Christmas

 On our downtown trolley tour of Montgomery, Taylor saw a store called Looking Good that he felt compelled to frequent.  If you don't know Taylor, he has a sense of style that is all his own.  Right now, he wants to wear suits and this place just happened to have a 2 suits including tailoring sale for $100.  By the time we got back from Florida his brown and white (yes, white) suit were ready in time for him to wear to the Christmas Eve candlelight service we attended.  It was early so we came home to our turkey dinner for 3, opened our flannel pj pants and relaxed.  We got up when we wanted Christmas morning and waited for Taylor to open the few gifts that we had under our tree.  I have to say, the stress level of this holiday was minimal and there is something to be said for cutting way back.  I didn't enjoy the holiday any less, in fact I think I enjoyed it more without twenty lists of things to do.  If I felt like I wanted a hustle and bustle feel I headed to a shopping area and just enjoyed the lights and such without all the purchasing.  The rest of our day we ate munchies and played RISK which Taylor got for Christmas.  He of course, kicked our butts.

 We thought his plane left at 4:30 on the 27th but when we printed his boarding pass the day before it turned out he had to leave at 2:30.  He had wanted to spend the day in Birmingham so we went early and did a little sight-seeing.  We went to the Vulcan Park and Museum which is up on a hill above the city and a great place to see Birmingham.  It was cold and rainy so we spent the majority of the time inside the museum before a brief run to the top.

 We headed to find a place to lunch and ended up in a part of town that is supposedly the "youthful, club oriented" area.  Had a mediocre Mexican meal but got a photo of The Storyteller which is this fountain in the middle of the roundabout outside the restaurant.

 We said our good-byes at the airport.  Check out Taylor's python boots.  He got those at Looking Good as well!  We loved having him here for Christmas and we had a great time.  Wish we could have convinced him to stay.

 After we left Taylor I wanted to swing by the 16th Street Baptist Church which was bombed in 1963, killing 4 young girls.  Our book group here in AL read Four Spirits which centered around this story.  Since it was early we decided to hit the Riverchase Galleria Mall which supposedly has the world's largest skylight.  It reminded us a lot of the mall in Crystal City in Washington DC.  Didn't buy anything.  Just enjoyed the last of the decorations, the hustle and bustle of the holidays winding down.....and we may have shared a pretzel!

And the Adventure Continues.........

The weather didn't improve after a couple of days and showed no promise of doing so, so we loaded up and and decided to drive along the coast until we found some sunshine.  Well, that didn't happen until we were on the other side of Florida, 6 hours away in Jacksonville.  And there, we found this little bit of heaven called Casa Marina.  Right on the beach and nicely priced in the off season.

 The next few days our itinerary went something like this:

1. Tom and I take advantage of continental breakfast in lobby then walk for miles on the beach in the early morning while Taylor sleeps.  Bring his breakfast up to the room when we return.

       2.  Spend the rest of the day doing this and more walking along the beach.  One of us would run up the street for lunch and bring it back to be eaten on the beach.

    3.  Evenings were spent going to dinner then a movie.  Discovered Taylor liked sushi.  Who knew?

     Simple days but perfect.  Got some sun, definitely relaxed and enjoyed a very different holiday season.  We checked out and headed home early on Dec. 23rd. so we could be home for Christmas.

Tay's Excellent Adventure Part 2

So Taylor was a little disappointed in the weather situation in Alabama as it wasn't quite as warm as he had expected.  Of course it doesn't help that Utah is having some sort of non-winter freakish heat wave so his standard of comparison was a little skewed.  Anyway, we hopped in the car and headed to Panama Beach, FL hoping for sunnier days.

 Once there, we settled in at Tyndall AFB and then set out for something to do.  The temp wasn't really
 conducive to beach going so we hit the tourist circuit.

After a little souvenir shopping for Taylor's friends we stopped for lunch at a great German place.

 We shared an appetizer pretzel and Taylor ordered the schnitzel which was yes, as big as this looks!

Next up was Wonder Works which is kind of like a big kid's museum.  Tons of interactive exhibits, puzzles, rides, and then there was that whole climbing across ropes and such up in the ceiling of the whole place.  Even though we were safety snapped in a hanging harness, I was having some height issues!  We had a great time though and spent several hours there.

And finally my friends, this is the kind of tasteful holiday decorating that goes on in Panama City Beach.  However, since my across the street neighbor in Utah decorates the same way it made me a little less homesick!

Taylor's Excellent Adventure Part 1

 Computer was down again, grrrrr.  Turns out it was actually our external hard drives which have been replaced so hopefully all is well now in our technological world.  However, it means a lot of blogging catch up!

Our baby, 18 year old Taylor, was able to come spend some time with us over the holidays.  He arrived the night before Tom's final so Tom stayed home to study while I made the drive to Birmingham for the 11 PM pickup.  I left quite early so got to do a driving tour of the city, visited a beautiful shopping area (Saks Fifth Ave) then settled into do some reading until Taylor's plane got in.

