Well, we are going to go back in time to the Friday before Christmas, December 19th. Why, well that was Anthony's Graduation Day! Although he finished classes in September the ceremony was in December. It was held at the Anaheim Marriott hotel with about 250 graduates. Anthony worked really hard the last 4 years and everyone is so proud of him. It was a fun ceremony, a bit on the artistic side, with a good speaker and many proud parents. 
A traditional Griffin Christmas dinner consists of ham, chicken, and/or roast beef, carrots, broccoli, green beans, sprouts, potatoes, stuffing, and yorkshire puddings (Well, the yorkshire puddings aren't always there but this year they made an appearance). 
Here's Martin and Jean (Jamie's grandparents), David and Jamie before dinner on Boxing Day.
Mark, his older brother, and his his fiancé Lisa.
Above, is the Christmas Cracker. Tom Smith, a baker of wedding cakes from Clerkenwell, London, invented the Christmas cracker in 1847. A cracker is made of cardboard tubing wrapped in decorated paper to resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper. It's pulled by two people, when broken in half one side is larger than the other, much like a wishbone. When in breaks there is a small snap, kind of like a cap gun. There is usually a toy, joke, and paper crown inside. Below is the largest cracker I've seen. Karen bought it for dinner or tea (In parts of England dinner is refered to as tea and lunch is called dinner, very confusing for me at times) at Jamie's Grans' house.
Below, is a picture of Jamie's brothers and his Dad on Boxing Day.
It was a fun trip but a bit tiring as we only were there a week. We are back at work today and I'm exhausted. It's just after 11 am and I'm ready for bed. Wonder if anyone would miss me if I disappeared for a quick/long nap?
Well, we've made it to England without any major problems. It was snowing in Chicago when we landed but boarded the plane on time. Although it took an hour to get de-iced and take off we were only 20 minutes late arriving in Manchester. You know you have landed in the right place when your plane goes around a roundabout to get to the gate! The weather has been pretty mild, no snow yet to Jamie's disappointment. We've mostly done last minute shopping in Hull and York and been seeing family. 
Above is a picture of York Minster, the largest Medieval Gothic cathedral north of the Alps and a treasure house of 800 years of stained glass and a great place to shop. Also above is a picture of a white rose, the symbol of Yorkshire (Lancashire is red, remember the war of the roses...)
Hope everyone has a Happy Christmas and we will upload our pictures when we get back.
Saturday was all about Tamales, a Saldana Christmas tradition. My Mom and Dad spent all morning preparing the meat and chili, we only do it once a year so their was plenty of head scratching as to how we did it last year. But they came through and the meat and chili was amazing, thank you. Our friends, Kenny & Jill, came over to help and learn the art of tamale making. Here's a little history of the tamale: A tamale is a traditional, indigenous Mexican food. It consists of steam-cooked corn dough, called masa, with a filling, we used pork, chili & cheese, wrapped in a corn husk. Tamales were developed as a portable ration for use by war parties in the ancient Americas, and were as ubiquitous and varied as the sandwich is today. 
So I have had a bit of time to surf the net for gift ideas. I have to say the gift that stuck out the most was the one pictured here. A personalized leather fly swatter with Italian bridle leather and a handmade American oak handle. Described as "a conversation piece you'll actually use." 
**Well, Frasier just didn't fit, it took about a week to decide but my mom has made her decision.
Apart for baking on Friday, we did more stuff around the house. Mainly painted doors and Jamie dug out roots in the backyard. On Saturday, we took a trip to Pasadena to tour the old neighborhoods and architecture. They have self guided pamphlets you can take with 10 different walking tours of the historic neighborhoods in the area. The pamphlets were alright but didn't have much info on them. Nothing seems to compare to Oxford. They have walking tours of the city, but they are a podcast, so you can download them to your ipod and print out a map. Then you can listen while you walk the city. It's a brilliant idea; convenient and much more user friendly then those hand held recordings at museums, plus less material is being used so it's better for the environment. Hopefully, everyone else will catch up and use new technology like this. At least Oxford is ahead of the game. Here are some of the buildings we saw.
