December and Christmas

Holly and Trevor decided we needed to do more Christmas things.  Holly requested Advent calendars, just like they had when they were little.

We spent one evening driving back and forth searching out new Christmas lights.

This was an amazing display on acreage out near Boones Mill, in the middle of nowhere. Really incredible.

And any mention of this must include my apparent inability to make proper turns in the dark, and ending up south on 220 instead of back up near South County.  But we survived, and next year I'll know! 

We also stopped at a different living nativity; maybe our usual one will be back next year!

From there, we dropped Trevor off to see Star Wars (VII) with friends.

Holly, Trevor and I had our annual Christmas Shopping Day, including a trip to the mall and lunch out at Hibachi.  I don't think we had anything to buy, but it's been a long standing tradition since our early days in Colorado Springs, fun to look back on and fun to anticipate each year!

On Christmas Eve, we went to the Festival of Trees at the Hotel Roanoke.

This was our second year going; it's a nice new tradition for us to have!

Seriously--you've gotta love the Star Wars tree.

There are about three dozen total trees throughout the hotel.

It's part of a local fundraiser for United Way and has gone on for several years.

 

From an inside courtyard, you can see the nearby St. Andrew's Church.

From there, we headed home, stopping by our favorite nearby house, complete with lights synchronized to music that we can pick up on the car radio.  Definitely a quiet Christmas this year, but I hope that everyone thought it was good.

Aldi's -- Review

Aldi's is the new grocery store in town, and Judy and I went to check it out today. 

You pay a quarter to get a cart at the door, and when you return the cart, you get your quarter back. 

95% of the brands are off brands, unrecognizable.  Prices are good, virtually everything is less expensive than sale prices at Kroger.  The selections are not huge--there might be one choice of each kind of different bean or pasta, for example, but there was a great variety of items, including different kinds of stuffed olives, artichoke hearts, chipotles in adobo sauce. In addition to canned goods, there is a small produce section, dairy, and meat departments.

The worst part was that there was just one checker, and by the time Judy was done in line, it had backed up quite a bit.

Oh, and you have to bring your own bags, otherwise pay for each bag you use. That was okay.

It is also in an easily accessible location, handy to run in from the highway.  Definitely be going back.

From there, we went across the parking lot to McDonald's for coffee.  :)

Night Out

Schroes called at the last minute, wanting to know if we'd meet for dinner. So we did--Top Dawg, Robert, me, Charlie, Judy.

Hey, first picture of my highlighted hair!

And Trevor and Kurt.

This cutie finished up his college apps a couple of weeks ago. Now he waits to hear back.  Just when I start to think maybe I'll be okay in the fall, I realize NO, I CAN'T THINK ABOUT THIS EVER, and then I put it back into that little "ignore" corner of my mind.  Yikes!

 Fun time out!

Oh, yes, we did!!

Robert and I hit the mall early this afternoon.  It was surprisingly like any other Saturday.  I guess evyerone is doing a lot more online shopping?

I conveniently remembered that Krispy Kreme was having their 12/12 special--buy a dozen, get a dozen free. The drive through was a bit crowded, so we went inside and didn't mind waiting in line.

Haven't watched donuts being made in years.  :)  The tables weren't crowded, so we got coffee and ate ourselves into sugar comas. Recording it here for posterity:  14 donuts made it home.

 

It's really been a great week. All the little projects done.  I am caught up at work (happens a couple of times a year). Both kids are winding up the semester, with finals this coming week.  Christmas decorations up both inside and outside. Life is good.

Love

I'm so in love with my new manicure.

All of the sparklies!

Something I learned today:  It is a challenge to get a nice polish photo.

Mid December

Some things this week:

I made pork green chile.  Amazing stuff.  We had it over cheese enchiladas the first night, and Robert made egg and cheese enchiladas with it later in the week.

 Yeah, I know it can look like something the dog threw up.

I made both pumpkin soup and Italian wedding soup.

We sold the green truck and met some really great people.

Crochet night.

Robert got the lights outside finished, with help from Trevor.

I got the tree finished inside, with help from Trevor.

Oops, should have waited for that Christmas tree blanket!

December

Trevor and I went out for Korean food.

I'm super glad we tried it, but it was not my favorite.  We've eaten a lot of truly delicious Asian food in the past.

