Mother Teresa and the Bailiff

Here are some shots from the production Chad and I opened (and closed) this weekend. It was a great show, lots of fun, and we got to work with some truly talented people. It's a shame we only got to share it with an audience for three nights!

The Bailiff and Mother Teresa. I bet you can guess who is who:

Chad as St. Thomas, Adam as Judas:
Me as Mary Magdalene.

Chad as Simon the Zealot.
Good times! We'll see what's next!

Rainy Saturday

The plan had been to go for a quick run between rain showers, but there really hasn't been a break all day so instead we've been relaxing inside, staying warm and dry and toasty...

And it's been easy to cozy up indoors today since we got this little surprise in the mail yesterday!

It was a lovely unexpected gift from a very wonderful couple who saw my post recently about how our old teakettle was now defunct. We are so blessed to have such generous, thoughtful people in our lives - it inspires us to be more giving ourselves!!

Stay warm everyone. :)

Ten on Ten :: December

Provoking thought.

I don't usually post links to other blogs, but a friend brought this entry from Maira Kalman at the New York Times to my attention, and it really spoke to me so I had to share.

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/?8dpc

When it's grey in LA I sure like it that way

Grey skies these last few days, and rain in the forecast which I say is pretty swell. Most non-Northwesterners have the expected response of "what is WRONG with you Seattle people?" at that sort of pronouncement, but I have to say I honestly do like it when it rains here. When we first moved here it was one of the things that helped me feel more at peace and eased some of my homesickness.

Speaking of homesickness, we've been listening to Christmas music on WARM 106.9 streaming online - a true taste of home! :) I listened to that station every December in Seattle, and hearing all those same voices and songs is comforting... I also love simply hearing the names of cities and streets back home, what's happening with the weather, what's going on at Westlake Center or Bellevue Square... It only gets me more excited for our return to Seattle for Christmas! December 21 is just two weeks away!!

(This orange tree is just across from our unit...on the neighbors' property. So many beautiful, ripe satsuma oranges just out of reach! And the neighbors don't even touch them!!)

We've discovered with the change in the weather that our new place gets much colder than our old place! I forgot what it is like to resist getting up in the morning because your bed is so warm, and the house is so cold... Whenever we do move back to Seattle we are in serious trouble, because we are both big babies about being cold now!

We try not to turn the heat on (it's that LA-style wall radiator heat that's so inefficient), so instead we do what we did in Seattle - throw on sweaters and drink lots of tea. Unfortunately our tea kettle has official kicked the bucket... bad timing. I guess that's what microwaves are for!

I hope you are all staying warm and cozy! I love this time of year...

December already...

I can't believe it. This month has absolutely been flying by, what with the play, improv shows, social functions, moving and Thanksgiving, plus blogging almost every day!

So here we are - exactly three weeks and we'll be flying into Seattle for Christmas. I can't quite put into words how excited we are! I know we were just home a couple months ago for Julia's wedding, but it feels like much longer and I can't wait to see family and friends again and to celebrate this festive time together.

December has always been and will always be my favorite month. What's not to like? :)

Sweet Home.

Thought I would share with you some photos of our place as it is now - all put together (for the most part.

Living room/office, with the dining room in the background.

Bedroom, the kitties not hiding under the covers for once. And yes, that is an exploding hamper - we desperately need to do laundry.

Cute kitchen. No counter space - so whats new. :)

Our sweet 80's era stove we bought for $50 (that is in great condition and works perfectly, by the way!) I was five when this stove was purchased new. I love it, but if only it told me when the oven reached the desired temperature....

Tobias loves to stare out the front door and growl at our neighbors, no joke. What is he, a dog?

Liking it here!

Home.

Chad and I spent the almost the whole day at home, which was very nice after the insanity of moving in followed by all the Thanksgiving excitement and post-turkey comatose phase. Our place is actually feeling like a home now, everything is put away & there are even some Christmas decorations peeking out...

I wish we could get a tree this year but I don't think that's going to happen... unless we find an artificial tree that is super affordable. Doesn't quite feel like Christmas without a tree! But admittedly, it never feels like Christmas in LA anyway.

On fossils and cupcakes.

We celebrated our friend Kaitie's birthday today with a visit to the La Brea Tar Pits, a place we'd never been despite living in LA for 2 years.

We enjoyed some cupcakes with her family in the park outside the museum, and then journeyed inside to take a gander at some pre-historic bones!

Interest facts I learned today:

"La Brea" means "The tar" in Spanish, so really you could call these "The Tar Tar Pits".

There are no dinosaur fossils at the tar pits, since these bones were actually from 10,000 - 40,000 years ago and the dinosaurs died 65 million years ago. Though, in fact, you could say the tar is the dinosaurs.

Only one human skeleton has ever been found in the tar pits, a woman.

The pits are still an active excavation site!

They have found thousands of turtle shells and bones in the pits , but no turtle skulls...

Fascinating stuff!

Full of pie and gratitude

We have some incredible friends here in LA, and were very blessed to spend our Thanksgiving dinner with some of them. Our friends Dave and Mandy hosted (their first time, I believe!) and made an enormous, juicy bird, mashed potatoes and casserole, and everyone else brought a dish along: cornbread stuffing, mouth-wateringly sweet sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce from scratch, sweet Hawaiian rolls... Gorgeous, gorgeous spread! And for dessert, our contributions of pumpkin pie, apple pie and chocolate cheesecake (and don't forget Chad's punch.)

The food always seems to be the star of the day, but for me the true joy is spending time with people you love and support, and who love and support you right back. We could have had pizza and pop for all I care - the real memories I'll take away are about the people - catching up and playing games and just being together.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. See you on the other side of it! The Christmas side! :)

Many good things

I have many good things to be grateful for today.

The sun coming in through our front windows on a chilly morning. I've never seen this in our new place before! I've always left before the sun comes up until today...

Getting out of work an hour early and being able to run some pre-Thanksgiving errands.

A clean house, mostly organized and feeling more like a home.

A (finally) clean former house, which has been a big, dirty project weighing on my mind and stressing me out lately!

My adorable husband, who is making an apple pie - Grandma Evans' recipe - all on his own for Thanksgiving dinner. (PS, yes he is also making his famous eggnog punch. :)

The chance to perform with my improv group tonight, and for our friend Jeff to come along and watch.

The pending festivities of tomorrow! We are spending Thanksgiving at our friends Dave & Mandy's house, and are pretty darned excited about it. How blessed we are to have such amazing friends - first they help us move and then they invite us into their home to share Thanksgiving dinner!

I hope you are enjoying this Thanksgiving Eve, and I wish you a beautiful, joyful day tomorrow filled with family, friends and pie!!

Our awesome friend Krista is awesome...

...because she did a headshot session with us when we were in Seattle in September...for free! She is an amazing photographer who mostly shoots children and families (I know, that sounds wrong), but she's never really done headshots before so we saw a great opportunity for her to get some practice and for us to get some new looks!

Here are a few of my favorites. And also check out her website to see more of her work - she really is incredible.