It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas......

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around our house. We had a great weekend celebrating with friends and are looking forward to more of the same for the next couple of weeks!

Friday night, we gathered with friends at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Casa Orozco, here in Dublin. After dinner, we came over to our house for dessert, a little Wii, and chit/chat! Here's a picture of most of us.....

Lou and Paul and in the middle of a big story and you can tell that Kevin, Laurie, and Mary are getting a big chuckle out of what they are saying. John and Kristi pause for a photo, also! John, Paul, Lou, and Kevin went to high school together and have remained friends over the years. We were joined for dinner by John Glenn, another classmate, but he wasn't able to join us at the house. In addition to yummy cookies by Laurie and a lemon creme pie by Kristi, I made marbled cheesecake squares for dessert. Here's the link for the recipe:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=701127
As you might imagine, we all enjoy getting together and hope to do it more often in 2010.

Saturday was a blast with a noon viewing of Avatar in the IMAX 3D theater. Amazing movie! After the show, bunco was on our dance card. We get together with our friends Lou and Mary (she's the cause of my stamping addiction), Connie and Fawaz, Stella and Steve, Susan, and Dina and Jeff. Stella and Steve hosted....and their house was absolutely beautifully decorated for Christmas! So fun and festive. I made a new appetizer and am including the link to the recipe.....it was really good:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=230886. After a yummy dinner and some egg nog, we played bunco. John and I were shocked when I won $25 and he won $15.....our winnings paid for our Avatar tickets!! Woohoooo!!!!

The kitchen was "mission control" for Sunday. I made apricot snow, Seven Layer cookies, Cherry Bars drizzled with chocolate, and biscotti. I've taken pics of some of my creations and in the collage I've also included photos of those who so generously passed along their recipe to me....Mom (with Reagan) for the peanut brittle (made last week), Madonna (with Aunt Ila) for the apricot snow and biscotti, and Aunt Allyne (with Uncle Olin) for the Seven Layer cookies.   Thank you all for sharing your sweet tooth with me! After baking, I arranged some goodies in tins and delivered to friends....wishing them a Merry Christmas.

John paid me the best compliment by saying that the house was starting to smell a lot like Christmas. I think he had no idea how wonderful that made me feel. Christmas is a time when memories are on "high alert" and so many of them are from years of wonderful time spent with family and friends. Growing up, it seemed like Christmas was the entire month of December and we were very lucky because we grew up in the town where my Grandma Bock lived....so we got to visit with and enjoy all the family that came to see Grandma for Christmas. So many laughs, great meals, card games, and jigsaw puzzles!!! While I won't see all of you this Christmas season, know that you are in my heart and I love you very much!!!  As an adult, I spent many a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my second family, Susan and Eddie Wilson and their family.....I'll be with them this year on Christmas Day....so grateful and fortunate!

March Madness - trip to Butler

John and I returned home today after spending a wonderful week in Butler, Missouri....my hometown. Butler is a small town of about 4,000 people....60 miles south of KC. Family flew and drove in from different parts of the country (Washington, Georgia, Texas) and different parts of Missouri/Kansas (KC, Wichita, and the Lake of the Ozarks). I've learned how to make picture collages....here's a collage of a group of us at Aunt Opal's the day Uncle Olin and Aunt Phyllis joined the madness. I just wish I had a few pictures of us playing cards.....

Here are some pics of Charlotte, Mom, Mac, and me with Pat & Janie's cherubs....Marcus, Jack, and Reagan:

Last Saturday night, John and I were treated to dinner at the Umstattd's. We had a wonderful evening with Kris and Kevin....and we were joined by Judie (Kris's mom), Don and JoAnn (Kris's uncle and aunt), and Tamee and Doug(Kris's cousin and her husband). Many memories were shared and we certainly had a glorious time making new ones! I finally remembered my camera by the time we made it to dessert. These pics hardly do justice to the feast set before us.....thank you, Kris and Kevin, for a terrific night!! We're looking forward to your visit to the Bay area!

I was so lucky on this trip to convince JoAnn to share with me her secrets for making her marvelicious sugar cookies.....and to get Aunt Ila to divulge the secrets of Grandma Bock's chocolate meringue pie. Here are a couple of pictures of the final products.....

We've had a long day, so I'll sign off for now. John and I are looking forward to my cousin, Benita, and her daughter, Renata, coming to visit us on Thursday.....most likely will update after they leave next Tuesday. Until then, enjoy your days.....relish in good memories......push yourself to make wonderful new ones! Life is good.....live it!!!

March Madness

Forgive me, my neglected blog. John and I are back to our very active social life, so updates should be more frequent! Life on Crossridge Road continues to be wonderful!!!

We kicked off our month of March Madness by spending the day in Orinda with Cathy Jensen and her partner, Kathy (sp?); Bill and Claire Jensen; Cathy and David (John's sister and brother-in-law). The Jensens were neighbors of John and Cathy's growing up and they've kept in touch. Here they all are gathered around the fireplace:

We were treated to a wonderful brunch of french toast, grilled sausages, fresh fruits, scones....and these yummy chocolate dipped orange candies (homemade....can you believe it?)....they were marvelicious!!

Oh, before I forget, here was the lovely table before we were seated....note the cute napkin ring holders are bottomed-out miniature clay pots....so darned cute!!! Here are our wonderful hostesses....gracious, generous, and so thoughtful! Thank you so much for a wonderful day!

So, why do I call this March Madness? It's packed with many activities....John and I are headed to Butler for a visit with my family from March 10th - March 17th. Many other "Bock family" members will be meeting us there, so we'll have a fun week of visiting, card playing, eating, drinking, and being merry! March 19th brings a visit from my cousin, Benita, and her daughter, Renata. They are flying out from Colorado and one of the highlights of their trip will be attending (with me, of course) the Scrapbooking Expo at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. It's Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st....not sure what to expect, but it should be tons of fun!!! They are staying until the 24th, so we're hoping to take them to Point Reyes one day and then maybe to SF. On March 27th, we're getting together with friends for a wild night of eating, drinking, and playing Bocce Ball in Livermore. There are a couple of other social events, but you get the idea.....madness.....in a good way.

That's it for now....going to make a couple of cards and then call it a night. If you're on Facebook, look me up as I often post photos on my FB account that I don't post here.

Happy days to you, dear friends! Love, Carolyn & John