Leave the Year with a Party

                                                   A little gathering of friends for the new year.

Roxie and Rod drove an hour to be with us.

Crazy pictures were required of everyone

Our hosts for the evening - Fred and Lark

Fred is not so sure about my game

Margo and Norm are game for the antics of any kind.

Duane and Carolyn came dressed for fun

Funny shots from Roger and Diane

Sandy teaches at Pierce College - I think this must be part of her Pre-School Training  - Fish Face

Friends Rick and Virginia
We have shared our lives for about 40 years.   We met in Mattawa,
1975

Good Night 2013

This is such a beautiful picture ( From Rick Steve's Facebook Page).   I just had to take and make it the final picture for 2013 since we spent much of the year preparing, planning and enjoying Paris and France.

We are closing this year with friends who are coming over for games and goodies.     This is the second year we have invited mostly friends from church, and this time lifelong friends Rick and Virginia and Roxie and Rod.   I expect to have sixteen in all.

It has been a good year all in all.    I still miss my dad and don't expect that those feelings will go away very soon.

The time seems to go more quickly and age seems to whisper more strongly in my ear.    I will just have to sing louder.

Good Night 2013

As the Year Slips By

I am sitting with a cup of coffee this morning enjoying a moment with my (working) computer.   Mom is coming to stay for a week while she gets her cataracts removed, so I have cleaned the room and I am now sitting down to enjoy it a moment before I move to the next project.

I can hardly believe that I have been back from our trip for almost six weeks, and I have not finished putting together even a short group of pictures on e-mail.   Since there were 4 cameras with about 700-800 pictures each, there are many, many photos to review.

Fred and Lark - September in Paris 2013 ( Notre Dame Park)

I laugh at this picture.    We were reading everything about travel in Paris and were told not to wear white tennis shoes, backpacks or ball caps, for they are a dead give away as an American traveler.  We did leave the tennis shoes at home, but we were always amazed that everyone who came near us didn't even ask where we were from, they just started speaking English.   I think this was the morning that the man from Wisconsin picked us out of a crowd to share his adventures.

Tuesday 12-3-2013

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  We were at the Gilberts.   I brought appetizers, and fancy cookies to the feast and Michael L. family had most of the main meal.    I made a veggie tray in the shape of a turkey ( yes it did take longer than you think).   I made a cranberry/orange salad with Quinoa, which was quite good.   I also had puff pastry and Brie as well as a cheese and meat tray.

I brought My annual glass ornament and Mark Gilbert was the winner this year.   ( of course he was, because I already had a glass ornament sitting in the front entry that he is to open on Christmas Day.... luckily, not the same one)  I thought it is quite pretty with it's red and white coloring... It also has a gold fleck in two of the ribbons.

I have to make my Christmas Eve reservations many months before the day and probably for the same reason.    We are at the "Over the Moon" cafe in the historic part of town this year.   We are meeting friends at the hospital Tree festival tomorrow night, so we are going to take Mom there since she will be visiting with us.   I pick her up at 8:00 a.m. and then go to Bellevue for our first of at least 4 trips to the eye office.

I agree with the freedom of shopping online.    I hate standing in lines, although I do enjoy the hustle and bustle of people with Christmas music in the background.

I have the same color theme in my house that I have had for year.... I am a big "after Christmas" shopper and since I chose Red and Gold years ago, I have lots and lots of pieces to throw together.

I took this picture when I finished decorating on Sunday night.   I am generally a lot slower, but Mom arrives tomorrow so I had to be Johnny on the Spot.    Thursday she has her eye surgery, Friday we have a checkup followed by a luncheon at her cousins.  Saturday we have a pedicure and we have tickets to see Leischen in Anne that evening.   Sunday morning we are going to Michael and Christine's concert in Belleuve again and then over to his house for lunch and a late 90th birthday for Lila.   We come home that evening and go to my friends for a cookie exchange.   We are talking about going to the Zoolights and a possible drive to the Bavarian town of Leavenworth.   She thinks she is going to go shopping.... but I am not sure when. 

Zoo lights is done by the Tacoma Parks.  All these organizations get together and make scenes on the Zoo grass and trees with LED lights.   The colors are fabulous as well as the cute animals, ponds, arbors and other lights that are displayed.


