Christmastime at the Hiles/Adams

It was another week of beautiful "winter" days Northern California style. The nights have been in the 20s while the days have been in the 60s and mostly sunny every day. So cooler, warmer and drier than usual -- but very enjoyable. When Dino and I venture out in the middle of the night we can see our breath heavily in the air. I thought the pool had a layer of ice the other morning -- not.
But what could more traditional for the holiday time than picking fruit. Lemons to be specific, Meyer lemons at that. A few weeks ago it seemed that we just had a ton of green lumps, this week the tree was almost bent over it was so heavy with fruit:

This lemon tree very pretty produced far more lemons than we can use at the moment, so after giving some away we bagged up the rest and brought them to the food pantry.


A Tradition


While picking fruit really has not been a tradition -- maybe in the future years -- what has been a tradition for us is GrandParent's Night. It started with our Grand Nephew and Grand Niece and their Grandparents coming over for a holiday dinner complete with gifting and sharing. This year was no different even though the "kids" did not need to be driven over. Their parents used to use the time to go out shopping -- maybe they did this year too, but the event was as enjoyable as ever:

Above are some of the pics that commemorate this year's event, from the start to the finish. The food was great and the get-together fun and relaxing. Some great gifts were exchanged away from the hubbub of the coming big day . . .

A scene from the past


For some reason this picture brought out a certain nostalgia for me -- while this is not a photo of mine or my family's -- it could have been. We had a Pontiac like the one in the photo and we certainly visited "filling stations" like this one:

The site that had the picture is a great place to reminisce -- they have an "Old Picture of the Day" each day,
check out the site if it interests you -- I know I really like a lot of their selections.


A Dino Update


Dino has been a tremendous joy for us and he grows mentally and physically every day. He has learned so much in the three weeks (today) that we have had him. I already can see into the future -- 18 months from now . . . here are some of his weekly activities and poses:

Click to see some of the individual shots -- he has already been mistaken for a full-grown dog . . .but he is only 12 weeks old.


Some Pics of Christmas Past


While looking at some of my favorite sites I found some Christmas cards that looked familiar and so not-too-long ago scenes. The site is the Wisconsin Historical site and it holds a huge amount of very interesting things. These cards (or pictures of them) are for sale at the site:

So visit their site and you can see many many more examples of the above.


Our house today (Christmas Eve) is filled with the delicious aroma of a yule log -- not one in the fireplace because it is a "spare the air" day, but one that Gail is baking for the event tonight at the other Hiles' in town.
Each year we gather as most families do and enjoy the time of year with friends and family.

We will not be having "sliders" tonight, instead it will be a festive, delicious Christmas Eve dinner. I can taste it all right now . . .

Merry Christmas to all of you!  See you in a few!