We are so busy its hard to keep up. After spending Christmas with Emily and Jennifer and the Martins, we went to San Diego on Boxing Day to visit the Walkers. Al and Evelyn met us and we drove the 30 mins up to Rancho Santa Fe.
We had lots of good times and good meals in their spacious house and were thrilled by the views.
Here are some pics and vids.
This is the front of the house with the balloon in the air behind it.
Here's Beverly and the kids having breakfast in the guest cottage. There is not much furniture in there yet but there is a nice bed and we enjoyed it.
We went to a terrific little restaurant that encourages guests to bring their dogs! Outside dining of course.
Here are PK and EB at Claire's.
We went to Del Mar and walked on the beach there called Dog Beach. As you will see it is aptly named.
It rains sometimes in California and we were lucky enough to catch one of those days...........................
We spent Christmas at the Martin's home this year. We went caroling Christmas Eve and had a great Mexican style dinner. Of course we pulled crackers and wore the silly hats, told the daft jokes and played the naffy games. We spent the night at Emily's comfortable new apartment - we had our own b/r.
We got up Christmas morning and quickly hightailed it to P'ville to watch the kids open their presents. We had eggs Benedict with 2 bottles of fizz and ate my world famous pie-lets. Later in the day we had our Christmas dinner.
It was spectacular. Jenn did a leg of lamb on the rotisserie and we also had smoked Greenberg turkey. Nigella Lawson's recipe helped Jenn make the most scrumptious roasted potatoes I've ever had. (secret ingredient was goose fat)
Poor old Anth was off-color and we all wished him well over and over as we drank the Cameron Hughes Lot 200 Cabernet that Nana and I provided.
We got a call from Steph yesterday afternoon saying that she and the kids had flown into town for an appointment. They were on us 1/2 hour later. We had been baking all morning and it was a very pleasant surprise.
We ate some of our cookies and then Evie took a nap. The twins entertained themselves as they are so capable of doing.
Later that night we were surprised yet again. After dinner - baked eggplant parmagiana - we were watching a movie when we heard noise at the front door.
Here's what we encountered upon opening the door....
I soloed last week and did the same itinerary as Bev and I did last April.....Fla to San Juan, St Martin, and St Kitt's.
Wasn't as much fun without her but I had a good week. I spent the first night with Steve and Linda in Florida....
Then Steve drove me to the ship after lunch on Saturday. I was really pleased when I got to my forward cabin and saw the room.
And the view...
It was fantastic. I got to see things just as the Skipper did from my spot right below the bridge.
Here is San Juan. We parked downtown.
I saw several sunrise/sunsets...
Heading in an easterly direction that of course is sunrise.
I went snorkeling in St Martin but the weather wasn't the best with high winds and a few showers making the bottom murky. Fortunately the crew had plenty of suds so the day wasn't a total waste.
I got home early yesterday, enabled by a high speed $77 cab ride from Miami Port to FLL so I caught an early flight. At dinner last night Graham, Paige and Evelyn welcomed me home with this poster.....
While I read my welcome notes, Nana and Evelyn were telling each other how the cow ate the cabbage....
It was a beautiful day, cool and the sun shined on Sudie. The service was dignified and filled with many tributes to this kind unselfish woman.
At 95 years old Sudie looked good.
She was an accomplished college professor and, after her obit was published in the Waco Herald Tribune, we have heard from many of her former students. My brother-in-law Joe Brooks gave a heartfelt recap of Sudie's life and he had us nodding our heads in agreement many times. He put in a few funny anecdotes too, calling Sudie 'monkey tail' in Portugese, her first language, as her older siblings would do in Brazil in the 1920s.
Sudie and I got along well. I remember the first time I saw her.
She was very generous. She bought Emily a new car, She paid for Joe's debate classes at Baylor, She arranged for Steph's first semester at college, she bought Jennifer an Apple computer when computers were not common possessions, she shopped at Neiman-Marcus and brought dresses for my girls season after season after season. Paige wore a dress today bought by Sudie Pearl for Steph when Steph was 7.
She gave without fanfare and I'm sure there are lots of members of our family that were recipients of stuff I never heard about. That's Sudie Pearl for you!
She gave me Reader's Digest every year for 20+ years and I didn't know how to tell her I didn't want it. I guess she figured it was a rightist leaning pub and that I would therefore like it.
Sudie loved to play Scrabble. She was good. But as she got into her 90s she eased off a little and would often tell me she knew of a Spanish word or a Portugese word that would fit. Purist me I always chastised her and didn't let her use them. If I could play with her now, she can use any damn word she wants to.
I am particularly proud of my three daughters and my first granddaughter Anna who paid their respects today with music.
Here are two vids, one in church and the other at the gravesite.
The first 17 years of my life were spent in Cheshire, England.
The following 17 years were in NYC where I met my life partner Beverly. We had two children in NYC then we moved to Dallas where we had our third child. Subsequently we moved to Cincinnati, St. Louis, Dallas, Midland, Houston, El Paso and back to Houston where we are now living.
