Pumkin Patch 2008
Ania, Ari, and I went to get our pumpkins today. This was Arianna's second time enjoying our tradition of getting pumkins at Mangini's. She wasn't even a month old her first time.

Main / Holidays
Ania, Ari, and I went to get our pumpkins today. This was Arianna's second time enjoying our tradition of getting pumkins at Mangini's. She wasn't even a month old her first time.
Ania made a delicious breakfast for me on Valentine's morning. She intended for it to be breakfast in bed, but it was such a nice day, we decided to enjoy it on the patio. It was a pleasant start to a great day together — she was off, and I surprised her by taking the day off too.
I really enjoyed Thanksgiving this year! Jené and Carter came to visit from Kentucky and we had some good family bonding time. For Thanksgiving dinner, we went to Kenny & Shirley's and had a delicious dinner and a great time. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, laughing, joking, and sharing stories. Everything and everyone came together in that rare and truly magical way that creates a sense of real holiday cheer.
I don't think I've ever actually personally honored the tradition of BBQing on the 4th of July, so I wanted to grill some chicken. Wanda made perogies earlier in the day, and we thought it would be fun to give the day some international flavor & make a meal of both, so we had my parents over for a great dinner in our backyard.
Afterward, we joined many of our neighbors on the hill at the top of our street, and watched the fireworks against the backdrop of Mt. Diablo. We didn't bother to learn how to photograph fireworks (especially since I figured it would require a tripod, and we have one, but it's too small), but one of the pics we took resulted in an interesting effect!
At Kenny & Shirley's house on Memorial Day.
We had Easter at our house this year, and decided to make it a lunch. We grilled tri-tip (Morton's, from Costco, which we really like) and asparagus, and Mom brought a ham, to keep with tradition.
This was our first time having our extended family over to our new house, and it was great! I'm glad to finally have room to comfortably host larger gatherings.
It had been rainy and cold until just before everyone arrived, but we had a few hours of sunshine and just enough warmth that we could all enjoy the sun on the patio as I was cooking. We were really lucky with the weather; about 20 minutes after everyone left, it started raining. It seemed like everyone had a good time, and we enjoyed the afternoon!
We celebrated our first Christmas Eve Dinner at Skyview with my parents and Dave, as has become our tradition, and Ania made the delicious traditional Polish Christmast Eve dinner we've all started to look forward to at this time every year.