 He always gets lots of second looks.  Especially when he's carrying his guitar.  They think he's a rock star.

 Our first days consisted of Montgomery sight-seeing, movies, Christmas shopping for Taylor (clothes) and relaxing at the apartment with home cooked meals.

Dexter Ave Baptist Church where the Montgomery
bus boycotts
were organized in the basement by Martin Luther
King Jr.

Taylor and Rosa Parks

Linda's Visit

!Our computer has been down for a couple of weeks so I have some serious blogging catch up to do

We finally got to put the guest bedroom to good use when our friend Linda Bishop came to visit for a few days.  She lives in Florida so drove up to play in our new digs.  We've known Linda since college at Weber State where she taught when Tom and I were both students in the theatre department. After traveling to Europe together, doing many theatre productions, commercials, radio spots, traveling to New Zealand & Australia and experiencing a whole lot of real life together....we have been friends for a very long time

Blurry photo....grrrrr

Linda went from high school teacher, college instructor, tv producer, theatre director and producer to theological school.  She became a pastor and is now retired.  She is the one who recommended I visit the Community Church of Christ in Montgomery so we went to visit it again while she was here.  It is customary to introduce yourself as a fellow pastor to the practicing preacher (which she did) and ended up being invited to the pulpit for a few minutes.

 Later that afternoon, Linda and I went to the LIVING TREE production at a huge Baptist Church in downtown Montgomery.  If you've never seen one of these productions, that huge tree is filled with choir members.  It was a program full of gorgeous Christmas music, dancers, children's choirs and lovely messages.

Over her 5 day visit we had a grand time sight-seeing, shopping, seeing A CHRISTMAS MEMORY at The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, eating out, eating in, and most of all just chatting and catching up.  It was Tom's last week of school before the holiday so he had a ton of studying to do but was able to join us for a few things.  Overall it was a great way to bring in the holidays and fun to have someone to share them with.

Will Power 5K

 We signed up to run a 5K for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival this morning but when we arrived at 7:30 AM it was VERY chilly.  Now, I don't know what the temp was but it was breezy enough to make our newly adapted warm genes sit in the car until we absolutely had to get out.

The race itself was on the grounds where the theatre and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts are but they're surrounded by the gorgeous Blount Cultural Park with tons of trails.  That's where we ran.  A tad hilly and no mile markers and since I don't have one of those fancy-schmancy mileage watch thingies to wear on my wrist, I had no sense of how far we had been.  I was feeling pretty discouraged that I'd yet to see the 1 mile marker bit I decided to stop worrying about it & just run and enjoy the scenery.

Get it?  WILL power?

Santa is very busy with race appearances!

 Tom of course took first place in his age category and Dave took second in his which provided each of them with a prize winning ASF baseball hat, a key ring and 2 tickets to a play this season.  Yippee!
We're still waiting for them to post times so I'm not sure how I did.  I think it was better than last week but I may be delusional so we'll just have to wait and see.  This was a fairly small turnout comparatively and I still didn't win anything.  BUT AGAIN TERI, it's not about winning, it's about improving yourself.  Whatever, it's still a great way to start a Saturday.

 We wandered around the grounds for a bit listening to the music, sipping mimosas and munching bacon biscuits provided by the sponsors.  We got an awesome phone call from my niece Shaylee that she and Nick are expecting their first baby in June!  Yippee!  We haven't had a baby in our family for a looong time so now I won't have to be the creepy lady who sits and stares at strangers little one's because I miss having one around!  Congratulations on Nick's college graduation and new babies!

What I'm doing while we're here.......

 So, like most of you I have a huge stash of recipes that I've collected over the years.  Some (most) of which I've never tried.  So with some time on my hands and a very easy to please husband who likes just about everything, I've started working my way though this binder.


Some are clipped from newspapers, some are entire segments pulled from magazines and others are printed from the computer.  Some have been awesome and have rated a * while others have been pried from the dried glue and thrown in the trash.  I've decided they really have to be fabulous to stay as I tend to rely on my favorites anyway.



I'll share one of those (hence the hot pink post-it note) that I got from a Cooking Light magazine as one of their Top Ten recipes one year.  My friend Merri Dawn gave me a subscription one Christmas and I have several "all time hits" that have come from that publication.  This one is simple, tastes amazing and everyone will want your recipe.  Can even turn asparagus haters around!


Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter

2 lbs fresh asparagus spears, trimmed
Cooking spray
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. black pepper
2 T. butter
2 t. low sodium soy sauce
1 t. balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Arrange asparagus in a single layer on baking sheet; coat with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 400 for 12 minutes or until tender

Melt butter in small skillet over medium heat, cook for 3 minutes or until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally.  Remove from hear, stir in soy sauce and vinegar.  Drizzle over asparagus, tossing well to coat. Serve immediately.  Yield: 8 servings (5 spears per person)