I did manage to decorate my office door.   I could hardly not, they have a yearly requirement of door decorating.  It was today or never.   I settled on a theme of little angels decorating my door.   I think it turned out quite cute.   No other news.    Maybe after mom is here for a couple of days and we have been to Leischen's show.  - Love Larkie

Lefse Day 2013

Leischen invited me to join her in the St. Mark's of the Narrows Lefse Preparation Day.   What fun with over 10 Lefse Irons and 15-20 seasoned and novice rollers, flippers and dough makers.  We worked around snaking extension cords because Lefse irons use so much electricity.   The St. Mark's women started the day before by cooking 80 lbs of potatoes.   They measured everything out in regular sized batches so that the quality stayed consistent.  We arrived on Saturday morning about 9a.m and rolled out and baked over 300 singles.  After they were cooled, they were put in bags and sold 3/$5.   We were off to have lunch together a little after 11:00 a.m.

It was so fun to share in this tradition.    Leischen is the expert, and I am the novice.   Mom and Leischen have always made the Lefse, while I enjoyed making Krum Kakka and Kringle.    It just so happens that Mom was busy doing this job in MN on the very same weekend.    She sent us pictures of her looking very similar to the one we were experiencing in Washington.

I followed up on Saturday by attending the Christmas Bazaar.   Their fellowship hall was filled to the brim with special crafts and projects. There were baby blankets, quilts, nativity sets, knitted hats, shawls, Christmas ornaments, baskets, books, jewelry on and on.     Everything was so reasonable that I felt lucky to be filling my basket with gift items and good for their women's group in the largest fund raiser of the year.    Leischen said that they anticipated making over $10,000 for their efforts.

I hope to join in this event in the future.  I found people I had worked with in Education over the years and people who just love my daughter.   It is hard to complain about that.   

Front yard visitor

Yes, this my car with a 10 pt buck standing on the sidewalk,  The neighbor sent this picture,

The Long Way Home From France

We left Nice, France on a Sept 24th, a beautiful sunny Tuesday morning, the palm trees swaying and the wind, the Mediterranean sea was just beautiful    We flagged a taxi and waved goodbye to our last day in France.   Our first leg of our flight was held in Nice for an extra hour or so while the fog lifted in London.  We finally boarded and then flew to Heathrow and circled for another 45 minutes.    When we finally made it on the ground, our connecting flight was leaving without us because Fred, I and about 700 (this is NOT exaggerated)  other people were trying to get through customs. 

 Since we missed our connection we had to go stand in line ( again with 700 people) and try to be rescheduled.   It was taking too long so they sent US/Canadian/Brits up to arrivals where there were more terminals to help us.   We had to go through English  Customs where they ask questions like " How long will you be enjoying your stay here"  ( I got a stamp at least) and then we were sent to stand in another line.

We were booked to a late afternoon flight to Vancouver BC and another connection to Seattle.  From here we had our first chance to go to the bathroom and head for a flight only 1 hour to takeoff.   We got to the gate and found about 60 of our new line friends waiting to be loaded with the regular passengers into a bus to drive to another terminal  where they loaded us all on the super 747 for BC. Everyone had to carry their carryon baggage up the outside stairs to the plane and find their seats... ( You are right, this took time and we left 20 minutes late)

11 Hours, 3 movies, 2 TV shows and a bad meal later we landed in Vancouver.   We then found that our bags were not sent to Seattle, but terminated in Canada with us and we had to wait for them with all the other passengers to get our bags and then check into the new airline.  We rushed and made it to that gate with 15 minutes to spare... BUT it  was closed.... homeland security requires that you be there 1 hour ahead of your flight. 

It is now 9:00 p.m. and Washington and my body is 9 hours ahead of that with no sleep.   British Airways did give us a nice hotel room located right in the airport.   We were given vouchers for dinner  (Thank heaven for it was $54.00 for a bowl of soup a salad and two drinks....)   At 10:30 we take a much needed shower and fall in bed for a 3:45 a.m. wake up call.

My body is thinking it is about noon, so I am up and at the gate by the required 4:00 a.m.  It takes 53 minutes to go through the Canadian Customs, " How long was your stay in Canada?".... over to US customs, recheck our bags, go through security and board a plane to Seattle.    

Twenty seven minutes later we arrive in Seattle, our bags are first off the belt and Fred Jr. is on the road and the trip is done..BUT... I-5 Traffic is backed up all the way to Tacoma and poor Fred looses 1.75 hours in getting to us.    Fred Sr. is chomping at the bit to get home and go to work.

We we did make it home safe and sound... we both went to work, and when I came home at 5:30 I find Fred sound asleep in bed for the night.    I hung in until 9pm in hopes of turning my inner clock to Washington time, but had to crash myself after that.

So the adventure ends for this trip.