Cindy Lou Who is coming to an end!

Aeri finishes up this year's run of the Broadway play, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the Musical" in Sacramento California tonight. Bittersweet ending--will be nice to be finished and come home, but she had so much fun and so well received. 

Posting a few "screenshots" of her Instagram page of recent reviews where she was specifically mentioned!

She and  Tammy fly home on Monday and back to school on Tuesday! We are certainly in awe of both our Granddaughters!!

friends, food and Bacon Day

Did you know that Dec 31 is National Bacon Day?!?! Reynard received a gift bag to celebrate including bacon crackers, bacon bits, bacon jam, bacon popcorn, bacon cheese,  and BACON!! He is a true bacon lover!

Fresh made scones, frittata, red pepper and cheese quiche, fresh berry salad. . .the works.

Steph and Reynard hosted an amazing holiday brunch and invited dear friends Sam and Rebecca and Jean (Rebecca's lovely Mom)

Drove to Indianapolis to pick out tile for their new house and treated ourselves to Indiana fried chicken at iconic local eatery called, "The Eagle."

And then Doug and Lia came to Bloomington. . .

Christmas dinner at "Uptown".

They will be moving into their "redone" house soon. It's getting close to being finished. By the time Steph returns from Hong Kong in the spring, they should be in.

Santa came to Bloomington!

off again!

Merry Christmas

Stephanie and Reynard with her special deep dish pizza

Flew out to Indiana on Christmas Day to spend the week with Steph and Reynard.

Out for A Peruvian food.

Out for dinner with Ginny and . Tonight was Peruvian. Loved every dish we tried. Found out that Peru is where Ceviche comes from! Several varieties on the menu. I could go back just for the Ceviche!! Great food, great company. 

Wreaths at the Veterans cemetery.

On the way back from our hike we went over to Marana to the Arizona State Veterans Cemetery. The laid a wreath on every grave, at every columbarium niche and every cremation buriel sight. It was a very lovely and moving sight to see. It's a truly reflective place to be anyway, but this was such a nice way to honor the veterans at this time of year.

Petroglyphs at Cocoraque Butte

Needed a hike in the desert so took the Jeep down some dusty roads to Ironwood National Monument, west of Tucson and hiked to Cocoraque Buttes where there are ancient Petroglyphs. 

Passed thru BLM cattle graising land.

Far as we can drive, now we walk.

Not a clear path to follow but plenty of footprints leading to where others have found them. Directions to look for the dead tree--and there they are on the rubble of rocks!! Have to look up near top to find most of them, but they are all along the ridge. Need binoculars and camera with zoom to really see them.

So absolutely quiet in this desert landscape.

Looks like a stormy day but wasn't. Cloud cover made it comfortable to hike the desert.

Not even birdsong out here, but did spy this Red Tailed Hawk!

Saguaros seem to have personalities. What made this one so wavy?

Winterhaven

A enjoyable evening taking in all the Christmas lights in Winter Haven. It's an established neighborhood near down town that goes all out for Christmas. They close the streets to cars so you just walk the streets.  You can pay for a ride on a trolley but more fun to just walk. There are a few vendors selling food and musical groups entertaining from front lawns--just a festive mood--and LOTS of people enjoying it all.

making paper garlands

Who doesn't like Christmas decorations!

This is our display that goes up every year. My dear friend Linda G. made them almost 25 years ago while we still lived in Minnesota! I never tire of them and still get compliments every year!  My memory is that we had an auction at church to raise money for something or rather, and Will and our pastor-at-the-time bid against each other and got the price way up there! Worth every penny.

The Grinch continues!

A screen shot of Instagram. What a great review!

Tammy and Aeri in Los Angeles, Aeri has a couple more performances and then they move to Costa Mesa, CA for next series.

Doug and Lia on the way to California today. They will all be together for Christmas week! And Stephanie coming thru on her way to Bloomington, stopped for a layover in LA so she could catch Aeri's performance!

Aeri signing autographs! What a hoot!