Good friends Greg and Steve made a fabulous Greek Easter party for a number of friends and even opened up their (heated) pool. About four dogs were also in attendance even though I was nervous about Bonnie being close to the pool with her vision impairment/blindness. She had been to their house before and all was fine.
Our neighbors have two grand pianos and are both pianists. They serenaded us with live music at their traditional New Year’s Day Open House (the first one since Covid).
Yes, it was hard to get up for a 7:50 am row after staying up past midnight. To boot my scooter didn’t fully charge because I plugged it into a deactivated power strip, so I barely made it downhill (gravity helped). The weather and the water conditions were optimal. We even saw a seal pop up to breathe a few times.
Shando and I had a wonderful xmas gathering yesterday at my sister’s house in Granite Bay. My nephew is only 16 and towers over all of us. My brother, sister and I are there with their kids, Brooke and Nicholas, and my brother-in-law, Ken. It looks like everyone got the memo to wear grey, but my niece is actually wearing maroon (you just can’t see it in this photo).
We brought the foldable electric scooter which Shando finally agreed to try on the flat street in my sister’s neighborhood. I think he was afraid to say how much he loved it, but he is always worried about breaking a bone, since he’s proud that he has never had to wear a cast in his life.
We brought two of our senior dogs, Polar and Capulet. My sister’s brown-spotted dog Ricki was reticent about the company, but she and Polar fell in love and played a ton, which was nice to see. My brother brought Mocha, the little chihuahua mix, who was more aloof. I listened carefully to the video to make sure we protected those we were gossiping about. They are not identifiable from this video. 🙂
Gifts for my niece and nephew (from “Guncles”):
This morning my colleague at Glen Cove Community Association, Nancy, and I gave out prizes to the top three Christmas Light contest winners in our neighborhood of Vallejo. I was not one of the judges, but had the honor of handing out the prizes as President of GCCA. It turns out Shando and I knew Andy and Carlton who won the first prize, nominated by their development representative Dina (who joined us for the photo). Only at the 11th hour did Shando and I even realize we knew the first prize winners. Such a small world. They moved into their home a few weeks before we did in 2020. All the prize winners were wonderful and warm. We thank them for their spirit and spending a few minutes with us on Christmas Eve.
For our fourth xmas in Vallejo, Shando really got into the spirit this year. He baked and manually decorated what he calls “ugly sweater cookies” (original and cute), paired with coffee mugs, and chocolate. We put the items in our sleigh, I mean a wagon, adorned Santa hats, and walked around our block handing them out to people who watch out for our house, letting them know what great neighbors they are. We’re so lucky to live here and to have been welcomed by such great folks both on our block and throughout Vallejo.
From the outside:
Here in Vallejo, there’s a fabulous restaurant called Provisions that we rented out for our holiday party. Many of our current Board members/development representatives were able to attend with their plus ones.
Most of us who attended are featured in these pictures, but after two attendees left I remembered to start taking pictures.
