Book Club Luncheon

Lynn's Book Club met at our house for their monthly luncheon and book discussion. This month's book was Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah. It's a novel about JFK's wife. And can you believe it, Lynn chose a French theme for lunch. Everything was French, from the opening champagne (Perrier-Jouet) to the homemade French apple tart (from a Paul Brocuse cookbook) with real whipped cream lightly spiked with Cointreau. The broccoli cheddar soup and the baguette épi de blé (which means "ear of wheat") came from the French Kitchen as did the French butter. That style baguette is perfect for tearing off a 1-serving size that can be easily dipped in the soup. The leftover baguettes were devoured by the family, another fam fave.

Deer Across the Street

Four of them!

Music on the Mezzanine

AJ's voice teacher offers "comfortable" public singing opportunities for her students with about 4 concerts a year called "Music on the Mezzanine." These are held on a mezzanine of a very cool church downtown, Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. AJ's loving it.

That's the mezzanine up there.

IHOP and Almost a Birthday

While some of the family was in California earlier this month, Nana and Papa took the remaining kiddos to IHOP. And now Jonny can't stop asking for a return visit. New family fave. The "Almost Birthday" was for poor Matteo who was too sick to even attend. That's OK, we got the breakfast goodies and he got the gifts later.

Back in Colorado

Nana and Papa recently got back from their California trip, just in time for Tracy, Matt, AJ, and Griffen to fly off to California for the weekend (see separate post). Looks like a large batch of new (some, anyway) Christmas movies this year, and we've already got two under our belts! Catering Christmas and A Christmas Movie Christmas. So far so good!

Fall is about over here in Colorado Springs.

First Friday Family Dinner in a while. McDonald's!
Tonight's topic: the Talking Donkey

Post-dinner activity...
Yes, Christmas movies have begun!

Pismo Beach, CA

Matt, Tracy, AJ, and Griffen are in Pismo Beach, CA this weekend to participate in Grace Church's Welcoming Children Home Adoption & Foster Care Conference. But that's tomorrow; first, a little playtime...

Fosters California Wrap-up

With the final braiding of the hair for school, Nana and Papa's California adventure was over. Back to Colorado Springs. All the trip photos are here.

This thing annoyed us all week!

Watched him land (SLO airport).

We waited at the end of the runway for 4 landing planes.
(I missed getting a photo of one.)

Back for sunset in Denver.