Happy New Year!

2011 is here!  I can't believe it's January already and we are starting another year and another decade.  The time seems to go by so fast.  The holidays are over and we are all back to work now :(  We had a really amazing Christmas and New Year, simple and quiet but a lot of fun.

  

New Year's Eve we decided to go out to Palm Springs for the day and see the Air Museum.  We got an early start about 8:15 am and found a thin layer of ice on the windshield.  So Jamie had the luxury of scraping it off while I sat in the cold car.

Of course I didn't miss the opportunity to take a few pictures of the process.  It doesn't happen often but it does happen!

Luckily there wasn't much traffic on the way up or the way back.  It was a clear day,a bit cold but at least it stopped raining! 

It was a really neat museum and most of the volunteers were WWII vets.  We ended up getting a private tour from one of them.  He liked to talked and definitely was happy we were there to listen.  We heard some good stories and saw some pretty awesome planes.

We had a lot of fun out in the desert.  New Year's day we went over to my parents house for dinner and then over to my brothers place to play darts and cards for the evening.  We had a relaxing weekend, quietly dreading the start of the week knowing it was back to work and back to the gym.  At least we are now half way through the week, only two more days to the weekend, lol.  Hope everyone had a great holiday!!!

Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas this year.  As usual we went over to my parents house on Christmas Eve to celebrate with the extended family.  It was a really nice evening with a bit of excitement as my Dad's prime rib roast went ablaze!  A small, sort of big, grease fire broke out but was swiftly put out by Andy's suggestion of pouring beer on it.  To all of our surprise it worked and the meat was saved :)  The meat was really good as usual and we also had the tamales we made and some ham, lots of food! 

Christmas Day we had my parents and Anthony and Laura over to exchange presents and have a nice dinner together.  We cooked a leg of lamb and it came out so good.  We were a bit worried but it was cooked just right and nice and juicy.  I also made a gravy to go with it that came out really good too :)

While Jamie and I cooked and after we opened presents the rest of the family watched the big Laker's game.  It kept them occupied while we cooked and we were able to pause and fast forward by recording it which worked out really well.  Of course, the Lakers didn't really show up for the game as everyone was hoping which was a bit disappointing.

Here we are at the table, just before we started eating.

Laura enjoyed the crackers and really embraced her harmonica prize!

It was really nice to spend the day together.  We all enjoyed the gifts and food but we truly enjoyed the holiday!

Gingerbread House

It's been a wet weekend and hasn't stopped raining since Friday.  We made tamales on Saturday and they came out amazing as usual.  I can't wait to have them on Christmas Eve.  We went to the movies and saw the new Narnia movie (it was good but not great) on Sunday and then made a gingerbread house in the afternoon. 

Complete with Marzipan doors and windows.



It was fun to make and took us a good hour to make but it wasn't long before our sweet tooth got the better of us :)

Christmas at Casa Griffin

We had a very productive and festive weekend!  Even though the weather was a bit warm (Okay some records were broken) we managed to have a very festive weekend.  We went to one of my co-workers Christmas party's on Friday and had a great time.  He has an amazing house, complete with a bar and wine cellar that everyone enjoyed!  Saturday we bought our tree and went to our neighborhood Snow Party in the park and Sunday we started and finished our Christmas Shopping :)

 Saturday we set up the tree and decorated.  It's so beautiful and the house smells so good.

 Our stockings are hung and ready for Santa!

All the presents are wrapped and under the tree, I think we are ready for Christmas.  Next weekend we will make Tamales, I can't wait!  Christmas just isn't complete without Tamales. 

 Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season!

Christmas at Disneyland

I've always heard that Disney is pretty amazing during Christmas but we never had the time or money to go.  So we made it a point this year to see it.  We took Friday off of work, had a nice lazy morning, got a late breakfast at The Filling Station in Orange and then headed over to Disneyland.  We got there around 11am and stayed till 10:45pm.  I have to say it was pretty amazing!

To see the park all decorated and some of the rides converted to a holiday theme was so much fun.  Hearing all the Christmas music and seeing the holiday parade really got us in the season.  Of course, the best part was seeing everything lit up at night.  It was a cool night and it felt great to pull on our jackets and wonder around the park seeing everything so bright and festive.  We stayed for the holiday fireworks show and right after the show it started snowing!  Ok, it was more like foam then ice but it was pretty cool.  We also decorated the house this weekend so we are now in Holiday mode, we still need to pick out our tree but it's starting to feel like Christmas :)  At least half of our shopping is done, hopefully the other half won't be too difficult...

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving and so much to be thankful for this year.  We had my parents, Anthony and Laura, Grandpa, and my Uncle Lionel over this year.  Everything was just about ready at the same time and was delicious :)  It was such a pleasant meal and everyone seemed to have a really nice time.

 Jamie and I started cooking early and the Turkey took just over 4 hours to cook.  Of course we completely devoured everything in under 30minutes,  lol.  Here we are digesting before desert.

Of course my Mom made her famous Cherry Pie and we made a very deep dish pumpkin.  Anthony and Laura stayed after dinner and we played a game called Origins.  It was so much fun, I don't think any of us have laughed that much in a long time.

With the long weekend, we decided to go out for the day.  We went to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to see the illuminated manuscripts exhibit.  It was such a beautiful autumn day, a bit chilly with the wind but the sun felt pretty good.

The museum is located on the hills overlooking the ocean which makes a great view.  The manuscripts were pretty spectacular.  They had books from Belgium, The Netherlands, France and a few English ones as well.

It was a really nice day out, we had a good time at the museum and enjoyed being outside.  It was so nice to not be at work on a Friday.

Saturday we went to Pasadena to see the Gamble House.  It's now part of the USC Architectural School and is located very close to the Rose Bowl.  The home was owned by the Gamble's as in "Proctor and Gamble" and they donated the property to the City of Pasadena and USC to maintain.   

We've seen a lot of houses and stately homes over the years and this one definitely is one of the top houses we have seen.  It's a classic Craftsman house and every detail of the house was thought out.  The wood throughout the house was just beautiful, it's really amazing how the other half lives.  Afterwards, we went to Colorado Blvd for lunch.  The weather has been pretty cold the last couple of days.  It's definitely starting to feel like the Holiday Season :) 

Milissa's Wedding

Last night was a big night for my Aunt Milissa!  She married my cousin's dad, Mike G.  It was a great night and we all had so much fun.  The newly wed couple looked so happy together and it was nice to talk to family and meet friends we had heard about so many times but had never met before.

Milissa has always loved decorating and putting on parties, so we new her wedding wouldn't be any different.  This time she was able to team up with Anthony's girlfriend, Laura, who helped her coordinate the wedding and put together all the decorations.  Laura did an amazing job!  The ceremony and reception was in Milissa's backyard and the place was stunning.

We arrived a bit early to help out :)

The lighting made it difficult to get decent pictures and for some reason the flash was not cooperating with us, but I kind of link this picture of the ceremony.  It has a dream like effect to it, its pretty cool.

Mom and Anthony

Milissa chose a black and white themed wedding and so asked all the guests to wear black and white.

Here are the Saldana's getting their grove on, someone had to get the dancing started! 

It was a really great night!  Milissa and Mike looked so happy together and we are happy they finally realized they were meant to be together.