Celebrating Easter / Passover / Spring Equinox

When you can't celebrate the holidays with family, it's nice to be able to celebrate it with your FS community.  So - today we celebrated Passover / Easter / Spring Equinox.  Luckily for us, our apartment complex has a great community space - really a historical house that's been preserved and is available for party space. 

 Great decks overlooking the ocean - it's an easy place for all the families to get together.

We did potluck.  I did a roasted salmon.

And then I found this really interesting green at the store.  

This is the first time I've seen it - I think it's special for Easter.  I asked how to prepare and they told me to saute it with some onions, a little tomato paste and coconut milk.  It turned out really yummy!

This year N. and O. were more interested in hiding the eggs for the other kids, than searching themselves.  I guess we've turned a corner with some of the holiday celebrations.

Big Sur, Carmel and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

One of our favorite places to relax is the Monterey Bay Area with Santa Cruz at one end and Carmel and Monterey at the other.  And Big Sur is just next door.

So - when we were home, we made our pilgrimage down there with good friends.

First we stopped at Nepenthe - which a very special and magical place. Whether your buy in to Big Sur / New Age stuff or not, something wonderful is in the air there.  It might be the energies converging, or it might be the great views, gorgeous trees and ocean air.  Whatever it is, we had good times with good friends.

We also got to play at the Carmel Beach - a very favorite place.

And visit the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.  Last time we came, O. wasn't quite tall enough for the famous Giant Dipper.  But this year he is - so we made the trek.

We also rode the Carousel.  We tried to get the ring in the clown's mouth, but no one could make it happen.

And then there are the fabulous sunsets!

Christmas with Family

When we joined the Foreign Service, I figured we'd be having Christmas far away and without family.  But we were lucky this year and got to come home for a visit over Christmas before we left for post.

We got some great hikes and great cousin time.

And some fun soccer (futebol) games in the yard.

Holiday Traditions

Every family has their special traditions and it's always nice to learn what they are.  This year, with us being in this odd state of transit, we've had to forgo a lot of our usual traditions.

But we were able to keep up with some traditions:

Like Theo - our Elf on a Shelf,

And Toffee!  My father's sister started this tradition years ago.  She would send a big care package at Christmas and the part that we all looked forward to were the bags (one for each of us) of her very special homemade toffee.  Oh - we loved that toffee!

So now it's a tradition in our house.  I make it every year and it's great to give away or bring to parties.  I'm glad that I was able to make it this year - despite all the transition.
 

Sue’s Toffee

 Don’t double

2 C sugar

2 C butter (not Sweet) (1 pound)

2 C almonds, chopped and divided into big pieces and dust (1 cup of each)

chocolate chips

Line cookie sheet with foil and scatter larger almond pieces evenly.

Cook butter and sugar together over low heat at first, then higher heat until reaches 305F, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour over almonds on cookie sheet evenly.

Wait 5 minutes then scatter chocolate chips over toffee.

Wait 2 minutes and spread melted chocolate over surface of toffee and then sprinkle almond dust.

Let cool completely (4 hours), break into chunks.

And enjoy!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the first Thanksgiving that I haven't spent with my family - other than those times in college when I went home with a friend to share their Thansgivings.

Usually, for Thanksgiving, we all get together and cook and have a great time.  It's a great chance for me to really play with different recipes and experiment - with an incredibly appreciative audience.

But this year is different.  We're on the other coast and since we'll be heading back to California prior to moving to Brazil - it didn't make sense to take the time and the money to head west.  So - we stayed here.  We could have joined an number of potlucks - but since this year, Thanksgiving fell on K.'s birthday, we wanted to spend the day with the four of us.

And what a day we had!  First opening presents.  And then a great hike at Great Falls.  I just love that place.

Check out the high water mark for 1936!

We had a Thanksgiving feast at a local restaurant.  (I know - everyone is surprised that me, a chef, didn't cook.  But cooking would mean spending time away from celebrating with my family - better to purchase a dinner out). 

And then we had a rousing game of family Monopoly where I completely took advantage of my lovely daughter.  I was able to talk her into purchasing Indiana Avenue for me and then accepting Water Works for the $1000 rent that I owed her.  But eventually, my inability to land on Free Parking resulting in me forfeiting my two monopolies and K. and her winning the game.

A great end to a great day!

Halloween in the Foreign Service

Today is Halloween.  It's our first Halloween in the Foreign Service.  In the past, we've trick-or-treated in our neighborhood.  It was always a walking party.  Kids we'd seen grow up with parents we've known forever.  And visiting neighbors we know very well.  Good times.

This year is different.  Where we live now, there's no block.  But there are a number of apartment buildings full of people in similar situations.  Oakwood does a great job with the holidays.  They had people sign up if they were going to participate.  And then give the trick-or-treaters a list of participating apartments.  It's good fun and great community.

Walking around apartment hallways isn't the same as walking dark, spooky streets.  But it's still fun and people really decorate their doorways.

I know it will be even more different next year.  Most countries don't celebrate Halloween like they do in the US.  But the FS communities really pull together to make it fun for all.

Making Halloween Costumes

Every year I've made the kids costumes for Halloween - well except for their first Halloween when they were both Crew members on Star Trek.

And the year N. wore my old witch costume that my mother had made for me.  O. was a cat that year.

But every year after that.

N. was Josephine Baker when she was a toddler.  I found plastic bananas and sewed them to a belt and she wore it over black pants and a turtleneck.  Warm - and cool!

And O. was Astro Boy one year.  I even made red boot covers and a special hat with the weird tufts of robot hair.

Last year, N. wanted to be a water goddess.  I had her draw me a design and then we went to the fabric store to pick out the fabric.

This year it's been a bit different. All my sewing and craft supplies are in storage.  It makes it pretty challenging.  Especially since N. decided she wanted to go as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books.  I have no desire to hand sew a Hogwarts cape!!!

Luckily, the local Joanne's Fabric has some savvy sales people who turned me on to the fusible tape to put fabric together.

And we ended up with this:

Not bad for fuseable tape!