New Year, New Blog Post

Contrary to popular opinion, here at the Senn household we thought 2008 was a pretty great year. Sure it had its ups and downs, but all in all, we liked it. We'll spare you a full year-in-review, and jump right in where we left off.

THANKSGIVING, CALIFORNIA-STYLE

A California-style Thanksgiving is a lot like a Midwestern-style one, except the green bean casserole doesn't come from a can and there aren't nearly as many relatives around. My parents came from Minnesota, but after that we just filled up the table with some friends who live here in San Francisco.

For the second year in a row, Kimberly made the perfect turkey and all the trimmings. We even went a little non-traditional and started with a delicious butternut squash soup. (I mention that last part only because it's the only dish I had any hand in whatsoever. Kimberly did everything, and she did it well.)
There's a real turkey neck in that pan.
The next day we headed up north along Highway 1 to Point Reyes, stopping for a few photo ops along the way.


After going all the way up to Hog Island where the famous oysters come from, we wound our way back to the Pelican Inn (below), a gorgeous old British country cottage right near Muir Beach. There, we had some beer, some sausages, and even some more butternut squash soup. Nowhere near as good as mine, of course. 

CHRISTMAS, MIDWEST-STYLE

California is good for a lot of things, but if it's a sub-zero white Christmas you're after, you better head to Minnesota and Wisconsin. It didn't disappoint. 

(Sledding in La Crescent with the Schultzes and Stalsbergs. But we'll get to that shortly.)
First stop was Minnesota. Katja, Roberto, Lucas and Adriana all made the trip from Miami, where it was about 80 degrees warmer. And with us from California, it meant plenty of indoor activities. 
Kimberly and Lucas made cookies for Santa. Lucas was a great chef's assistant with one exception: he doesn't like getting his fingers dirty. Not even with chocolate. He's very tidy that way. Fortunately his younger sister was more than happy to have chocolate all over her hands and face, so they were the perfect tag-team.

There's just something...what's the word...Christmas-y about this picture.

BB with her grandkids on Christmas Eve.
The Carvalhos of Miami brave the cold.
Lucas is a quick learner. Or maybe he makes them in the sand.
The Nutcrackers: Saluting with the troops.
On Christmas Day, we got in the car and headed down to La Crosse, Wisconsin, famous not only as the location of our 2007 nuptials, but also home to Kimberly's parents and Grandma Rosie (and new kitten, pictured above).

We headed straight to her Aunt Mary and Uncle Dave's house for Christmas Day celebrations (and nickel-ante poker). It snowed about four inches while we were there for a perfectly white and slippery Christmas.

Later, we headed back to Mike and Sue's and opened presents with Kevin, Beth, and Jason. The boy likes his trains. 

The nice thing about having Aunt Kimmie around is she can read the directions while Jason looks for the next present to unwrap.
Kimberly has a big family. Having already celebrated with the Schultz side, we headed to La Crescent, Minnesota to celebrate with the Stalsberg side of the family. It wasn't long before everyone was fed and sleds came out. With all that fresh snow, why not?
Grandma Sue taking Jason out to the hill. Much to her credit, she was the first one over 10-years old to go sledding. The rest were soon to follow.
Kimberly and I were happy to watch from the sidelines. You know, to make sure there were enough sleds for the kids. Not because we dreaded the combination of steep hills and cold snow. No, no. We just wanted to make sure there were enough sleds for the kids.

The trip to the Midwest was perfect. Good food, beautiful snow, and wonderful family. Thanks to both our families for putting up with us and finding hats and mittens for us to wear.