We hosted some friends for dinner on Christmas Eve. Paula and her three kids, Eliisa, Oliver and Niklas; Nikki and her son, Alec; and Grace and her daughter, Ava.
Like Thanksgiving, we had lots of food. Ron tried cooking a rib roast for the first time; it barely fit into our small oven. Even though Ron used a digital oven thermometer, the meat came out a little more done than the Gee family likes; next time, he’ll take the roast out at 130 degrees for medium rare. Iris made homemade mashed potatoes, Nikki made a refreshing salad, Paula brought a fruit salad, and Grace brought a pecan pie.
Our bathroom tub had begun draining increasingly slower, until eventually we were standing in inch or two of water by the end of our showers. The bathroom sink was also draining slowly, and a bottle of Drano didn’t help, so we finally called Bob and Marc Plumbing. We had used them several times before, most recently to install the tankless hot water system when our water heater went out.
The plumber arrived shortly after we called, and after snaking deep into the drain pipe, pulled out a big, dense, hairy plug that looked like a small rat.
We went down to Seal Beach to celebrate Christmas with Ron’s side of the family. Jan made a rib roast using a Lawry’s Roast Beef recipie that she got out of the LA Times. Julie’s carving the roast in this pic.
After dinner, we celebrated Iris’ and Morgan’s birthdays, since Morgan’s birthday was just a couple of days ago, and Iris’ birthday was coming up the following week.
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Morgan invited her basketball team and some friends from school to a sleep-over birthday party. The plan was to have a scavenger hunt the next day, so they started off by splitting up into teams, and each person made a t-shirt with their team’s color as part of the main design. Iris made a big pot of spaghetti for dinner.
Coincidentally, Santa Claus came through the neighborhood, escorted by a couple of police cruisers. He stopped at a nearby corner, Morgan got to tell him what she wanted for Christmas, and the girls all got a group shot with him.
We all then went to El Segundo’s Candy Cane Lane Luckily, Michelle Olson volunteered to drive so we wouldn’t have to try and shuttle all of the kids in two cars. Candy Cane Lane was spectacular, as always. Afterwards, we drove over to Yogurberry, where everyone got to make their own frozen yogurt dessert.
The next day, the group broke up into their teams. Iris had come up with some really good goals for the scavenger hunt, including picking up an item at Airport Cleaners in El Segundo, getting their picture taken with a Rite Aid employee, finding out the price of a chicken taco at Fantastic Cafe, and getting a hand stamp from the El Segundo Library. It was a fairly long scavenger hunt, and both teams came back pooped.
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The El Segundo High School Surf Team posed for a team picture after their meet with Mira Costa.
