November 2012. Part the second.

More bullets from November 2012.

1. I was sicker than a dog on my birthday, but that didn't stop me from being persuaded to go to my favourite winery for a wee bit of tasting and buying with two girlfriends (Ken kindly offered to be the designated driver).


2. The kids got me a variety of fancy chocolate bars for my birthday.  The boys started mooing over the fact that I wasn't eating their favourite one, and when was I going to break into it, so they could 'test' it too.  finally, I said "You may have one square of the magnificent bar... **IF** you can extract that square from the center of the bar without breaking it.  If anything breaks... you lose, and I get the whole thing.
So Skip got to work, surgically extracting his square from the center of the bar.
 

Ta Da!

3. Nate's class did an Iron Chef day, where they break into teams, and then make a few 'dishes' using secret ingredients.  I was glad I hired on to be the photographer, and not the judge. Heh.  But Nate looked dapper in my fabulous Canadian Apron.


4. We went to our neighbours' place for Thanksgiving, and it was so easy and lovely.  No rushing around.  No mental preparations.  Just good food with great friends.  Of course, we brought food.  Nobody went hungry!
  
 

And we brought games...
  

Kelly has such great friends.  (yes, it's Martinelli's sparkling apple juice)


5. Thanksgiving Weekend wouldn't be complete without a trip to the beach.
 

6. Another basketball game. Another loss.  But another chance for Kelly and her friends to bond as a team, and exhibit fantastic sportsmanship.  I am constantly impressed at how easy-going her team is when things aren't completely smooth, and how uptight the opponents seem to be under the same circumstances.


7. There were some amazing sunsets in November.


And that brings us up to December.  Today might be the day I delve into that pile of memories.  Although it will have to wait.  Time for church, and afterwards, I'm taking Skip off to Berkeley, so he can walk around and get a feel for the place. Of course, he still doesn't know if he's going to be going there, but he's hopeful.