Kota ate garbanzo beans.  She's an odd little dog, at least in her eating habits.  Her favorite continues to be romaine lettuce ribs.  She's not so fond of celery. 

She's blurry because she is fast.  I am blurry because, well, I'm not fast, so I'm not sure why I'm blurry.  But I am famous for it among my Loopy Friends, and I kind of like that.

Thanksgiving

Robert went up to get Holly after class on Monday.  Some highlights of the week include:

Dinner at Cheddar's, followed by shopping at the Mall, dashing into say hi to my crochet buddies on the way home.

Robert did all of the baking, and Holly made the cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving dinner.

Games played included Parcheesi, Scattergories, Clue, UNO, Stare, and LIFE.

Holly treated us to Chipotle.

Robert and Holly went back to the Mall during the weekend.

Oh yeah, somewhere in there, I did another puzzle.

I drove Holly back up to school on Sunday.  I had been dreading the 400+ mile round trip at the end of the holiday weekend, so we planned ahead that I would spend the night.  Perfect decision!! We unloaded the car (no small feat), grabbed lunch, picked up a few things at the grocery store, and hung out at her place, binge watching HGTV, playing more games, and breaking only to visit Starbucks downstairs. 

I rolled out of bed in the morning, rolled up the bedding, hit the road, and was home at 11:00 a.m.  It worked out so well!

Backtracking here . . .

First part of November seems remarkably routine--and that's not a bad thing.

Trevor wrapped up his season of soccer reffing.  He's always busy in the spring, but this fall season was much busier than last year's.

He's doing a very good job balancing reffing, his two VWCC classes, school at home, and also working on two college applications. He's applying to both Radford, which is less than an hour away, and GMU. We expect he'll be easily accepted at both.  These are "early admission" apps, which just means he'll hear back by mid-Jan at the latest.  There's still plenty of time to apply elsewhere if he opts to do so.  Meanwhile, I'm very happy with his choices. Both are really good schools with excellent programs, and he'll do very well at either.

Between the horse show and Thanksgiving, just one trip up to see Holly, which included a stop at H-Mart. Love that store and wish they had one a lot closer to home!

Horse Show

Lovely, lovely weekend with Holly.  Our usual Roanoke Valley Horse Show was cancelled this past summer. Holly found another large one in DC for last weekend.  I bought the tickets back in August!

I drove up early (well, relatively) Saturday. We ate Indian food on campus and checked out a new order ahead app at the new Starbucks on campus.

Parked next to this Prius in the parking garage! 

 MAYB 2DY and JS2DAY

As we headed out, we quickly stopped at the mall.

 Macy's already had Christmas decorations

We parked at the Vienna Metro Station, the furthest station out on the line and Metroed into DC.  We planned plenty of extra time, to be familiar with our return trip late at night, and to sightsee.  The Metro station is right on the same block as Verizon Center, the horse show location.  It was really perfect!

Came out of the station to see tons of police activity on the corner.  They were there for an hour or so, and we never figured out what was going on.

We walked across the street to view the exhibits at both the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Museum.  Loved it--the portrait museum has been on my list of destinations for a few years, and the art museum was a lovely added bonus!

Back to the arena.  Note to self:  When door security asks if you to put your cellphone in the basket before passing through the metal detector, don't forget you have it in your back pocket and then be perplexed when they have to wand you.  Loooool!!!!

Dozens of horse pics in my other camera; haven't downloaded them yet!  Loved it, great time, and definitely going back next year!

We successfully navigated our train transfers, ending up back to the car around 12:30.  Holly really, really wanted pizza, but our searches for unsuccessful (and that's all I'm going to say about that!).  We watched tv, and I crashed on the nice little bed I made up on Holly's floor.  (She offered me her bed, but I had an air mattress, sleeping bag and a couple of blankets.)  

On Sunday, we made her grocery store run, ate Q-Doba for lunch, and went to H-Mart to buy Asian food/ingredients for Trevor before I headed for home.

Super fun weekend!!!!!

Cacophony

It is NOT pronounced CACK uh fawn ee. 

No matter how many years I've been saying it that way. 

When I laugh because Robert knew it and I didn't, I'm only pretending to be amused.

Recipe: Chicken and Dumplings

For two and a half decades, Robert has talked about his love for chicken and dumplings. He remembers the soft dumplings in his mom's pot roast as a kid. It's always been his usual dinner order at Cracker Barrel.  He's long suggested I try to make dumplings.

