Last week, after my encounter with a pack of coyotes, I had to get dressed up for a Christmas party. If you missed the coyote post, it’s HERE.
I was kind of worn out, stressed, and not feeling up to it. But we were driving another couple from our neighborhood, so there was no backing out.
It was a Christmas/Holiday party for my charitable group that raises funds for a residential facility that helps rescued sex-trafficked women return to a “normal” life. I’ve written about The Dream Center HERE.
One of our members opened her home for the party. It was catered and I have to share the beautiful display of hors d’oeuvres and her Christmas decorations.
Dessert.
This is the other side of the island with more delicious food and gorgeous decorations.
I wish I would have taken photos of her backyard. You can see the photo above, how the glass doors disappear into the wall. The hostess and her husband are Italian and their backyard looks like a Roman style garden. It was a beautiful evening with friends.
The hostess had a surprise for us:
Dickens Christmas Carolers!
The party put me in the holiday spirit. I’m so looking forward to Christmas this year with my children and daughter-in-law.
When have you not wanted to go somewhere and it turned out to be better than expected?
During last weekend, we watched a young boy building this unique sandcastle in front of Ashton Kutcher’s house. I swear as we walked by, I saw Ashton on the sand with friends playing with their kids. That’s my story. And I’m sticking to it.
This house is at the opposite end of the beach. A couple years ago our daughter and Waffles the pug joined us for a week. This house had the beach roped off and no trespassing signs around it. Waffles, of course, went inside the guy’s “private beach” and the owner yelled at our daughter when she went in to fetch Waffles. My husband explained to the man that there are NO PRIVATE BEACHES in California. The beaches belong to all of us. Now the ropes are down and there are two no trespassing signs on his house.
I made burgers with lettuce, Farmer Fred’s amazing tomatoes and avocados from a friend’s tree. Yium!
I think these shore birds are Plovers? They don’t have the long beaks that sandpipers do. They are standing in front of the house I mentioned above. I hope the owner doesn’t get mad at them!
A colder, foggier day at high tide.
Friends invited us over for dinner and we started the evening with this charcuterie and wine on their Duffy electric-powered boat. They live in Ventura in the Keys and we cruised around the inlets before dinner.
This is a photo from the Duffy website. I forgot to get a picture of the boat they keep at their dock, but this is what it looks like.
Below is a short video from our evening puttering around the neighborhood. What a fun night with friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
This weekend, it’s my birthday. I am throwing a party for my husband.
That’s because his birthday was in January and he was sick with an upper respiratory virus. I was sick before Christmas through New Year’s, then it was his turn. I had invited three couples from our neighborhood, plus our Palm Springs friends who now live one mile away. Our Santa Barbara friends were going to surprise hubby. But they came two weeks ago and we had a fun, but exhausting time!
I couldn’t have the party while they were here, because two of the previously invited couples were out of town.
I haven’t felt like entertaining, but time is passing by and I did invite them. I said we were postponing while hubby was sick. I didn’t want to flake out on them so, his birthday party happens to coincide with my actual one.
For my birthday I also made swimming reservations for us at our local YMCA. We had such a cold winter, I never once made it to swim laps. I’m warm weather swimmer, also known as a wimp. I thought what better day than my birthday to restart lap swimming.
I did go to lunch with my two graphic designer friends who moved from Palm Springs to nearby more than 10 years ago. We have made it a monthly get together and we rotate who gets to choose the restaurant. It was my turn and I picked a sushi restaurant that none of us had been to. I had sushi and my friends ordered the Bento Box — which was only $12! That’s a deal in this town.
Hamachi Nigiri and the Garlic Roll that had tempura shrimp, tuna and roasted garlic on top.
My friends $12 Bento Box Lunch Special.
What do you like to do to celebrate your birthday?
Are you a sushi fan? Or, do you like food like in the Bento Box better?
One of two charcuterie platters at our party. One of my son’s girlfriend’s sisters created this masterpiece.
Saturday afternoon the big day finally arrived. After shopping and trying out recipes and living on finger foods for a week, our violist and one of her sisters arrived.The guests came over in the early evening and I realized we had too much food: spanakopita, a Costco-sized shrimp platter to feed 20 (I’d say 60) and meatballs that turned out superb thanks to my fellow bloggers’ suggestions. Add to that two huge charcuteries with my favorite brie and Humboldt fog cheeses and my husband’s favorite stilton with mango and ginger.
We arranged chairs in the back yard for Alexandra Simpson to play. Here are a series of short videos from the concert. The evening was divine. After the guests left and I cleaned up, I sat and drank wine and chatted with Allie and her sister Brett. I think next to the concert, that was a highlight of the night.
As the sun began to set Allie’s ipad lit her in a soft glow. She uses the ipad for her music.
Here’s a music video that dropped Friday with Allie accompanying Chuck Prophet in “Meet Me at The Roundabout.”
That was the highlight of my weekend. What was your favorite thing about your weekend?
I’m glad I found this photo from Christmas pre COVID, December 2019 to be exact. My son is a master at creating delicious and gorgeous charcuteries. (It only took my two years to pronounce that word). I will study how he put it together and try to make something similar.
Saturday we’re hosting his girlfriend’s sisters and one has offered to play viola for us. She suggested we could invite some friends. I immediately thought of our fellow California refugees who live a mile away. I then invited two couples I met working on the HOA newsletter.
I counted my RSVPs and my original thought of four to six people has turned into 16. My husband keeps asking me what we’re going to serve. I keep telling him charcuterie, veggies, chips, dips, shrimp platter, several hot appetizers.
“What about meatballs?”
“Okay. Meatballs, too.”
We went to Costco a week ago and they once again had samples after two years of not allowing them. Yay! We tried a number of different bites, and bought a couple for our upcoming party.
Here’s the stitch. My husband wants something with puff pastry. He doesn’t want me to cook. I had gotten some ideas from my Santa Barbara friend, who caters parties and makes her spanakopita and other delicious bites — using her own puff pastry. She gave me several ideas where I could buy puff pastry already made and cut it into rectangles or triangles, bake it, and fill it with savory or sweet fillings.
My husband said no. I know he’s trying to save me from wearing myself out and putting too much time and effort into this. He suggested it would be easier for me to pop things ready made into the oven and put them in a chaffing dish or platter and let it go.
For the past three or four days, we’ve been living on appetizers. Everything looks good on the box, but I wanted to know how quickly they cook and how they taste. By the way, Kroger’s makes a delicious spanakopita. Costco has really good spring rolls — and you can order a shrimp platter from them, too. We tried meatballs in the crockpot but didn’t like the sauce I found on Allrecipes. There are some things that I really like but don’t think will work for a party, like my favorite soup dumplings with pho.
Last night I was scouting for more appetizers and I swear my car took over and stopped at Burger King on the way home from the grocery store. I ended up with two Whoppers for dinner.
Any suggestions for easy appetizers? What are your favorite finger foods?Do you have a delicious sauce for meatballs in the crock pot?
Here’s the link to Alexandra Simpson’s website who will be playing viola for us. Her website has her bio and videos of her playing. She’s visiting Arizona to play with Kygo, who I never heard of before her upcoming visit. Have you heard of Kygo?
