As you can see Cindi always poses with her best face forward. On Saturday evening the 6th we went to Dana Point harbor for the holiday lighted boat parade with the Holst's. Sorry about the candid shots but they are what they are----BAD----.
It was a warmish night and the wind was calm so a lot of people showed up and
I didn't bring my fold up chairs so everyone besides me sat on the rocks. I couldn't get down with my sandals and bad hip so I wandered away and found a bench to share with another family. There were a lot of colorful boats but they don't show up well with a little digital camera.

Before Marie left for Utah she made some Candied Sweet Potatoes with marshmallows. They were good. More about them later.

Family Night Gingerbread Houses

The Bender family invited us over to build some gingerbread houses tonight and it was so fun. Nicole made all the pieces and frosting from scratch which is amazing to me because I would have no idea how to do that. Some of the parts were a little askew but we made sure the Benders got all of those ones :) So of course the kids had a blast with all the decorating , I definitely ate more candy than I put on the house, and I think the Dad's should get new jobs as architects, if you look closely you can see Jason sticking out his tongue in deep concentration. What a fun night! Thank you Bender's!

Here are a few pictures from Saint Nicolas here in Leudelange last Saturday 30 Nov. Alienor played the piano for two of the school children's songs that they performed and then she also sang with them. Then Guillaume, Margot and Perceval got to get in line with the group of children that are not in the local school system. Of course that meant that all of the other kids were under 3!! Oh well, it helped us get through the line faster and we have to take advantage of any advantage we have as homeschoolers - which aren't many! Unfortunately, Alienor was at the end of a long line so by the time she made it up to get her bag of goodies from St. Nicolas Patrice has already left with the younger kids and the camera. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Pumpkin!!

Patrice's birthday was the third of December - 39 and holding! I made enchiladas for a birthday lunch. They turned out great and we all wanted seconds - reserved only for the birthday boy. We sure do miss mexican food! Here are a few pictures of Patrice with the kids on his birthday. In the first picture Alienor was on her tippy toes but we didn't realize it until we moved the kids around a little. We were laughing because she was getting lost in the back behind Margot. Luckily Alienor can laugh about it too. I guess we'll have to start putting Alienor in the front and Margot in the back, even though Alienor is older.

I can't believe I just barely missed Cindi. I hope that you all have a great time visiting. It was great to see Bobby and Gina after so long. They were kind to let us barge in on them for a little while and we had a good time catching up a little. We will have to get together again when we finally make it out to Utah. We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Our love to all of you.

Happy Day. We picked up Cindi at LAX this afternoon. Drove home and went straight to Del Taco. She hadn't eaten in almost a day because of her cold and the turbulence flying out of London. It was so bad she said the ladies were screaming as their butts came off their seats. Anyway, she was hungry and had a fish soft taco, quesadilla, red bean burrito and a root beer. We look forward to the next few weeks with Cindi and the rest of the kids.

HAPPY 39TH BIRTHDAY!!

PATRICE ANDRE DUFFORT

Was fun to surprise you with my

'special' vocal rendention of

'Happy Birthday'

You know, you are now a member

of a very select group in the

family of those

39 years and holding!!

Glad you had a fun day!!

Love, Grandma Cass

I tried so hard to reverse this order but it still didn't work so please read from the bottom up.

The INFINITY logo with crab and shell. And all the gang on the beach and on the life guard tower. Congrats go to Coach Jeff, Assistant Coach Caleb, Marie, Cassy, Ed. But most importantly to the parents that made this experience a reality for their girls

The Infinity team beach pictures. Jeff on the cell, and working with his team. Dad cooking .

Cooking, Eating and Socializing! At beautiful Doheney State Park

This is a very different Thanksgiving! Jeff signed up a 16 year old soccer team to play in the Harvest Cup soccer tournament held on the UCI campus in Irvine. The girls arrived by plane and car Thanksgiving day and they wanted their thanksgiving meal on the beach! Definitely not your routine Thanksgiving meal venue. All they asked for was hot dogs and hamburgers so that is what Marie and I prepared to serve them and their parents. In all about 30 people plus a serving staff of 5. When I asked Cassy to join us she was gracious enough to offer to do Turkey, Dressing, Candied Yams (the girls really wanted marshmallows on top so she reluctantly obliged ) Gravy and Cranberry sauce. There is so much more about the prep I need to tell but it would bore you. One side note- it never rains in California and it hadn't for a long time. On Tuesday it started to rain then on Wednesday it was on and off but on Thursday morning it just poured rain right over Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano. I was trying to prepare for a plan B but Jeff said don't worry dad it is going to clear and all will be fine! It cleared about 11 am but about 11:30 as we were getting ready to leave with all the food it started to sprinkle again and Marie stood at the open garage door and just said please stop and it did! It was a clear beautiful warm day from that moment on. There are lots of pictures that are basically for Jeff, his assistant coach Caleb (he was such a fantastic helper for Marie) and the wonderful parents and girls of TEAM
INFINITY that show the wonderful Thanksgiving meal and fun we had at the beach November 27, 2008
I won't say much about the photos but the ones of Cassy and her burnt marshmallows is special. She was trying so hard to please by putting the marshmallows on top and browning them but the broiler was a little too hot- she left for a moment- when she came back her kitchen was ablaze and she was sure the house was going to catch fire but she was able to blow out the flames. The resultant burnt marshmallows were scraped off and what was left added a nice crunch to the yams - they were all eaten so I guess Cassy has developed a new taste treat. Thank you Cassy for all your hard work and wonderful cheery spirit.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving with the cousins

Thanksgiving at the Ginn's

Putting the Christmas lights up!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Have fun everyone. Can´t wait to see pictures of everyones yummy meals.

I hope it doesn´t rain for Jeff and his girls.

We´ll have Thanksgiving on Saturday with David´s family and other people.

Love you all.

HI ALL! Hey, remember those gift certificates I FINALLY sent to Shawnna and Drew for their 2008 birthdays? Well, Drew enjoyed a ‘Guys’ day out with his Dad this past Saturday, and FINALLY got to put his certificate to good use, as you can see by the pics of the toys he picked out. Of course, Drew wanted everything in the store. Especially the transformers! But he's learned from experience the transformers toys are not good quality these days and are just a big plastic mess. So, he decided on the Speed Racer car and a copy of the new Star wars animated movie - Clone Wars. Looks like he’ll have fun with those choices for some time to come – YEAH FOR DREW!!

Love, Grandma TaTa

Happy Birthday Bobby!

Bobby's birthday was on the 16th. The kids love be involved so I let them do almost everything. They saw a question mark candle awhile ago and they decided that it would be perfect for dad's cake so nobody would know how old he's getting! Haha :)

The kids also each picked out their own gift to give him. Lauren got him his favorite cookies.(okay, I might have helped with that one)

Stacia picked out a soccer calender.

Landon got him some Mini Charleston Chews

and Milli got him a glittery bouncy ball!

All of the kids decorated a mug for him.

Bobby and I, went to the Thai House for dinner with the Bender's and we also went to the Real Playoff game with Jeff, which would have been a better birthday present if they would have won but it was still a really fun game. I hope you had a good Birthday babe! I can't wait to celebrate mine in Hawaii!!!!