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Happy New Year, my dear family and friends. Jeff and I returned home yesterday from a week in Michigan with his family. The week truly sped by…much like the rest of December.

We flew into Chicago the Friday evening before Christmas, and drove straight to Muskegon to arrive at 1am. No snow in sight–it was relatively warm all week–so the drive was smooth sailing. Along the way, we got in the holiday spirit by listening to all-Christmas radio stations as we hopped from Illinois to Indiana to Michigan.

On Saturday, we did last-minute shopping…mainly picking up fun odds and ends for stockings. Those have always been one of my family’s big traditions, and I’ve tried to build fun-filled stockings for Jeff’s family. The kids definitely loved theirs!

Christmas and days that followed were filled with family, food, and general relaxing. We watched tons of DVDs that people received as gifts. We introduced Jeff’s family to Rummikib. We did an IMAX film in Grand Rapids. We even managed to celebrate a few January birthdays early.

On Friday, Jeff and I drove to Lansing and met up with his friends Matt and Nick from Detroit. Not only did we enjoy the visit, but we also got to test out my new Garmin Nuvi GPS that Jeff gave me for Christmas. We’ve named it “Emily” after the units British female voice. Emily got us there and back again, and even found a Starbucks for us along the way.

Saturday, Jeff, Emily, and I drove back late to Chicago for our early morning flight the next day. Emily proved her worth by automatically locating traffic and rerouting us–we had our doubts, but she was right. Somewhere along the way–probably from the kids–Jeff picked up a cold, but we managed to meet up with his friend Paolo for a delicious Italian dinner before he totally succumbed to illness. On the plus side, we did get upgraded on the flight home, which made Jeff a bit more comfortable.

Nevertheless, we arrived home a bit run down from such a full week. I made some hearty chicken enchiladas for dinner with our friend Chris, and we rang in the New Year in front of the fireplace.

On Saturday, our friend Pamela–a photo classmate of mine at Ft. Mason–and her husband hosted their annual cookie decorating party at their beautiful home in Telegraph Hill. This was our second year, and we had such fun painting with colorful glazes and sprinkling with dots and sparkles other miniature bits. The cookies sparked imaginative conversations for a perfect December weekend.


Afterwards, Jeff and I walked a few short blocks to North Beach for dinner. We happened upon an intimate northern Italian restaurant–Da Flora–which served us the best gnocchi I have ever tasted–melt-in-your-mouth morsels in a bacon and sage cream sauce. (Jeff’s hearty pork bolognese and my dungeness crab tagliatelle were certainly worthy dishes to follow.)

Inspired by our surprise dinner Saturday evening, I made a wonderful “Tuscan shrimp” dish on Sunday night. This simple dish from the Food Network was warm and flavorful, which was particularly nice on an unusually frigid SF evening. (Hey, I had a razor thin layer of ICE on my windshield this morning. For SF, that is C-O-L-D. 🙂

For the past several years, I’ve been buying the annual Christmas ornament from the White House Historical society. I began collecting when I bought my townhouse in Virginia. One of my coworkers used to take orders for the office. Since then, I’ve kept up the tradition and bought them to remind me of my DC Christmases. Jeff and I like the historical themes. Each ornament honors a former president, and includes a discussion of life in the U.S. during that president’s term. The ornament to the left is the first I collected. The one below is one of my favorites.

My prayers are with my Uncle Penn and his family today. Growing up, I viewed Penn as a strong man and a role model of subtle wit and kindness. After I became a Virginia Tech Hokie, Penn never missed a chance to poke a gentle finger after a Tech defeat at the hands of his University of Virginia Wahoos. Today, Penn just feels far away, but ever present in my thoughts.