The Mother of Geese

We went to Palm Springs and came home in the mood to go golfing.

See how Max likes having his food stolen and eaten. Payback my boy..payback..

We got home very late (early) Christmas Eve so after sleeping in a bit and trying to unpack the car, the family spend the evening getting our Christmas spirit on. We feasted on a delicious Tribe Family Style "walk around dinner" featuring veggies and dip, chicken wings, artichoke dip, summer sausage, cheese and crackers, wontons, shrimp, turkey sandwiches, clam dip and meatballs. I have to admit, maybe it was the exhaustion talking but I did get a little teary when I thought about the family tradition being passed down to my children. Enjoyed a mostly irreverent play of the nativity story. We decorated a Gingerbread house Read and watched the Nativity Story Spread out some reindeer food Sang Christmas Songs And crossed our fingers that Santa would come!

It felt good to be out of the rain

Indio, California. Grandpa Gary mentioned going to visit Shield's Date farm as a teenager and sampling the delicious date shakes. This kitchshy spot was also talked about in my tour book so we HAD to go! We watched the movie "the romance and Sex life of the Date"-which is mostly unchanged in the 40 years or so it has been shown there. We sat in the same theatre Grandpa Gary did with his family and shared the most wonderful (really!) shakes.

While we were in Palm Springs Grandpa Gary came and visited and we did some sight seeing with his memories of living there as a youth. I sat in the back (and googled names he mentioned and did other fact checking) and Brad drove down memory lane. It was lovely! Here he is in front of his house.

One night in Palm Springs Brad took the kids to the play center while I finished dinner up. We had left the back door open so we could get some fresh air (such a good choice) and instead let in a little bird (such a bad choice) that scared the crap out of me in the kitchen. I don't do well with any sort of critter anyway, so I pretty much almost packed up right then and there. Luckily Brad came back and rescued me and the bird and we were able to finish our dinner.

Big Tree You and Me We are three