Living in Long Beach

My cousin Scott (aka Ford) came down to Long Beach to spend Christmas with me. As soon as it got dark, we made the trek to Naples (it’s about a mile from me) to see all the holiday lights by the canals. As usual, some of the homes went all out with a crazy amount of lights. Many homes had several decorated trees. I forgot my tripod and just took very quick pictures as we walked by the homes. However, there are a few that turned out okay so I thought I’d share them with you…    Although this one was very pretty, it reminds me of a display window for a shop.  This one had lots of fake snow in their display. I guess that’s the closest thing to snow that  Long Beach will ever see!!   This one had several disco balls and disco Christmas music   playing and a bubble machine. Steve Rubell would be so proud. Of course, there were lots of animals. Pictured above are some polar bears (that remind me of the coca ...

The last time I was in Nashville visiting my nephews, I made a promise to Langston that I would make him a Lightning McQueen rainbow cake for his birthday. So the Friday after Thanksgiving, I had the boys all to myself.  All three of us made the cake together. I wish I had some pictures to show you because it was all so cute (and so professional!) Desmond, who is only three, cracked his egg without getting any shell in the mixture. (Langston and I only got a tiny bit of shell in the mixture but we got it all out.) We followed all the directions to the letter and then Langston decided on the colors. We had special Wilton Lightning McQueen colors but tried to use very little of them per instructions from their mother. She prefers that their food be as natural and organic as possible. Langston is a pretty easy going guy so he was okay with the colors being muted. We chose three colors plus the uncolored batter, which was yellow. And then we just plopped all the colors inside ...

This picture from my 365 Project sums it all up: So, as I was saying in my last post before I got all caught up with Neely, Ann, and Jennifer (the dolls!!), this year Thanksgiving was celebrated at my little place in Long Beach. We ended up having 14 people, although one didn’t eat at the table with us because he is only 4 month old! I borrowed a table and many chairs from two different neighbors. One neighbor emptied out most of her refrigerator and freezer for me to use for the week. I also used a different neighbor’s oven for several dishes when we figured out that the turkey was sitting in an oven that had been turned off an hour earlier! Nothing like a little Thanksgiving turkey drama. I made several copies of the dinner menu for guests to peruse before dinner. My mother got many compliments from Tinu’s cousins about her cheese ball. We’ve all been making her recipe for years. It’s a family favorite. She also got raves for a new recipe that she created – Blue Cheese Slaw. ...

Or in other words…boy, am I pooped! (This was going to be one post about three "parties" but I got so carried away with the first one that I am going to spare you all by creating separate posts. You can thank me later...) Since this is my last year in my unit at Stoneybrook, it was decided that we would have Thanksgiving here. Wait, first let me back up. For those of you who don’t know, I love, love, love anything Jacqueline Susann and anything Valley of the Dolls (but NOT Beyond Valley of the Dolls!!) What does this have to do with Thanksgiving? Well, I have been talking about having a Valley of the Dolls party for like for-ev-er. So, I enticed my sister to come earlier than everyone else if I finally had this party. Due to my dwindling funds, I kept the party very small, plus a few of my friends had other plans that couldn’t change. The only props I bought were some “silver” trays from the dollar store to throw all my “pills” onto (actually candy.) I made several props ...

This is a tile hinging in my spare room that my parents gave me for my birthday a few years ago.   Día de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday that takes place on November 1st and 2nd to coincide with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. I don’t remember seeing much about this holiday when I lived in Georgia but here in Southern CA, it seems to be celebrated for a few weeks.  Today is technically Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead and yesterday, November 1st is Día de los Inocentes or Day of the Innocents (children). I went to MOLAA on their free Target day to see their Día de los Muertos celebration.  Of course, there were lots of booths to buy things. Then they were several altars, one (not pictured) which was for someone’s cat. Unfortunately, I had so much fun that I pretty much forgot to take pictures.  This was an interesting one about Charles Bukowski. He must of really liked his alcohol and cigarettes as they were featured throughout his altar. Th...