Lastly, there is a new addition to the family. I would like to introduce Frasier. He is 8 weeks old and was flown in from Georgia on Friday. My mom has been looking for a new puppy for a while now and fell in love with him online. He is a Sharpei and a real doll. The plane ride over was a new experience for him but he is adjusting quickly to his new home.
Today's forecast in Hull is a high of 45°F and a low of 39°F. The sun rose today at 7:44 am and will set at 3:52 pm (yes, that is 8 hours and 8 minutes; Orange County's sunrise is at 6:32 am and sunsets at 4:44 pm, 10hrs 14min, we get an extra 2 hours of light). When we land on December 20th it will be the shortest day of the year. Which is probably a good thing, because I'm going to be craving a warm bed and a good nights sleep. 
Our weekend started off great. Jamie and I took Friday off of work and decided to do a hike with David in Laguna Canyons. We started a little later than we had hoped and could feel the heat building as we made our way down the trail. The hike along the ridge was fine but the drop into the canyon was brutal. No wind and the sun beating down. By the time we finished the hike the winds were starting to pick up. 
I'm glad we did the hike on Friday morning because Saturday was a completely different day. We left the house around 10:30 am and could already see the smoke building in the distance. With the Santa Ana winds starting there is a high risk of fire, especially with so many careless people about and the all too common pyro just waiting for the right conditions. The fires have been close enough to raise an eyebrow and make you think of what you would take with you if it got close enough. But it would have to burn through miles of dense city before it would get to us. The fires were very close to three of my Aunts and a few friends. Luckily they weren't evacuated but were definitely worried. The air quality was pretty poor and the wind and heat made it pretty miserable to be outside. We had planned to go out to Riverside for a hike but as soon as I heard about the SAnta Ana winds I questioned that and I'm glad we didn't go. It would have been far too close to where the fires were. So instead of being outside we went to go see the new Bond film, get some In-n-Out, and basically stay inside and cool. Unfortunately not the most fun filled weekend we've had but nice and relaxing to say the least. Sunday we had a bbq with my parents, carne asada and chicken. Delicious.
Here is the view from our house, the smoke building in the sky.
Another weekend has flown by. The weather is definitely starting to change, we have piles of leaves all over our front yard(blown over from the park). We got rain last week but it looks like Santa Ana winds are suppose to start on Wednesday and start to die off on Sunday :( But luckily, Saturday was a beautiful day. We all got together for my mom's birthday at Sweet Basil. We had a party of 15 and were lucky enough to get the whole back patio to ourselves. The food was amazing and the portions were just right. The nights have been a bit cooler lately, but they had a plastic covering all along the patio which kept the temperature warmer.
A small treat for the Birthday Girl and then it was back to the house.
The cake was amazing as usual, my mom's favorite, white cake with buttercream frosting and lemon mouse filling. It's pretty sweet though and even Jamie couldn't finish all his frosting. My mom on the other hand had no problem!
We had a relaxing Sunday, we went out for a bit but watched movies in the evening. David came back from his trip around 5:30pm. Conviently, just in time for dinner. Luckily, we made a whole Shepherds Pie so there was plenty to go around. He had gone to Vegas on Tuesday and Wendesday and then was planning on going to the Grand Canyon, but Thursday morning we got a text that he was in San Francisco. He decided to drive the 600+ miles from Vegas to Frisco. He stayed a few days and started to make his way south on Saturday. He had a great trip and got to see quite a bit. Next weekend we are planning on doing a bit of hiking but if the Santa Ana winds start up we may have to decide on something else.
I've enjoyed learning about Aztec culture and tradition. Luckily, through school we read some of the works from classic Aztec poets translated from their language, Nahuatl:
