We had a pleasant family Thanksgiving. We do not have family living near us, so only our daughter, her husband and our two grandsons were here. Their German au pair, Anka, also came. It is always interesting to share the holiday with an au pair because they tell us about traditions in their countries. This was the first time she had tasted turkey. She said it was good.
Our son was not able to come this year and that made me a bit sad.
On Friday we took them to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park to see our closest redwood grove. It is not the most impressive, but this might be the Anka's only opportunity to see the big trees.
There are none down near San Diego, and I don't think she will get to the northern part of the state during her year.
We also went for lunch and walkabout in downtown Los Gatos. Some of the street trees are finally at their peak of color.
Each of our grandsons has his own special interest.
The twelve-year-old has always loved math, and has now found some internet sites that are helping him learn about math that's quite ahead of his grade.
Here he is not doing homework, he's just having fun.
The nine-year-old loves all things having to do with food and cooking. The high point of the weekend for him was a trip to a local specialty shop for oil and balsamic vinegar tasting.
It is now Saturday afternoon. They just left for their long drive home to San Diego. We will see them again when we go there for Christmas.
I just wish these two holidays were further apart, or they lived a little closer to us.
Maybe when we are full-timers we can spend the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas down there.
Something to look forward to. But now we will have to get back to work on the house for a few weeks. We finished the stairwell deck railings. The only ones left are on the upper deck, and we have decided to let them be until spring. We will also do the stairs then.
Craig is eager to get started finishing four new doors and a bunch of baseboards and door trim wood that he bought last spring. When the weather started to get nice in May he shifted to outdoor painting work. Now it is time to shift back to concentrating on indoor projects.
I also want him to do a little patch work on some of the drywall up in my sewing loft. It was damaged before we had the new roof put on two years ago, and has to be fixed so I can paint the loft and small bedroom up there.
My goal for between now and Christmas is to help Craig and to clear more stuff out of the studio. Someday it will have to become a bedroom again.
So, as the title of this post says, "Life Goes On."
What will you be doing between now and December 25th?