I've never had a dumpling. I don't know what they are.  Cracker Barrel's are curious flat squares, not the puffy softness he's described. So I've never made the attempt.

Nicole at work doesn't cook--except for chicken and dumplings.  I told her of my fascination with this mysterious food, and after sending me a picture of her dinner, she shared her recipe.

And it worked!  If it were up to me, I'd make the broth without the cream soup, but hey, if it were up to me, I've already proven it wouldn't happen.

Robert was happy.  Very happy. Trevor called it soup. He liked it much better the second day. Leftovers, including dumplings, somehow work in this magical comfort food.

NICOLE'S CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

3 boneless chicken breasts
4 c. of chicken broth
10.5 oz. can of cream of chicken (I've only had cream of mushroom on hand)
+ 2 soup cans of water
1/2 c. milk
2 T. cornstarch
pepper

Dumplings:
2 c. Bisquick
2/3 c. milk



Stir broth, soup and water together well in pan.  Add chicken.  Bring to boil, then cover and simmer for 8 minutes until cooked through.  Remove from heat, let cool for a few minutes, remove chicken, and shred. Return chicken to pot. 

Mix a little of the milk into the cornstarch, and then stir into the pot. Add the rest of the milk.

Prepare the dumplings according to the box directions. It's really important to get the broth hot enough before adding the dumplings.

And it's done. Magic in a pot. To your table. In your grateful husband.  And they lived happily ever after.

September was a great month --

and I don't want to forget it, so I'm backtracking the whole month.

Spent more time on the back deck, the weather is just perfect outside. Some of our trees have been cleared out to open a bit more of the view.

 

Trevor and I had lunch downtown at Wasabi's.  Instead of sharing sashimi as an appetizer, I ordered it for my lunch.  So, so DEE-LEE-SHUSH!!!!!

 
 The Taubman Art Museum now has free admission, so Trevor and I spent a bit of time there.  The balcony was open to the public (which really meant us, because I think we were the only patrons in the building!), and we took some fun photos.

Trev's been reffing games when he can. Fall season is less busy, and the schedule has worked out pretty well for him. We had quite a bit of rain, so some games were damp, some have been cancelled.

A local Salem business was the location of an amazing sculpture created from two Twin Towers beams that had melted together.  The business fell into bankruptcy, and the city(?) was able to get the sculpture. On September 11, it was erected and dedicated at a local fire station a block from my work.  I went by later in the afternoon. 

Words can't express how moving it was.  Being in Denver for 9/11 was different than what people experienced here.  A friend's cousin was killed that day; it just hit people here closer to home.  There were a handful of others taking photos, a family or two bringing their children by.  A fireman was outside chatting with anyone about the memorial.  There was also a large photo on display showing the original location of the beams.

Very emotional for me.

Soccer (playing) was pretty much a washout.  HAHAHAHA!  Three of five games this season have rained out. However, we are now solidly in first place, so there's some good!

Perfect night for visiting and catching up. I brought this little one along. She's been stuck at home too much, and she actually behaved really, really well. 

Grabbed a shot of this cutie running by, post win.

Celebrating and wrapping up under the lights. Despite the awful grass conditions and challenging parking, it's always fun to play at this field, just because of the location.

 Some fun hacking into Robert's iPad.  It took Trevor all of about 3 seconds to get through the passcode.  Then he changed Robert's wallpaper.  :D Hahaha!!!

Pretty trails on one of the clear mornings.

Ongoing skirmishes with the ice maker, resulting in this battle.  I'm not sure if I won or lost, but it was pretty entertaining at 6:30 a.m.

There were a couple of food runs up to Holly, including visits to Petsmart, Roti (my new favorite), an H-Mart shopping trip for Trevor (with Holly and him furiously texting to be sure we bought the right stuff), and stringing Holly's white lights around her bedroom.

 Holly's Rice Plate with steak, couscous, 

olives and feta, served with a pita on the side

Holly and I have been watching Parenthood most nights.  Were not on a set time, but we will arrange to press PLAY together, and then we text comments back and forth about the show.  In response to one of the storylines, I got this. 

I took the plunge and decided to start getting gel manicures.  I am going to a place right around the corner from work on my lunch hour. The gel sets instantly and lasts a good two weeks.  I hate the expense, which is a very reasonable $17, but the convenience!!  I used to love painting my nails but stopped sometime after Holly was born (or maybe after Trev was).  This is a true luxury for me!  Not the best picture, but the only one I have!

