It's Christmas Time!

I have been wired for the last couple of weeks with the holidays approaching.  This time of year gets me so excited.  I am counting down the days until Nutcracker!  We got our sweet little Christmas Tree today.  I think it is adorable.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I am truly thankful that we have such amazing friends out here.  Jennie & Bowen hosted a Thanksgiving Potluck for our group of friends that stayed in the city for the holiday.  Our friends are all pretty great cooks, so the meal was amazing. 

three amazing cooks in the kitchen!

the pineapple turkey.  bowen's mom makes them.  I really want one (obvi)

Jennie's first pie ever...amazing first pie.  and beautiful!

Our Sweet Potato Soup w/Cranberry Oil & Crispy Sweet Potato Matchsticks.

The hostess with the mostess & the Turkey.

the multiple side dishes.  YUM.

the boys dishing up!

more full plates, that were very happy plates at the end of dinner

Off to Spring Mountain...(a Napa Appellation)

Linda (Casey's Lady Friend) came for a visit & we headed up North to Spring Mountain.  It was a really great trip with the exception of the terrible weather...rain, hail, lighting & thunder.  Best part was we went to the original Taylor's (Gotts Tray Gourmet).  Love that place. 

Casey & Linda at the new Oxbow Wine Merchant location.  The shop that Nick opened a couple of years back has relocated & is now in the main hall of the Oxbow Public Market.  The new space is amazing & has great energy inside the hall.  Can't wait to go back soon!

Me & Nick, as you can see in the background it is right across from Hog Island.

In the caves during the tour at Pride.

Outside at Pride, post-Harvest is one of my fav times of year to visit.  The leaves on the vines are changing color & it is very quiet in the Valley. 

arizona vs. stanford.

 although we lost, we still had a really great time.  go CATS.

me & dave at brick yard, waiting for the bus.

on the bus!

made it to stanford.

before the game started and before we started losing.

pumpkin carving.

we had such a great time having everyone over for pumpkin carving.  everyone did a great job!

Mel's Pumpkin

Robert's Pumpkin

Nick's Pumpkin

Casey's Pumpkin

Shannon & Derek's Pumpkin

 

the line up

Bowen's  Pumpkin

Lori's Pumpkin

Jennie's Pumpkin

beer making part 3.

time to bottle. perhaps the worst part of bottling is removing the labels off of the bottles. below is a shot of me...really excited to be scraping the labels off.

the bottles about to be sterilized.

the bottles just waiting for beer.

the boys trying to figure out how to get the siphon.

we also made a small batch of ginger ale/beer. to try it out.

they figured it out & it was so speedy.

48 bottles of the blonde ale waiting to be capped.

nick is really buff, so capping was a breeze.