Christmas -- Family

Matt, Kairee and Brett arrived on December 22, after an incredibly long trip down highway 5.  Matt had a bad headache when they arrived but Brett went right to the kitchen and began baking!  That boy loves to cook!

We have several traditions in the Boyer family.  One is that there are new pajamas waiting on everyone's bed when we get home on Christmas Eve.  When we get up on Christmas morning the stockings come first.  Then we open gifts one at a time from youngest to oldest.  There is always a new game under the tree from "Santa."  This year we got the #1 rated game by Games Magazine -- Trajan.  It took more time to read the instructions than to play the game.  It is a very complicated game.  I doubt we will play it very often.

Brendon, Brett's boyfriend, arrived on Christmas day from his trip to Minnesota.

Brett made us a Christmas vegan feast.  I loved every bite but my favorites were the beet tempura...

and the vegan cheese cake with a dark rum sauce.

On the day after Christmas we went to see Les Mis and then out to lunch and for a walk around downtown Claremont.  On the way home we realized that it was going to be a gorgeous sunset.  It was clear all the way to downtown LA.

...and the sunset was worth seeing.

Brett and Brendon went home on the Megabus on Thursday.  We drove them into Union Station but we stopped first at Sage -- a vegan, organic restaurant in Echo Park.

Matt headed north on December 30.  The house seems sadly quiet.  We took down our decorations today....until next year.

Christmas -- Church

It was full Christmas season at church.  The office staff always comes to my house for lunch and a white elephant gift exchange.  I made the best bbq ribs....if I do say so myself.  Julie got the bonsai potato kit!

Then the whole staff and former staff gather for a Christmas potluck.  The food is amazing and it is the one way Bryan and I, as parents of a vegetarian and vegan, get turkey and ham.

After the meal we sang Christmas carols with Shawn and Ryan.  We sounded so good we are beginning to talk about having a staff choir next Advent.

My family arrived at the church at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve for the 9 p.m. service.  I roped them into lighting the luminaries.  They graciously agreed and then they went into the balcony before everyone arrived.

The church was beautiful and the choir was amazing.

Then we went out onto the courtyard and let our light shine.  It is always such an amazing experience.

I got two days after Christmas off and then came back to work to do a much anticipated wedding.  It was my privilege to be part of it!

The Day After Thanksgiving

We headed to Laguna for breakfast.   I like to eat at the Cliffs Restaurant because you sit outside, right above the ocean.  So while you enjoy a good breakfast and drink your morning coffee you also get to smell the saltwater and watch the seals and dolphins.  It was beautiful...if not a little cold.

Then we walked through Laguna a little bit and got to see my favorite volkswagen.

Bryan, Brett and Brendon headed for home.  Matt, Kairee and I went down to Newport Beach for a bike ride along the ocean...

...and some pizza!

Vegan Feast

It used to be that Thanksgiving was a day of watching football and playing games....and I cooked a feast.  By the end of the day I wasn't as in love with my family as when I first got up.  The last several years Brett and I have cooked together and it has been wonderful.  This year Brett and his boyfriend, Brendan, did all the cooking....everything from scratch....everything without animal products.  When I woke up on Thanksgiving morning, Brett and Brendan had gone for a run.  When they returned they made French Toast for everyone before they began on the feast. They literally worked all day.  Bread from scratch; they made their own pasta;

spaghetti with meatless meatballs;

beet ravioli;

pumpkin pie; kale salad; mashed potatoes/with asparagus and mushroom gravy.  It was endless.

Matt made the one non-vegan dish on the table for us traditionalists....green bean casserole....

and he also showed us his strength by tearing the phone book in half.

The rest of us rested...and played games

.....until it was time to clean up...then we all got involved.

Thanksgiving Eve

I took the day before Thanksgiving off so that I could spend the day with Matt and Brett and their significant others.  Having my family home makes me so happy and content.  It always includes wrestling, Nintendo 64 games, looking at old family photos and lots of vegan food.

After considerable negotiation, we drove into Los Angeles to Griffith Park.  We parked across from Trails Cafe and hiked up to the Griffith Observatory, a 2 mile round trip hike.  This old woman has to hike with her poles.  Brett's boyfriend, Brendan, would run ahead and run back.

It wasn't a clear day.  It would be an amazing view on a less smoggy day.  But the view of the observatory and the Hollywood sign was good.

The observatory doesn't open until noon.  After reading the Yelp reviews of the Cafe at the End of the Universe, we decided to hike back down and eat at the Trails Cafe.  It was delicious.  I highly recommend the blueberry almond scone!  We left by 12:30 p.m. trying to beat the worst of the traffic.  Even so it took twice as long to get home as it took to get there.

