Where did the month go?

Looking back over the month I'm sure there were many things that kept me from my blog but the details are not at my fingertips. There were the usual activities of gym workouts, walks, spin classes, working at the Thrift Shop, church etc. Ah yes, in the middle of the month I made a quick 2 day trip to Washington DC to do some business. Interestingly I saw my cousin K and C at the San Francisco airport and we were on the same flight. When we got to DC they offered me a ride to the hotel with a segue to dinner at cousin K's favorite Japanese restaurant - Tachibanas. At the airport we met the newly re-elected congressman Mike Honda who knew both K and C. Mike Honda represents the San Jose, Mountain View, Cupertino and many of the technology cities in that area. Our neighborhood gym was sold on November 1 to a young energetic 30 year old woman. She has added equipment and changed and added classes including Zumba, Combat boxing, new cross training and strengthening classes while keeping many of the old standbys- spinning, yoga, pilates, circuit training. It has been fun to have some new excitement and new faces showing up at the gym. Thanksgiving was a small family affair at P&S's. We had a delicious boned stuffed turkey, Chinese rice stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrot souffle, bacon wrapped scallops, clam dip and cranberry sauce. We celebrated DT's birthday which actually fell on Thanksgiving day. BK came by after dinner. Traffic for us was very light in both directions. The Sunday after Thanksgiving was T's birthday and we had a very delicious and wonderful evening at the Sea Venture complements of my brother and sister-in-law. The last Monday of the month was the Senior luncheon at church. There were a few more people this month bringing the numbers up to 45. We've lost a few regular attendees to death, illness and moves out of the area. The group is going strong and they are most appreciative. Our menu included rolls and butter, chicken tetrazzini, fruit salad and carrot cake. Everyone who wanted a take home box was able to get one. I always cook for 60 so those needing left overs can have them. I worked on a number of advertizing items for the church including and Advent board, posters and postcards for the Lessons and Carols on December 9, the Christmas ad for the deanery churches in the county. My time on the vestry is winding down. I'm not sure if I'll continue doing the marketing at this point. The fourth Tuesday of each month is our food distribution in partnership with Womenade, the Food Bank and Nipomo Elementary School. This month we had about 25 volunteers and we increased our distribution from 144 to 168 families (multiples of 12 because of number of items in a case of food). The processing is always quite and adventure. We received nearly 2 tons of food or about 25 lbs of food per family. They received fresh ground beef, a couple of large cans of chicken, rice, black beans, canned vegetables, canned fruit, dried fruit, cereal, fresh sour dough bread. For produce this month there were sweet potatoes, onions, scallions, apples, oranges, cabbage, romaine lettuce. We gave away all the food! Since vacation here starts on December 14, we are having our December distribution on December 11 only two weeks later - yikes! December 1 marked our fifth anniversary of our emigrating to California so we held an Open House and invited about 70 people - relatives and friends. We had to limit the list to people we've done things as we've met so many people since we came here. As it was we had over 50 people who came. We had a blast! I can't believe how fast the five years have flown and what a great decision it was.