Eileen's Birthday and Hanukkah

 Last Sunday was Eileen's birthday!   We enjoyed celebrating together at a Chinese restaurant in Petaluma.   

Last weekend also was Jason's anesthesia work party--it was fun to reconnect with his old colleagues, and think about how much his practice changed since he joined.   

Also, I took Alaina to see the Nutracker in Marin.  We enjoyed the show--her classmates was supposed to be in it, but she was sick so we missed her!

This weekend, we celebrated the beginning of Hanukkah.   Gary and Eileen made Latkes and a stew, and the kids enjoyed opening presents.

The holiday celebrations continue!

Jason is 45!

 Well Jason is now in the thick of his "mid-forties".   On Monday, he turned 45 and we had a nice dinner to celebrate.

He always likes crab for his birthday--but the fishing season keeps getting pushed back, and fresh crab has been impossible to get recently.   However, about a month ago he received some frozen crab in the mail--so it was the perfect opportunity to cook it up.   Jason's parents were able to join and they all really enjoyed it.  (Alaina and I had some pasta!)

For dessert, of course, we had his favorite, mint chip ice cream cake.   And for his present, I gave him a new jacket.

So, not Tahoe, but not too bad either!

Busy December

 And it begins...our most busy month of the year!   

This weekend, we had planned to "get away from it all" and head to Tahoe for Jason's birthday weekend.  Unfortunately, a blizzard was forecast and we decided it was not worth the difficulty of getting up there with the snow (and need to get back for work on Monday).  Jason was a little disappointed, but you can't mess with Mother Nature...

Also disappointing, we had planned to cut down a Christmas tree while up in Tahoe.  Instead, we headed to the Home Depot to get a pre-cut one.   It was pretty sad compared to the one we got last year--needles were dropping like flies from the thing before we even got out of the parking lot.

We enjoyed decorating it anyhow.  The rest of the weekend, we enjoyed doing a lot of cooking and hanging out.   So, not Tahoe, but still a lot of fun family time!