A Day with Bryan

I went to the church this morning to meet with Cal DeWitt and several members of our congregation.  Cal DeWitt is in town to meet with La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church.  DeWitt spoke at the Brave New Planet Conference last year in Claremont.  He came to tour our facility and see if he had any suggestions to make on next steps we could take in sustainability.  I always enjoy seeing the solar panels on our roof.

Since I spent the entire weekend at District Conference and at church, Bryan was waiting for me to get home so we could spend some time together.  We jumped in the car and drove north on highway 39.  Matt gave Bryan a couple books for his birthday on hikes to take in Southern California.  We were hoping to visit Lewis Falls just south of Crystal Lake.  We had never driven north on highway 39.  What a nice drive.  First we passed the Morris Dam.

Then we passed the San Gabriel Dam.

We found the correct mile marker and headed up the hill in search of the falls.  There were dozens of downed limbs and we got confused on where the trail was located so we eventually headed back to the car.  It was still a nice hike.  We will try it again another time.

We headed to the California Cactus Center in Pasadena.  A wonderful person gifted me this weekend with a pot that was just begging to have a brain cactus planted in it.  They said they only had one brain cactus and so I nabbed it.  Here is the newest addition to my home!

By then it was the middle of the afternoon and Bryan and I were starving.  We had lunch/dinner at El Cholo Restaurant.  I highly recommend the filet tacos.  We went to see Skyfall at Arclight.  I love seeing movies there.  I love a day with Bryan.

Natural History Museum

I didn't write on my blog for the whole month of October.  I was completely overwhelmed with the Progressive Brethren Gathering.  It was a big event on its own and then a few of us decided to write a musical.  So many people put in so much time.  The welcome we provided was obvious and genuine.

 I have been trying to catch up on all the things I set aside until after the Gathering.  But today Bryan said he wanted to go to the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park.  So we both dropped the many things we need to do and took off on an adventure.  Bryan remembered going to this museum years ago and had read that they had done some renovation.  What an incredible place.  There is just nothing like seeing a huge dinosaur skeleton or two....

or five.

The dioramas are exceptional.

As we were leaving we remembered that the shuttle Endeavor is now at Exposition Park.  We walked over to the California Science Center.  What a beautiful building.

For $2 a piece we joined others in admiring the Endeavor.  The size is amazing.  The wear and tear on the body of the ship gave me a sense of what happens as a shuttle leaves and re-enters the atmosphere. I was proud of what our country can do as I stood under the shuttle.

We only scratched the service of the amazing sites at Exposition Park.  I was glad to finally visit there.  I will go back.

In San Fran

Bryan and I left Thursday evening to drive to the Bay Area. We have been missing our sons and we wanted to meet Brett's boyfriend. On the way to their apartment we saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour fly over Lake Merritt in Oakland.

Brett and Brendan gave us a tour of their apartment, their garden and we met Bunny, the cat.

While we ate lunch we got a parking ticket, even after paying to park in a public lot. So after lunch we went to contest the ticket but with a stop at the Bonsai Garden next to Lake Merritt. I didn't know you could grow a Bonsai redwood.

On the way to City Hall we saw a Mariachi Band cross the street. It was just so random I had to take a picture. The security guard at City Hall made us listen to a very long joke before we were allowed up to the parking ticket office, where we just had to write down our plight to contest the ticket.

Brett and I went shopping together in the afternoon, something I rarely do. We smelled soaps, sampled free tastes at the grocery store and got some sorbet.

Tonight we went to the fabulous restaurant that Brendan manages and where Brett is interning. The best word I can use to describe the experience is "wow!". We had rhubarb salad, slow cooked eggs, squid and more. The food was organic, sustainable and local...plus it was some of the best tasting food I have ever experienced!

Then Bryan, Brett, Matt and I raced over to San Fran to see Chris Kattan at a comedy club. We joined 650 other people with the same plan. It was so bad. There were a couple of funny moments but not enough.

Free Shakespeare in the Park

Several weeks ago Bryan and I went over to Griffith Park on a Monday.  I had never been to Griffith Park and so we drove around and then enjoyed a picnic.  In our tour of the park we saw signs for "Free Shakespeare."  I took down the website and looked it up when I got home.

This past Saturday night we invited some friends and went to see a Midsummer's Night Dream at Griffith Park.  We parked near the merry-go-round and then hiked up the hill with our picnic supper.  If you bring a chair you have to sit back a ways but I much prefer to get out of chair than off the ground.  The bathrooms are close by. There are concessions.  The play is free.  We got there early enough to stake out some ground fairly close to the front.

The performance has quite a few modern additions.  For example, I doubt that the word "bratwurst" was in the original Shakespeare version. The costumes were definitely not Shakespearean.  I read on Yelp that sometimes the sound of the coyotes drown out the actors.  They do not have any microphones, they simply project.  None of that detracted from the play.  I had a thoroughly amazing time.  The modernization helped me follow the plot.