Happy Birthday Angela!

Happy Birthday Angela!  Below are a few pictures of a great night out at Bistro 400.  The live Jazz music was great!! 

Achievements

Well, its bonus and review time for most of us and this year has turned out to be a pretty big year.  Jamie was promoted from a Research Chemist to a Research Scientist :)  I've been offered and taken a new position as a Data Analyst within the Regulatory Reporting team (yeah me).  My Dad was given two awards this year; Manager of the Year (for the 3rd time in his career) and the Lifetime Achievement Award!  No one deserves it more than him in my opinion :)  We've all worked hard this last year and it is nice to get some recognition.  Not a bad way to start the year! 

Orange Picking

While reading a magazine, we discovered there is still a place in Southern California where you can pick your own oranges.  Unfortunately, its not in Orange County but we enjoyed the drive inland and surprisingly didn't hit any traffic.  So last weekend the weather was perfect for some good old fashioned orange picking. 

Unfortunately we weren't the only ones in on this great idea, so the oranges were all the way up there.  Easy for someone with long arms not so easy for someone like me.

 Jamie had a much easier time

I still managed to get a few. 

It was $5 for a whole bag of oranges, which is pretty amazing.  We also picked a couple of grape fruits and some really nice looking lemons (although not as big as the ones growing in our yard :)  We had a lot of fun and learned its a bit harder than it looks, lol.  Now what to do with all these oranges...maybe some marmalade I guess!

Miss Us!

Have you missed us?  It's been a while since we last posted.  We've been busy but not really doing anything that exciting.  We have started to plant some things in the front yard, which I'm sure our neighbors are happy about and have been doing stuff around the house, getting pictures framed, buying storage racks for the garage.  Not too interesting to write about.  Jamie is also taking a woodworking class on Sundays.  I should have some pictures this weekend for the Super Bowl.  The picture above was taken last year in October at our Neighborhood Meeting.  Our signature Giant Battenburg and Marzipan Fruits that everyone loved :)

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 :)