Thanksgiving 2010

I just had to stick in this pix, shot from the Summit House Restaurant parking lot at the tip top of State College and Bastanchury Road in Fullerton. We've been having some crazy weather, one day rain, one day the Santa Anas are blowing and then the next day we drop by 40 degrees and have record lows. This morning as I was driving to school it was 35 degrees. I couldn't believe it! This shot was taken 2 days before Thanksgiving as a strom was approaching from the east.

Welcome to my home/studio where I actually cooked Thanksgiving dinner for J, and my kids. We had such a nice day playing scrabble and poker while we waited for the bird to be done.

Ta-DA.... there he is, the big bad boy, actually not so big only a 13 pounder and to be very honest a bit over grilled. Yep, I barbecued him up with a rosemary, onion, garlic, lemon,salt and pepper rub. He was still pretty deeee-lish even though the white meat was a bit on the dry side, and I served him with all the trimmings courtesy of Trader Joes. I did make my own mashed potatoes and gravy though. LOL And yesterday I made turkey soup with his leftovers. Yummy. Eating it right now as I post.

On Friday I asked J to take me to Santa Monica so I could visit my favorite fiber store, Wildfiber. He is always so patient with me as I browse and shop, never rushes me.

This shop carries so many beautiful fibers and great books. And sometimes if you are lucky you will spot a Hollywood star sitting knitting with all the regulars. It's oh so cool! This is comedian Tracy Ulman's favorite knitting store.

I think I know why it's so easy for Jim to be patient with me, this is the man corner below LOL

After Wildfiber, J drove me to the Santa Monica Pier, I'd never been there, and I was able to get these next couple of shots from the street and the No Parking Zones. We are soooo bad!

Like these 2 shots here. Top one is the amusement park on the pier, and the bottom one is looking off the other way towards Malibu. What a gorgeous day it was.

Then he asked me if I'd every been shopping along the 3rd Street Promenade. And when I told him no, he promptly found us a parking spot and off we went to send the next 2 hours enjoying all the sights. Of course it was really crowded, but there was so much to see, musicians, singers, jugglers, etc. plus all the people watching from our favorite outdoor cafe', Mickey Dee's. And I was even able to fit in a bit of Xmas shopping and some new boots for myself. :)

On the way home J cut over to Wilshire Blvd and drove us thru Brentwood (home to the O.J./Nicole slaying thing) I took a pix of the Bundy sign below, that's the street it all happened on. What I loved were the sky scrapers in the distance as Santa Monica turns into Brentwood which turns into Beverly Hills.

And then our last stop of the day as the sun was just starting to go down was to visit my dear Aunt Elena's grave at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. Aunt Elena passed away a little over 3 years ago now and she was our favorite Aunt. She was also my second mother and helped raise me (for the first 10 years of my life) after my father passed when I was 8 months old. I had the honor of designing her grave stone below. J cleaned around it and polished it up for the photo. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her. She was a great lady!

And below is her view of the skyline of Marina Del Ray and LAX. She gets to watch the jets come in. She picked a breathtaking view for herself.

Saturday my battery died in my camera when my son took me to see the beautiful Xmas tree displays at Rogers Gardens in Newport Beach, one of our favorite places to go together. Hopefully I can get back there soon to take some pix to show you how spectacular the trees were. And Sunday I took J out for brunch and came home and made my shopping list for Xmas and got myself organized for the upcoming season. What a great 4 days off!!