Monday Already?

Here we are, and it’s Monday morning already. How does that happen so quickly? Seems like just yesterday it was Friday morning…sigh.

We had a lovely weekend, though. Ted got off of work early on Friday, though I was too busy with work stuff to clock out early with him, so he went to see a movie in Berkeley, about his new girlfriends, The Dixie Chicks. Maya went straight from school to her Girlscout troop leader’s house, where they made fleece scarfs, which they then delivered to the Bay Area Crisis Nursery, a local shelter that the troop seems to have adopted. In addition to delivering scarfs for the children at the nursery, the girls helped out by wrapping gifts that have been donated to the nursery, so the kids there will have a Merry Christmas. Of course, since Maya is our only child, an evening where she’s busy with scout activities means…free babysitting! So, Ted and I put the evening to good use, and went to a nice dinner at Caffe Delle Stelle. Ted had a seafood pasta, and I had gnocci with a gorgonzola cream sauce. Very tasty. After that, we did a bit of Christmas shopping, walking around the local shops rather than venturing over to the mall and its chain stores. We had some good luck, and I’m almost finished with my shopping. 🙂 Yay! Then we went closer to the mall, to the Barnes and Noble, and I got a few gifts there as well. After that, we went and picked up our very tired daughter, who had been going non-stop since morning, and it was 9pm already.

On Saturday, we went out for a nice brunch (not that it was a brunch place, but it was that time of day, and Ted and I ordered lunch items, while Maya had a bagel, which is more breakfasty…), and then out to Antioch to Ted’s parents house for baking day. Baking day is an annual tradition in the family, and everyone loves it. We all bring one recipe, and bake it up, and then when you leave, you take some of everything, and have yummy treats to thicken your waistline. Maya made chocolate chip cookies, ala the famous Tollhouse recipe. They spread out more than we expected them to, but they were very tasty nonetheless. I made a gingerbread bundt cake with a streusel in the middle, with an orange ginger glaze. It was from a box (Williams Sonoma, I actually bought it last year after Christmas, so it was kind of old…), so it wasn’t as complicated as it sounds. It was tasty. Ted made his infamous Joan Lundon fudge, which is a recipe that he got from a magazine many years ago, and he makes it almost every year. It is really more of a brownie, with a fudge type topping. That’s always a winner. In addition to baking, we listen to Christmas music, write out our cards, we watched Scrooged, and ate KFC. It’s a lovely tradition.

Sunday, we took it easy around the house. Maya went to the library to do research on Thailand for her U.N. project, and Ted and I went grocery shopping. There was some ironing done, and a nice Sunday dinner of Lamb Burgonion, and chatting on the phone with my mom while Ted and Maya watched “Battlestar Galactica” on the computer, via iTunes. And here we are, back to Monday, Ted’s at work, I’m at work (with a lot of stuff to do, darn it all) and Maya’s at school. Oh well. Two more weeks, and then we have 10 days off, which will be….lovely.

Happy Monday, everyone. (Or as one of the local DJs says, Moanday…)