Christmas 2010

Christmas... can you believe it? Another year has gone by so quickly. It was a mellow holiday at my parent's house this year. I was getting all set to take off on a big adventure the day after Christmas so I was glad we didn't have much planned. Church on Christmas Eve, brunch on Christmas morning (delicious scones, thanks Dad!), saw what Santa brought us in our stockings, then some presents to open... Finally, we called Meg and David to see how the girlies were doing with all of their presents.

My Mom always does a lovely job decorating the house for the holidays. It's subtle, yet festive. Here are some photos of Christmas at a Northern California home. : ) Merry Christmas everyone!

You'll want to click on the photo to view this tree in the front yard a little closer.

There are ornaments hanging from the branches.

The live, outside Christmas Tree. So pretty!

Now this is totally Martha Stewart, right?

An outside view of the lit tree.

And the old stockings all in a row. Mine is the red one. : )

Wordless Wednesday: Thank You Mr. Barista!

The Suite Life

I've been going to Los Angeles a lot for work lately. There a few more trips planned for early next year too, so I'm getting used to the "suite" life. Not always, but most of the time I've booked a room at the W Hollywood lately they've upgraded me to a suite! This is due to my Starwood Hotels Platinum level membership. It's taken me some time, but I finally made it! I think I may have mentioned this in a past post, but it's fun so humor me to read about it again. ; ) Whenever there is a suite available at one of the Starwood hotels (Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, etc.), if you are at a Platinum level, you are supposed to get an upgrade. It's nice! That said, sometimes I think, "This whole place is just for lil' ol' me?" I feel like I should be calling everyone I know in the area and throwing a party! Alas, it's a work trip and I'm usually needed on press early each morning. It's hard to see color well with a headache, so I usually have mellow evenings... in a room that is bigger than my apartment in San Francisco!

The Fabulous Suite. Bedroom/Living Room separated by a curtain behind the couch.

If you want to watch TV in bed, simply slide the curtain around to one side of the couch!

The couch. I can't say it's all that comfy, but it looks good!

Flat screen TV and desk.

The bathroom. Yes, a tub AND a separate shower. I love the lighting around their mirrors,

it's set so you always look great! ; )

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was very small this year. My Mom suggested we have Thanksgiving at my apartment in San Francisco. Yikes... I had begged off on the same idea last year and knew it was probably my turn to host. That said, I didn't have to cook much! Not that I cannot cook, but people, my stove is a mini-stove! It can't be more than 18 inches wide. No turkey is going in there! My Mom cooked a majority of the meal in Lafayette, then transported it into the city. I made a salad and provided appetizers and drinks. Some "crudites" too.

We took a long walk down on Crissy Field, much longer than expected. I started us out at the Marina Green when I should have driven to the first Crissy Field parking lot. Oops!

We had a yummy dinner then a fun Skype with everyone in Spokane! It was our first Skype with the girls. They recognized us, but were much more fascinated with the small screen where they could see themselves.

Gram and Grampa watching Morgan and Piper.

Sweet Piper crawling right up to the camera.

Snow and Prohibition

Ah, Minneapolis... One my work travel locations. I hadn't been there in a while, but I really enjoy the reps from the printing company I send work to there. They are just really down to earth, nice people. Not the shifty, sales-y people you run into most of the time. This trip was a little cold and snowy, but I missed the worst of the snow that hit a few days before I arrived. I was able to stay at the W Foshay, in downtown Minneapolis. I had only stayed there once before, but like it a lot since the hotel has some history. It was at one time the tallest skyscraper in Minneapolis. It wasn't a "W hotel" then, obviously, but when W took it over and renovated it, they did a great job in capturing the history. If you ride the elevator to the top, there is a viewing deck similar to the Empire State Building, but on a smaller scale. This time, I decided to pop into their bar called Prohibition for a martini before I called it a night.

Sorry it's a little small, I pulled this from the hotel website.

A downtown view from Prohibition. The lights inside were low and looked kinda purple in the photos!

I was trying to catch the snow outside on the ledge. Can you see it?

A Cosmo. I know, I know... but I really like them! This one actually wasn't very good, but it was pretty.

Fun Photos of my Nieces Morgan & Piper

Recently, I was on my computer, clicking through a bunch of photos and landed on some favorites of Morgan and Piper. You may have seen a couple of these photos on my sisters web blog, but I want to post them anyway. Some of them are just sweet, quick photos Meg sent me on her camera phone. They simply make me smile! : )

I took this one during one of my Spokane visits. It was SO hard to get them to sit still, it was amazing a caught this shot. Piper was maybe 6 months old and Morgan around 2. Meg, am I right? Can you believe Piper is blond now?

Meg texted me this one. The caption was, "Aunt Ali, I just had a blowout!"

Another text from Meg. Just, "Hi Aunt Ali!" I think I had requested a photo, it had been one of those days I needed a smile. : )

Morgan's first day of preschool. The girl next to her is named Morgan too! Out of 12 kids in the class, what are the odds?

A text from Meg. This one said, "Niner girls. Too bad their team stinks!" Hee. I bought them the 49er t's at Old Navy.

Text: "Sweet butterfly" I originally bought these butterfly wings for Morgan, but she didn't like them much. Looks like Piper got a little use out of them.

Text: "Sleepy butterfly." Aw...

I bought Morgan a Dora the Explorer backpack. This is a photo Meg texted me from Oakland Airport on their way home from Yosemite. So cute!