The Nutcracker

This year Jay and I attended the Nutcracker. This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, and hopefully we will make it a tradition for future Christmas celebrations together. As you can see by my collection in the picture to the left, I have a bit of thing for Nutcrackers! The ballet we attended was performed by the Los Angeles Ballet at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. The hall was beautiful, and the ballet was magical. It was a wonderful evening, despite my poor husband's cold!

Jay was sick, but a very good sport. He even posed for pictures for me before the ballet began! Isn't he handsome?

He made me pose also, despite my pitiful self-inflicted haircut. Please just disregard this picture.

Some of the dancers posed for pictures following the performance. From the left is Marie, danced by Melissa Barak, her prince, danced by Peter Snow, Clara, danced by Lilit Hogtanian, and the Nutcracker, performed by Erik Thordal-Christensen. They were all incredibly talented!

Christmas baking

Every year, one of the traditions Jason and I have is baking cookies. This first started with my college roommate, Danielle. I am very happy to continue this tasty tradition. Now, Jay helps me bake the cookies and we distribute them to our co-workers. This year we made brownies, orange-cranberry bread, linzer bars, peanut butter gingerbread, and others. Jay also made a roast for his office Christmas party.

Jay is cooking his very tasty roast...

While I am mixing the peanut-butter gingerbread cookies and other assorted goodies.These cookies are chilled, then rolled out and cut into shapes before baking. Lots of fun!

Turkey Trot

For Thanksgiving this year we had planned a large dinner at the home of our friends Alias and Helen. Because several pies were involved, Jay wanted to workout. On Turkey Day. So, I signed us up for our first race, a 5K in Long Beach, CA called the Turkey Trot. The race started at 9:30, so we showed up bright and early to pick up our numbers and our T-shirts. This is Jay in his number, looking very handsome if I do say so myself!

I ran also, and here I am in my number. As soon as we started the race, Jay had to stop for a bathroom break. I waited for him, and when we began running again he promptly took off like a shot and left me. He waited further down the beach, and we finished the race together. We crossed the finish line at just under 40 minutes, holding hands! It was a great way to start off the holiday. The race raised over $120,000 for local charities, and had over 4500 runners. Below is a shot of the crowd at the start line:


We then headed home for a nap (Helen had banned all grumpy people from attending dinner), cooking, and then a great time with our hosts and friends. Thanks to Helen and Alias for hosting the event, and to Gil, Alex, Jenny, and Dan for the wonderful food and fun! We hope all our friends and family we couldn't be with also had a great Thanksgiving. And congrats to my Aunt Faye for surviving her bout of appendicitis and emergency surgery.