The Professor and Mary Ann

Once again we spent Valentine's Day with Mark and Ann and their friends. The food and the company cannot be beat! This year Ann outdid herself with a Moroccan feast. There was a lemon chicken tagine and lamb meatballs and yogurt dip to die for and a beet salad made by Rob, and some excellent Moroccan version of naan bread. We ate ourselves silly, and that was before the games!  In this one, the men had to find their wive's hand, find her wedding ring(s), and put the correct ring on the correct wife.  They were good sports, though I don't think anyone got it right the first time. Then the wives had to find their husband's foot. Piece of cake! No one has a foot that looks like Rob's. We played a version of the newlywed game using lemons and eggplants. B & C raised the bar on the gift exchange. Or maybe they lowered it . . . Mmmm. The dessert was Ann's homemade rugelach and it was scrumptious!

 And all through McFarLand, chaos was reigning. I looked back at the calendar and we had more than a dozen things planned for one short day -- and the one short night where you have to sign dozens of valentines for your classmates, too! First there was the Blue and Gold dinner with the traditional cake decorating contest. The theme was something about animals this year, and Rob and Seb made a hedgehog. I was also quite fond of the donut hole bear scat "cake" and the excellent use of chocolate hearts as noses and even working in Fisher Price Little People animals. Another banner year. But back at the ranch . . .  . . . I had gotten on Pinterest to look at valentines. (I know, I know. It should be obvious by now that I shouldn't try it, but these were so darling, and I am down to only two kids who actually exchange valentines. I went overboard. I can admit it.) Sebastian got these Twinkie minions. Pretty fun once I found the double stick tape. And Joss got these ...

 The 2014 Sundance Film Festival was overshadowed by the first meeting of the BTWH Freefloaters. Rob found them a cabin at Sundance and got them a couple of tickets. He has been going to the BTWH conferences since before Madeline was born, and he's known some of these people for that long. They gamely taught master classes and gave lectures, ate at the Black Sheep Cafe, watched independent films, got shuttled around campus and Utah and Salt Lake valleys, and somewhere in there they managed to choose a text and work out their panel and participation in the larger conference to be held in Vienna in June. And the film festival did not suffer. Rob saw some, they all saw some, and even I saw a couple of films. The first was a fascinating documentary about the friendship between a spy from Hamas and his Israeli intelligence handler, The Green Prince. The second was a musical called God Help The Girl with great tunes, but a tepid plot. It was certainly more than enough for this yea...

 At the grandparents' house, no one goes in to see what Santa has brought until everyone is lined up and the great living room door gets unlocked.  Joss was so excited he had to check his heart rate.  When we finally got the door open, he found a new Razor scooter and limited edition Minecraft Legos. He was happy that Santa found him out in California.  Sebi and John, trying to figure things out through a princess cake hangover (Sebi) and a fog of Mountain Dew (John).  There was lots of presenting and lots and lots of wrapping paper to get out of the way. For the first time in my memory we didn't have a fire in the fireplace on Christmas because of bad air quality. Instead my sister set up her laptop with a full screen flickering fireplace. Unfortunately the laptop didn't get rid of the wrapping.  Joss made off like a bandit with oodles of Lego kits. Minecraft and Batman and Creator and on and on.  Uncle John dove in with bot...

This was the beautiful Christmas Eve table.  Joss gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up. Good holiday fun! And the food was excellent too. Rob made up a special bunte teller for the Lyons of their traditional pfeffernusse and that gingerbread star from Fatapples. Yay, Fatapples! We would have gone there any way, but to find a gingerbread star that we love? Excellent! We retired to the living room to sing carols and read Luke 2 . . . . . . and have Aunt Kiecoo read How the Grinch Stole Christmas . . . . . . and open pajamas . . . . . . and eat princess cake! Nedra and Barbara. Barbara introduced us to princess cake in 2008. I think I first had it while I was pregnant with Joss, and perhaps that is why Joss and I are just crazy about the stuff. Joss managed to get people to give him both the slice with Santa on it, and the snowman at different times. Yum! I could devour a piece right now, I could. Barbara also brought over this astounding ginge...

 On the morning of the 24th, we all descended on the kitchen and made mincemeat. This is a family tradition that's been around since before I was born. Other people make pickles or salsa. Rob's family always made applesauce. Mine makes mincemeat. Yup, it's true. And we make true mincemeat, which contains meat and doesn't have any brandy. Here Grandpa and Sebi have got the unenviable job of grinding the suet. And if you don't know what suet is, I won't ruin your next meal by telling you.   Pretty much a hive of industry.  John and will had to peel all of the apples. Back when I was a kid we would often buy the apples in Watsonville while we were down at the beach during General Conference weekend. What?! You didn't go to the beach for General Conference? Well that explains why you don't make mincemeat. If you did, then you would.  Maddie got the fragrant job of stirring in all of the spices and raisins.  And Joss and I juiced and zested...

 Once we were back in San Francisco we called Rob to  come pick us up from his adventures through the city. Rob was on a quest to see as much of the city as possible while using free parking. John called Clarissa who was on the far side of Golden Gate Park. I didn't know how we'd ever find each other, but it came together like something out of The Italian Job. We told Rob to stop at the pier's driveway, and as he pulled up, Barbara and Clarissa slid in right behind him. I tell you, Shumway in-laws are nearly superhuman when it comes to timing!  (like the time Rob, Sebastian, and I traveled back to Boston for a conference -- Jeff and Saydi lived nearby and were expecting their first child. When we arrived at our bed and breakfast, we got a note that Saydi had gone into labor. She had Hazel that night at a birth center that was five minutes walking from the place we were staying. Those odds are next to impossible on both Saydi's part and Rob's!) We drove over t...