The Hot Pot Victims

Lobster, Shrimp and Oysters
Frog and Tofu

Christmas Day in West Coast Peavine

We awoke around noon on Christmas Day after our journey to SacTown the night before. We were expecting the King's parents and our friends David and Carmen with the twins for dinner. We finished wrapping all of the gifts as it was easier with the kids not at home. The our guest arrived for the non traditional but we may have to make it our traditional Christmas Dinner. We had hot pot which is a Chinese form of cooking. You get lot's of things like shrimp, tofu thinly sliced beef and lamb and noodles and dunk them into pots of flavored broth to cook. I chose to use my Zatarains seasoning for crawfish which is spicier than what we normally get. David brought over some lobster meat as well as oysters and some fresh scallops that we had to coax out of the shells first and some fresh frog that was cut up. We all then sat down and proceeded to stuff ourselves. It was really very good and the company was great.

Troy Enjoying his Prizes

Xmas Eve

The King and Isabella

Xmas Eve in SacTown

The King and I made our trip up to Sacramento to spend Xmas Eve with Teri and her family. I picked up my tamales as usual and then picked up the King. Load was a little lighter this year with the kids being in Hong Kong. Good thing, I'm not sure where we would have put them, the car was full. The traffic was horrible and it was raining. Normally what takes me 1 1/2 hours took me over three hours to get there. Once we got there we ate and then the fun started. We had lots of babies this year. As usual we had a great time and got home about midnight. Crysta called at 1:30 to wish us a Merry Christmas. We will have our Xmas when the kids get back on New Years Day.

Sooner or Later

Over the weekend Crysta's team was in a basketball tournament down in San Mateo. They have won this tourney the last two years. This year they once again made it to the finals. In the Championship Game they started off really bad and were getting creamed by half time. The other team was not bad, but not nearly as good as ours. When they came out for the second half it was completely the opposite. They ran all over the other team and ended up winning for the third straight year. After that we all drove down to San Jose State University to watch the OU women's basketball team, who were playing the Cal Bears. We got pretty good seats, which seemed to be in the middle of a lot of Cal fans. The King thought we should move but I liked where we were sitting and there were other OU fans near by. It was like deja vu, the OU women could not buy a basket in the first half. We sat there and listened to all of the abuse from the fans around us. The little Asian lady next to me that loved to clap so uncontrollably in my direction when Cal would score or a foul against OU. The guys behind us talking about how overrated the Paris twins were. To Cal's credit they played a flawless first half and led by 26 at the half. All of the fans around us were doing their Cal cheers during the whole half time, while we just sat there and smiled. When the second half started the OU women were on a roll. They chipped away at the lead slowly, and had cut it in half with ten minutes left. They just kept rolling and when they started hitting some shots you could hear Elijah really yelling. He sat in front of a couple guys who were the worst and he had enough of listening to them. With about three minutes left OU tied up the game and all four of us were on our feet yelling. Strangely the crowd around us had grown eerily silent. The girls then hit some key three pointers and OU ended up winning by nine points. It was an amazing game to watch and we all just had a blast. While there, we were keeping on eye on the Heisman Award and were so happy to see that Bradford had won it. It was a very good day all around. Yesterday we just finished up our Xmas shopping to mail to East Peavine. The King was VERY excited to learn UK next assignment is in Tokyo. Sayonara!

Sonoma Wineries

This past weekend we went up to the town of Sonoma to visit a few wineries. I had mainly gone to get a Christmas present for my afternoon receptionist who sells all of the kids candy and cookies for their school and she makes me salsa all the time. She likes a particular wine that can only be purchased at the winery. The winery is Sebastiani in Sonoma. The King and I as well as Crysta went up on Sunday. We bought the wine for Mercedes and tried some other things that were pretty good as well. I then called a buddy of mine Marshall who I work with on other projects. He does promotional work for a bunch of companies, including some of the wineries. We met him at a winery called Jacuzzi. Yes, it's one and the same. When the family came over from Italy and started a winery they developed pumps to get the water into the fields. Later, they used the same technology to develop the aforementioned Jacuzzi, plus they also invented the propeller. While there we enjoyed some very good wines, also since Marshall does a lot of work for them he gets the vendor discount which is 50% off. It's good to have friends like that. I bought a bunch of really good wines for half price. We then went to another one called Cline Cellars and again enjoyed the discount. The girls had never met Marshall, but hear me talk about him all the time. He is very crazy and we get along just great. By the time we left him to go shopping Crysta had us all in a group hug. I look forward to going back to these places in the spring when it is much warmer and greener. It was foggy and in the 40's that day.

Surprise!

A few weeks ago we had Estella (Francy's daughter) over for a few days as it was her birthday. She was coming over on a Saturday night and for some reason I didn't have to go pick her up. Well, I heard the doorbell ring and decided to let someone else get it as I was being lazy. All of the sudden I heard all this yelling from downstairs. As soon as I got downstairs I realized why I did not need to pick her up. Francy had flown in from Hong Kong to surprise her daughter for her birthday. And then they proceeded to surprise the King. It's always good to see Francy as she is one of my favorite people. Well we had a nice dinner while the King and Francy talked all night long. We then spent a few more days with Francy before she went back to Hong Kong. The King and her hung out for a few days and then I went with them when OU was not playing on TV. The last day we went up to the Outlet Mall in Vaccaville and then that evening went out for dinner in Chinatown. We went to the restaurant of one of Francy's best friends. It's pretty nice when the owner joins you for dinner. The service is pretty good and the food is top notch. Plus he brought out some really good wine for me to try. It was a lot of fun and I know the King and Estella were very happy to see Francy. Look forward to her return in May when Estella graduates.