaze and dribble over cookies.

Yield: Makes 18 large cookies.

Elle Turns Two!

We celebrated Elle's 2nd birthday this week-end with an Elmo themed party!  

Lots of her freinds came and we had great weather.

The cake, from Karen's Bakery in Old Folsom, looked much better than it tasted... which is generally true of Karen's cakes.  How they can make a fresh cake so dry is beyond me...but it did look good!

 



Happy Birthday to one of the best little girls around!

Elle is definitely ready for Christmas when it comes to unwrapping gifts. Birthday number two (and a little coaching from big brother!) was all the practice she needed.

Xmas Lights 2012

Not exactly a Lights on the Ridge contestant, but cheery nonetheless.


Day


Night

Jack's First Love Note!

Jack received his first "love note" earlier this Fall from his friend Molly in kindergarten class.   So far he's doing fine in school and is kept relatively busy with homework and "reading".

Rudolph is in the House!

We did a little facetime activity with Granny and Jack donned his antlers and nose to do a his best Rudolph impression for her!

In case you didn't get a great view of Rudolph here's a cropped version.

 





















And Elle is getting into the reindeer mood as well!

Atmospheric River!

We've floating away out in Cali in what has been termed an "atmostpheric river"....  crazy amount of rain over the past few days....

Chocolate Covered Blueberries

Queen Anne, the chocolate covered cherry people, have embraced the blueberry. Bottom line, however you feel about chocolate covered cherries is how you're going to feel about these. With all the sweet chocolate, syrup, and creme, the flavor of the fruit is largely muted. Whenever I see Queen Anne product, I think of Grandma Patty and her annual Christmas gift to Robert and I. Would she have gifted the chocolate covered blueberry?

As the Season Approaches...2011 Video Recap

ACC Championship Tickets Available! $3.95 a Pop...

There is virtually zero interest in seeing the ACC Championship this year...both Florida State and Georgia Tech come in after humiliating losses means a big yawn from Charlotte and the respective fan bases... If you have $3.95 you can attend!  $5 gets you a pretty dang good seat!

Christmas Hug!

Today we did Santa pictures with Jack and Elle... Elle was still scared so she sat on the sidelines. She finally got into the groove once we got home.

Christmas Vacation Ornament Fraud

Many of us are fans of the Chevy Chase movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. While looking at the 2012 Hallmark Christmas ornament collection, I was excited to see a new Christmas Vacation ornament featuring soundbites from the movie. Unfortunately, I immediately recognized that the soundbites are not from the movie. Instead, they are bad impersonations of the actual actors. This video shows the scene from the actual movie, followed by the audio clip from the ornament. I consider this video a public service announcement. Beware Christmas Vacation fans! Do not buy!

To Hell With Georgia!

A friend found this on Pinterest! 

Barb's Blender Breaks

Not to worry however. Rick had a solution in place quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chair Fun!

Jack and Elle like to tip and fall in Jack's little foam chair!

Star Wars in Legos

Jack received a fancy Star Wars Imperial Cruiser lego set for his birthday and we finally built it. While it was non-trivial to build, Jack kept a positive attitude and kept commenting, Daddy, we'll get through this. Indeed we did!

Pepsi X

Pepsi has released a new product called Pepsi X in a joint promotion with the music show X Factor. The bottle describes it as a dragon fruit flavored cola. I don't agree with that description. I would describe it as a persimmon flavored cream soda. You can be sure this product is heading for a Crystal Pepsi type fate. Gone and largely forgotten. I would recommend you try it once so you can say you've tasted persimmon Pepsi.

Soccer

I think we are collectively happy to have the season draw to a close.  Two practices and a game every week is pretty challenging.  We did successfully introduce Jack to soccer though it isn't something he seems very excited about just yet... we'll see in the future.  His official picture looks good though!

Funny Fox

We missed this becauase we were watching NBC on election night....but it is pretty funny.



Poor Fox didn't know what to do when science won out over emotion and gut feels.... And if you want to watch more idiocy catch this guy!

Be careful though - he's a professional...

Go Vote!!!! (if you haven't already)

Pre-Election Day Debate Fodder

Halloween Footage!

Here's a quick video of Jack and his friends just before heading out to Trick or Treat.



And here's one of my favorites of Jack and Elle. Jack retained his cowboy costume while Elle toggled over to a Ladybug costume.

Jack's Candy Haul! Halloween 2012

We went trick or treating at more houses than ever last night and Jack came away with a nice haul. Elle, who did her best to keep up, did almost as well if not better as a lot of the kids got "extra" candy for her.

Note he even scored a toothbrush and toothpaste!