A new year

Well, December flew by with lots of happenings. After our great open house things calmed down for a short while. T and I started to wind down our involvement with the Clark Center. We've been ushers and usher captains for nearly 5 years and it was no longer fun. When you're retired we think we should have fun doing what we do since we're not being paid so we have stepped down as of the end of the month. Tom has ratcheted up his police volunteer work and has put in countless hours mostly in the office. We did usher/captain two shows in December for the Clark Center and said goodbye to the many volunteers. We'll see them around town and at various events that we will attend. I attended a couple of holiday parties and tried to limit the calorie creep. One of the events was a "giving tea" where we were asked to bring some items from a list of needed things for local foster children who have aged out and will be starting out on their own. There was so much stuff that it wouldn't all fit into one vehicle! One of the people from the organization was a former foster child and had gone through the various programs. She is 21 now and after a few stumbles she is working for the sponsoring organization and going to college part time. K came for a 5 day holiday in the middle of the month. We had a terrific time making dishes she learned how to prepare and take the recipes home with her. She and I made a communal birthday cake as we celebrated hers, T's, mine and cousin P and S's all from October to December. We also celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas, visited the ostrich ranch and fed the ostriches, toured Solvang, and ate out at one of the restaurants right over the water in Avila. The gym held a couple of special yoga classes the Sunday before Christmas and New Year. It was a perfect time to spend 1 1/2 hours stretching and then relaxing. I can never remember all the different types of yoga but these were especially relaxing and not terribly difficult. The gym is now offering Zumba 5 times a week. After all those years of running I can no longer do repetitive lateral moves as my knees object seriously. The instructor said I could try doing the Zumba on the mini-trampoline and it was fabulous. Since the first day I tried it a couple of others have pulled out the trampolines and are taking part too. Cousins P and S hosted Christmas the 23, 24 and 25. Cousins K and C and their kids came down. They managed to rent a Vacation Rental by Owner VRBO just around the corner from cousin P's house. The first night we had a hot pot dinner and son B roasted a donated turducken which was absolutely delicious rounded out with lemon cake with generous servings of lemon curd and whipped cream. The next night, Christmas eve we had wonderful Chinese dinner and with our contribution of Jamaican meat pies. Christmas day we had a slow cooked prime rib that was perfectly roasted. I brought popovers and a chocolate ding dong cake for dessert. A good time was had by all. The food distribution program that I started in Nipomo in conjunction with the local Womenade group and the local Food Bank was held early on December 11 to accommodate the Christmas break which started here on December 14. We had 10 lbs of frozen chicken for each family along with two huge bags of dry foods and produce. We gave away all the food and fed 168 families (always in multiples of 12 because of the cases of shelf stable foods). We ran out and have increased our numbers to 180 families for January. The average family has 5 to 6 people so we are helping nearly 1,000 people. It's an awesome program. The church's senior luncheon was put on by the youth forum and an adult leader. He and they learned how to make lasagna. They served a wonderful meal of rolls, salad, lasagna and ice cream and cookies for dessert. They set the tables, cleared and washed and wiped. Awesome! I prepared some hors d'oeurves left over from our open house and those were gobbled up during the meet and greet time between 11:30 and noon when the luncheon was served. Hopefully I'll be more regular or at least monthly at updating this blog.

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.

Make Strides against Cancer

Today we had a team of 8 for the Cypress Ridge Fitness Striders in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Cancer walk in San Luis Obispo, and we raised nearly $1,200. We had a great time with beautiful weather, lots of camaraderie and a great luncheon hosted by our wonderful team captain, DH! We even had a cancer survivor on our team - interestingly it was right on the statistic of 1 out of 8 women will get breast cancer. Some of us wrote the names of those we were walking for and taped it to the back of our shirts. Very uplifting event.

Food distribution

Yesterday a team of about 25 volunteers wrestled an enormous amount of produce and pantry food for 144 families. I am spearheading the distribution in partnership with the local Womenade organization, the Food Bank and the Nipomo elementary school. The average number in a family is 5 so we fed over 700 people with this distribution. There were many surprises with the process. We increased the food need by 50%. That translate to an inordinate amount of fresh produce - strawberries, huge onions, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, cut fresh greens, oranges, broccoli, loose salad leaves, bread. The pantry products included peanut butter, canned chicken, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, canned corn, peaches, prunes, beans, canned cut vegetables, diced tomatoes! There are many areas of learning that we will incorporate next month. The hardest part of the process is mapping out the flow when you don't know what fresh produce you will receive.

Sewing

The last week has been absolutely gorgeous. Early this morning we had a tiny bit of rain - yes rain. We really need rain. I'll say it again - we really need rain! Anyway, since I've moved the house cleaning to Fridays, Saturdays have become a great day for me to do anything. Fridays on the other hand have become packed with spin class, 6 mile walk, cleaning the house, working at the thrift shop in the afternoon, followed by grocery shopping and then making dinner before collapsing exhausted. This morning the cloudy quiet sky made for a great day to stay in and catch up on sewing. I am working on my Christmas project of gifts for the family. A few years ago my sister decided that we should no longer exchange gifts. Slowly the siblings have been sending token gifts. I started making things for folks when we stopped exchanging gifts. One year it was produce bags tied up into the shape of an angel. Another year it was potato bags and another year it was cloth napkins... and this year it's >>>>>>>> - I'd better not say in case any of you are reading this blog! Anyway, I just about finished as many as I need. It's fun to pick colors and designs of fabrics that you think go with the person. Then you can think of the person as you make the item.

More October summer

The temps were in the 70s when we got up this morning and the Santa Ana winds are in full swing with wind speeds around 25 mph. The current temp is 97.8 with 29% humidity. I passed another resident on my walk today who is from Illinois. I asked if the weather reminded him of Illinois and his remark was that it was the humidity that really got to him and I have to agree. Although I'm not a fan of temps in the high 90s to 100, I am glad the humidity is so low. It makes it a little more tolerable. Waiting until this evening to run any machines - laundry, cooking etc. It usually cools right down in the evening. Here's hoping. No air conditioning here!

Awesome weather

The weather here often turns to summer in October and this year it's doing it again and I love it. Temps in the 70s and 80s although much warmer inland. No complaints here. The rain last Thursday and Friday cleaned the air and it has been absolutely beautiful here.