A 8 day Roller Coaster

It has been a roller coaster of a week since last Wednesday.

That was when we had the brilliant visit by Karen and Jeff with their terrific ten-yr-old, Ethan. He is beautiful! It was Feb 14th, and everywhere was booked, unless we wanted to eat at 4:30 or 10:30 pm. So, as most of you may know already, I decided to cook.

I was relieved to find out that Karen and Jeff don't keep Kosher, so they didn't mind eating the bacon around the fillets. They were very tasty, if I say so myself. I had been disappointed in the way they looked, and they didn't seem too tender, at first. But after one bite, I was relieved, and nearly happy with them. We had salad, mashed potatoes and my roasted red & yellow peppers.

I sautéed the peppers in olive oil, garlic, and basil, until blackened, and served them with the steaks and mashed potatoes. I love those peppers, and I sure hope Karen, Jeff & Ethan did, too. I cheated with dessert--bought one of those Costco 4-layer chocolate fudge with fudge frosting cakes. It is something I’ve wanted to taste for so long, and this was my perfect excuse! Very quite yummy with vanilla ice cream, too!

The Green/Ward family delighted us with their company. Poor things drove from the west side of Los Angeles (right next to the airport in LA), all the way to our house in north Orange County during the time of rush hour. I do not wish that on anyone, especially this very gracious couple. They did comment that the commute to our house did teach them that they needed a home very close to Jeff’s new place of employment. 8^)

We so appreciated their visit. The girls were very enamored with Ethan…Sarah so much so that she went to her room and put on her grandmother’s earrings! That she’s never done before!
Scott and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Karen and Jeff face to face. I hope they felt the same way we did.

Scott was again impressed meeting another December Mom. He has yet to meet one he doesn’t like. (I tell him that he ought to think they’d all be quality people--after all, I chose the Dec Moms as friends!)

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So as the roller coaster chugs upward, we say our g’byes & so longs to the Green/Wards, and prepare ourselves for out 4th annual Couples’ Dinner Party, held Saturday the 17th. For the first time I can remember for any party we’ve thrown, our expenses stayed within our budget!

I made a green salad w/dried cranberries, walnuts, feta cheese, and a not to sweet oil and vinegar dressing, prime rib, and scalloped potatoes. I begged and got our dear cousin April to make the green beans, because she is the only one able to make them in a way that my Scott will eat them. Dessert impressed us all--the “Chocolate Fountain of Loovve” was on, and I put out cookies, fresh fruit, some pound cake as well as angel food cake. MMMMMMM!

We didn’t need entertainment, but I have a box of cards titled, “Table Topics” asking questions --some lighthearted, and some very deep. Each person had a card to read/& answer. One question, I decided, had to be answered by each person for his/her spouse. “What does your spouse complain about most?” That provided some interesting answers--all the wives said their husbands complained about clutter, and the husbands, except for one said the wives complained about the *&(*(%$*&( kids. My dh had to break the perfect record by saying that I complain about my health a lot. Well at least I don’t complain about the kids so much then, right? 8^)

I was very proud of us--we threw a pretty good party. Saturday night after everyone left, as well as all day Sunday, I gushed about how much fun we had. I was very happy with the decorations, food, the look of the house overall, the mix of people attending, the variety of wines and beverages offered, the layout of the food, and the fact that we fit 12 adults at my new dining room table!

For decorations, I used white table cloths and a deep wine/rust/red table runner. On that I placed 1 pillar candle and 2 tapers, and set along side them 6 pastel colored long stemmed live roses. Intertwined with the roses and loosely wrapped around the candles I placed white fabric ribbon with a subtly printed roses print.

I'll write the rest in my next entry...