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We flew to San Francisco in early December for Jimmy's 90th birthday party, which was actually a great excuse to see Jim and Jonee, Megan, Justin and Max, and Bill and Matilda, besides catching up with my cousins. |
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We spent Thursday and Friday in Santa Cruz, hanging out. We went to a local glass factory and bought a lot of hand blown crystal. The artist went to high school with Suzy's brother Ray! Small world. Hawk got to read Max some stories. |
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The next week, we flew to Santa Fe for a meeting. Hawk spent 4 days in meetings to write a paper on tailoring research issues, and I spent a lot of time at the spa, walking through downtown Santa Fe and checking out art galleries. We went to fabulous restaurants -- Pasquals, Ristra and Geronimo. The last night we made chiles relleno for Debbie and Marty. They were delicious. |
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| We spent a couple of days in Madison, then we headed for Chicago with Ray. We had a lot of food for Christmas. Peter roasted a leg of lamb for dinner on the 23rd, and Morgan got to open Suzy's present for him, which was a cement mixer. With a flywheel and a crank that makes the mixer turn. Christmas eve lunch was crouches. |  |
| On Christmas Eve we cooked and cleaned the house, we all got dressed up, and then Santa came. |  |
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He gave Morgan a great big candy cane. When Peter asked Morgan who brought him the candy cane, Morgan said "Hawk brought it." |
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Santa also gave Morgan a present. Morgan had some serious doubts. Later when Hawk was downstairs in his tuxedo, Morgan said, "Hawk, why did were you wearing Santa's clothes?" Aargh! |
| We had lobster/seafood pappardalle with caesar salad and chocolate raspberry dacquoise. It was really delicious. Peter and Meredith stayed at the Drake in Chicago, and came for Christmas Eve dinner. They gave the kids gift certificates for stores that are only in Madison, so they have to come see us to redeem them. So cool! |  |
| Joyce and Tad sent Morgan an excavator, which Ray helped him put together. |  |
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There's a screw missing |
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Ray gave Hawk a pair of huge swim fins for our upcoming cruise in Baja with Peter and Meredith. |
| The huge mystery present that showed up under the tree on Christmas was a stereo from Haliam to Paisley and Peter. Just because. Very perfect gift, probably the best one. |  |
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Liam did dishes, vacuumed, worked until Haley made him stop. She is the only one who can. |
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We had prime rib, roasted vegetables and fennel au gratin for Christmas dinner. Mari and Ed brought cardamom ice cream to have with our poached pears for dessert. And Liam got a dewar of liquid nitrogen so we could watch them make it on the spot. Ed poured the nitrogen into the ice cream while Mari stirred, it took about 3 minutes. The texture was perfect, so smooth and delicious. |
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Suzy holds Cora by the Christmas tree. She's wearing her hat, sweater and booties from Helen. |
| The weather got nicer all week, especially New Year's Eve, when it broke 60. Paisley and Peter washed their new little chili-red convertable mini. |  |
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We spread newspapers on the table and ate cracked Dungeness crab (with sliced cheese, no potato chips, though), prawns (big shrimp, Hawk) and mussels with pasta. It was fabulous food and a great time. Then Haliam and Paisley and Peter went out. We watched a street fight from our front windows at 3:30, very scary. The next day was Haliam's second anniversary, and we re-created their wedding dinner. Perfect! |