Come and Gone . . . Fast

That was fast, we just ate the last of the pumpkins, the last of the turkey, the pea soup made from the Christmas ham bone and now it is a whole new year! And it is cold and rainy as well. The last few nights have been in the 20s, so lots of frost in the morning.

We managed to stay on track by taking down all semblances of Christmas -- except the wreath. We will leave that up for a few more days.

Driving throughout the neighborhood, we saw the remnants curbside of the season, soon there will be little left as we move into the new year.

Tradition has it that we watch the Pasadena Rose Parade on New Year's Day, and we did.

I have enjoyed the parade for years after the few years that I lived in Pasadena and enjoyed the parade first-hand at that time.

It was fun watching the parade floats being built and then the parade and then the display afterward.

But, I have to say that some of the images of the floats are becoming variations of themes over the years. There are only so many ways to depict but yet each year we are amazed at how the floats still manage to create unique and appealing displays.

It did take us several hours to view the parade as we put it on hold several times to do other household tasks, but eventually, we did see the entire parade.

So, what follows the parade -- brunch usually, but in this case, it was just lunchtime.

We only saw a handful of college football games this year -- but we did not want to miss the "Grandaddy of them all".

It was, of course, the traditional type match up of a Midwest team versus a west coast team:
Stanford Cardinal vs the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The very first play of the game illustrated what was to follow throughout most of the game and that is: Stanford, Stanford, and more Stanford.

For a while,it seemed like Iowa might remain scoreless or clueless, but then a way too late barrage of offense gave them a few points in the second half. Nothing stopped the Cardinal though.

In years gone by we might have watched other bowl games, but this one game satisfied our interest.
We napped after the game to refresh ourselves in time to eat the pea soup that I made using the ham bone from the Christmas ham -- sooo good!

Coming up are the NFL playoffs starting on the 9th of January and the 10th with the Wild Card events.

Later, on the 16th & 17th are the Divisional Playoffs.


Followed by the Conference Championships on the
24th with both games happening on that day.

This all culminates in the Super Bowl which is
on Sunday, February 7 this year in the San Francisco
Bay Area.

We won't be going to the game, needless to say, but
certainly we hope to watch the game as we have done for most of the 49 previous Super Bowls.

Above you can see that "Finding Your Roots" starts anew this coming week, Tuesday, the 5th.

This show usually features three individuals each show and uncovers very interesting details about their family history.

I plan to watch these shows as I have in the past and just know that I'll enjoy them a lot. If you click on the above you can see the ten-week schedule and the folks that will be featured.

And lastly, just a reminder of the countdown:

The day will come fast, just like almost every other event recently.

That is a bit of our week. Enjoy the rest of this holiday week -- today and tomorrow, and for some of you it is "back to the grind" on Monday . . .

It is Saturday and so probably "dogs" for lunch and burgers pea soup for dinner!

See you all "in a few"!