There was some misunderstanding over who is the cake baker in the family. Joe, the redhead, is my youngest son. Donald who is the chef and baker in the family is my son-in-law and father of the birthday girl. I looked for some recent pictures other than the ones of Joe & Don working on my floor, and neither is a head-on shot. I found this one taken a few St. Patrick's days ago, Donald on the left and Joe on the right.
This is Joe's wife, Sarah, and I'm holding their daughter, Alyssa. Alyssa is going to be 4 yrs old on New Year's Day (I'm sure Donald will make that cake as well), and Ally has a little 2 yr old sister, Keira, aka Kiki.
Rounding off my family is my middle son, Steve, his wife Megan, and their son Liam, who now live near Monterey Bay and who will be with us on Christmas Day. My oldest son, Mike, his wife, Sandy, and their two boys Joshua & Justin live in New York. I hope to visit them this spring and spend some time in NY. I've showed lots of pictures of my daughter, Jeannie (Donald's wife) and their oldest daughter, Ara, whose college graduation I'll be attending in May. I won't go into my 7 siblings, their spouses, and my many nieces and nephews. It is fun being from a large family, although it's probably insane by today's standards. Who could afford to raise and educate so many children? I'm glad I came from a large family though, and being the oldest I learned one of the best lessons in life: Don't get too attached to material things - they can be broken in a moment by mischievous younger brothers, or a younger sister can pour out your bottle of expensive make-up in a heartbeat. People are more important than things.
Back to the cake, the very top of it was the cake part and Donald took it off to cut it. I'm not sure what the tree trunk is, but I imagine the bottom part was made of Rice Krispie treat, and he often uses that for bulk. Fondant covers the whole thing, I believe, and it is this that is the base for decoration. I have watched him work painstakingly at creating small parts to be added to a big cake. He also does strawberries dipped in chocolate and decorated, and are almost too beautiful to bite into, but it never stops me from taking that bite!
I just took Lady for her afternoon walk, and noticed my next door neighbor taking down Christmas lights from his porch railing and the tree in front of his house. He told me the wires had been cut on two different strands so he was just taking the whole thing down. I feel so bad for him - he thinks it's because there is a $100 prize to be given to the best-decorated house, but I can't imagine anyone being that petty over a lousy $100!
I've already noted that just like RV parks, half the people are very friendly and half will look you straight in the eye when you greet them and just walk past you giving no response whatsoever. And so much for Christian peace and good will during the holiday season.
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Life teaches some interesting lessons about being attached to 'things'. Sometimes, they're hard to learn.
ReplyDeleteI like your new picture. You look well and happy.
ReplyDeleteYou also have a wonderful family and the SIL does really nice things for you. Happy family that is nice.
Yes you think for the holidays people would be kinder to each other but no so. How sad.
Years ago when I had my police dog on the PD somebody vandalized our Christmas decorations, I went out and fixed them and I was off the next night and I saw Heidi's ears go up so we went out and captured to early teens boys, I called their parents ove and we agreed they would do chores like cutting grass until they had made enough money to pay for the broken bulbs, A lesson was learned. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna..
ReplyDeleteI don't think everyone can be happy for these hollidays. For some, it's a hard time to get thru,,been there, done that. But, when you smile at someone, even the meanest looking ones, they will nearly always smile back.
ReplyDeleteLove that u share ur pics of ur family. And glad to know WHO did the cake! lol
When we still had our home we had put up a traffic stopping display. Two years in a row on Christmas Eve someone stole a 3-D Character from our display. Both years even though the Grinch thought he stole Christmas, he didn't succeed.
ReplyDeleteJust tell your neighbour to post a sign that he's not participating in the contest and his problems will end and he can repair and reuse his lights.