A couple of movie dates with Trevor, quite unusual in that I go to the movies once every two or three years.  We did two in three days, seeing War Room and then Everest.

We (and I use that term very loosely) have been working on a 2000 piece puzzle for almost two months.  I finally got the rest of the village in, the rocks, the walls.  All that was left were about 200 pieces of solid blues and dark green pieces of sky and water.  I gave up, boxed it up, and gave it away. I enjoy doing the puzzles, but I'm sticking to 1000 pieces, and not giving in to the pressure from other people here who abandon my project, lol.

This wet rat, after her shower.  Robert calls it her Spa Day.  She can sense when it's coming, and it's hilarious to watch her walk quickly after he calls her, then try to hang with me for safety. As if!!

 Ladies Coffee and Crochet continues on. Such an amazing group of ladies, usually with 6-8 out of the group of about 18 showing up on Tuesday nights.  They also meet every Thursday, but I don't go to that.  Sometimes Tuesdays are at a local coffee shop, sometimes at someone's home.  Incredible to see this come together, something Judy's wanted for eight years but couldn't get details to mesh, and then watch what happens under God's PERFECT timing! Love, love, love these ladies!

 Judy, me, Sarah, Starla, Tammy, Kathy, Linda, Westleyan, Carole

and no idea who took the photo!

More rains, fog. Mostly wet, wet, but gentle and warm, not windy and cold, which I appreciate. A great September, summed up by this outside.

Labor Day weekend

Thursday

Trevor reffed his first soccer games of the season.  This season is rec league games, easy and often entertaining.  He said he'd have done one game for free, because it was hilarious to watch the coach interact with the players.

Friday

My work team's "Annual Day Out," where we prepared race packets for the Commonwealth Catholic Charities race coming up this weekend and went to lunch.  Nice to get a good start on the holiday weekend!

First soccer game of the season for Trevor and Robert.  Amid thunderstorms rolling through the valley, the league director refused to call games for the night.  Driving to the downtown fields (where the fall games are played), we hit torrential rains. Still the director refused. When the lightning continued, Robert told me to turn around, and he called each of his players to tell them we would not play, regardless of whether the game was called or not.  SO GLAD!!  The game was eventually called, but it's just a continuation of poor mismanagement. There will be no tears shed here when we are through with this league--but that's sad too, because it's been such an integral part of our life for seven years.

Saturday

Took the rest of Holly's stuff up to her.

Gas @ $2/gallon, less than $20 to fill my tank, which gets me there and back home.

Traffic was light, considering the holiday weekend. The traffic was faster than usual, fewer trucks, less police presence (surprisingly).

Got a 30 minute parking spot right in front of her building (SCORE!!!!), unpacked everything.

Lunch at Chipotle.  I bumped into Holly, knocking her just filled drink out of her hand, and it fell on the floor, popped open and went everywhere.  Ooops!!

To the odd little Walmart for a few things.  Returning the cart to the cart corral, I came THISCLOSE to someone backing into me--as in my body. Scared the crap out of me.  And he was driving down the traffic lane and then unpredictably threw his car into reverse. I waited for him to park and did nicely talk to him, saying that I hoped we both learned something that would prevent something bad happening in the future.

To the Peruvian chicken place to pick up half a chicken for her to take home.

Back at school, the formerly $3/hour parking garage is now charging $8 for the weekend. No more hourly rates.  Whatever! I found their parking app that hadn't been updated and paid my usual fee, yay, me.

We organized and put up a lot of Holly's decorations, a couple of framed posters, the door mirror. We hung out in the living room.

We went downstairs and got Starbucks, walked across campus to find a distant classroom that Holly hadn't been to yet. We went to the JC where I bought this.

On our way out, I carried empty boxes, and Holly carried the empty cooler.  She took a nasty stumble into a hole on the dirt path.  I can't believe she didn't hurt herself worse, although she's got some nasty bruising, she didn't injure her ankle.  Definitely our day of spills and near misses!


Timed my leaving so I would miss JMU football traffic, and I got home just as it got dark.  Perfect day, and I even more appreciate the longer daylight hours so I can stay longer when visiting!  Perfect, perfect!

Sunday

A nothing day, which we passed on a couple of invitations for a bbq and a bonfire.  Lazies!!