-
What else has been going on around here…
- Twenty-One January 29, 2026
- Nostalgia January 8, 2026
- We Made It! December 22, 2025
- We Make Do, So Can You! November 2, 2025
- Twice in 3 Days October 31, 2025
Archives
Categories
Moments in Time
March 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Category Archives: Family
I threw myself a fabulous Hawaii Five-0 birthday party last Sunday. What better way to celebrate than being with my family & friends solving a murder mystery?!? Complete with detective Dan-O to book-em.
In the over-the-top, flamboyant 🦩 fashion of my bestie Solstice Sister Niki, we had all the Chinese Luau decor available. Since Niki couldn’t be here, she determined to help set the mood with all the decor. She’s the best!
We laughed at the number of flamingos in this Hawaiian party decor, I guess some things do get lost in translation. But, none-the-less, flamingos fit my theme, for other reasons. And I enjoyed them greatly. And the pineapples… 🍍 It’s a good thing when your friends know all the right things to make you feel loved!
Mo helped me and my kids decorate, we borrowed a couple more props to make it luau-licious and had a blast.
I made spam musubi, Loco Moco and Shoyu Chicken, with lots of rice and macaroni salad. Had some fruity tropical drinks and a pineapple, macadamia & coconut cake. Mo made some zero sugar key lime pudding that was amazeballs. Niki sent tequila, she knows…
My friends & family really showed me some love! I was blessed with some pretty awesome gifts, all perfectly tailored to this gal. Lots of earrings, long dangling ones, amber ones and seashell ones. Handcrafted cheese and goat milk soaps. Chocolate, coffee, roses and a beautiful cloisonne mezuzah. And two of the best gifts in life, love & laughter. We laughed so hard with the kid’s antics during the murder mystery game. We had a great time!
Missed having my girl here, and of course missed my Mom on our special day. We had a toast in her honor.
I’m feeling so blessed. 💜 🌴 Thanks to all for the birthday wishes and party fun.
Today is my Grandpa’s birthday. I was always excited to celebrate with him. It meant there would be chocolate cake with pecans and black walnut ice cream or, if Grandma was being especially nice, raisin pecan pie. It was his favorite. I’m pretty sure he’s the reason I love pecans so much.
Grandpa’s birthday also meant that Thanksgiving was coming as well as another couple birthdays… It was party time!
Now, back to the raisin pecan pie.
It wasn’t like a pecan pie (my favorite pie) with raisins. No, it was like a funeral pie with pecans. I remember watching Grandma boil the raisins to plump them up. Prepare a double pie crust. Assembling and baking it in her cool old electric range with double upper ovens and a cook top that retracted when not in use.
Grandpa sure loved that pie. I haven’t made one in ages. Actually I’ve only ever made it once IIRC. It’s a lot of work and we’ll, if you’re not a raisin lover, I mean really love raisins, it’s gonna take a while to eat that whole pie by yourself. I don’t have Grandma’s recipe anymore, but here’s a close approximation. Just add a whole bunch of chopped (or halved) pecans.
So I’ll not be making his favorite pie today. Just reminiscing about The Old Codger and being thankful for having experienced life with him.
Rest peacefully Nicky Baby.
Alaska on my mind... 