Happy New Year!!

We hosted a small gathering at our place tonight for some of our friends in the Bellevue area. We called it our "New Year's Eve East Coast" Party. Meaning, we'd ring in the new year at 9:00 PST so we could all be in bed before midnight. (except for John and Gina, who had another party to go to - oh, those kids!)

Just for fun, Dick suggested that we all dress up. He loves dressing up, and I have a lot of cute dresses in my closet that I don't have enough occasion to wear. Everyone was very good natured about it, and looked fantastic!

It was SUPER fun!! Reeves and Paula brought, and shucked oysters, which was an amazing appetizer!

To make things super easy, I ordered food yesterday to be delivered this evening. We have a great restaurant named Wild Ginger in our building, and they deliver to our apartments. The food was terrific, and it worked out great! I love that we didn't have to cook, or even go out to get the food.

Martin and Celeste brought Champagne and Danish treats, and Gina and John brought mini cupcakes from Trophy.

Everyone stayed until 10:30 or so, which means we were up way past East Coast midnight. :)


appetizers: pepper salami, wasabe chedder cheese (who knew?) and oysters!


Martin & Celeste


Gina and John


Reeves and Paula being photobombed by Dick


Dick and Trina (new dress!)


Take out from Wild Ginger


The dinner table


The gang - photo by JRod


Dick's idea - we're all having a GREAT time!


Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve Preparations

We'll be hosting a small New Year's Eve gathering tonight. We're all set up and ready to go!

Happy New Year's Eve to all!! Be safe, have fun, and Cheers to 2015!!

Totoro Takes a Shower

Poor Dick. He just doesn't understand my sense of humor sometimes...

13 Hours Later

Very satisfying. :)

Return of the King

Two movies down, just started the third. Right on schedule. ~ 4 more hours to go!

One down, two to go!!

We're about 45 behind schedule, but going strong! :)

Lord of the Rings Marathon

Yep. All three Lord of the Rings extended version films in one day. That's the plan. We're almost 3 hours in. Only another 10 or so to go!!

Merry Christmas from the Chow House!

Merry Christmas!!

A Christmas Eve Stroll around Our Neighborhood

After the half an hour of heavy rain, the sun came out and it was the perfect time for an afternoon walk around our neighborhood. We often take a nice walk on Christmas Eve. I love seeing all the festive decorations. Here are some of my favorite sites from this time of the year.

Bakery Tartine

Oh, San Francisco... Where else would I wait in a line 30-40 people deep at 9:30am for half an hour.... All for the perfect Morning Bun?

Christmas Decorations in Union Square

It was a perfect evening (low 60s) to walk around Union Square and look at all of the beautiful Christmas decorations.

Stockton Street, between Market and Geary is temporarily closed off (for the underground BART construction) and is covered with astroturf and open to pedestrians. There are lot benched for seating (although many people were enjoying sitting on the turf), people tossing lighted footballs, and food trucks. It was a neat vibe and seemed to be enjoyed by all!

The Christmas Tree at Neiman Marcus is always so beautiful, and the tree in Union Square was enormous and so sparkly!!

We looked at the amazing Gingerbread House/Castle at the St. Francis.

I especially loved the Christmas display windows are Tiffany & Co. Check out the two Dads.

The completed "Twin Peaks Cavern" Painting

I squeezed in a painting lesson with Dean today while I'm back in San Francisco. Happy to report that I finished my final painting of 2014! :)

I don't have my Mac here in SF this week, so will have to wait a few days before I can put the progress photos of this painting together.

Very happy to have had a chance to finish this one before the end of the year.

Pastel Skies over San Francisco

Christmas decorations in our Bellevue home

Well, it's not much, but it's something. :)

I brought our stockings from San Francisco and hung them from the chimney with care. :)

I also got some nice pine sprigs from Whole Foods to place on either side of our mantel.

Christmas Decorations at Bellevue Square Mall

I've been meaning to post these for a while. These are photos of some of the decorations and Santa at our mall in Downtown Bellevue. These are some if the best decorations I've ever seen in a mall- certainly more elaborate than what we saw in Downtown Seattle. There are trees and decorations all over the mall. My favorite part is the reindeer flying from Santa's chair.