Cal Gets Lucky: Beats Texas A&M 45-10

The prayers of the Cal faithful for good luck were answered last night as Cal turned in a stellar performance in beating Texas A&M 45-10 capping a 10-3 season.

Three years ago, good freiend, co-worker and college roomate, Don Wilcox, decided that we would be at two Cal football games--the Cal-Stanford game and (while they still have winning seasons) whatever Bowl game they are in.

This year Cal was selected to play in the Holiday Bowl--really a classy affair held in San Diego. Don and I hooked up with a bunch of former players and had a ball. The win was just the icing on the cake of a great couple of days.

All the stockings are hung by the chimney with care

Several years ago Liz verbalized her realization that many people, like us, don't live near family and had nothing to do on Christmas eve and she decided to host an open house. And friends and neighbors dropped in, bringing Christmas cookies and snacks of various types. Its always been a great occasion to catch up with people and share the love and joy of the season. Since then it has evolved into a great party. Tonight, after dinner at Olive Garden with Lambs and Wilcoxes, Liz and I fixed two 24" pork loins, a baked ham, meatballs, Swedish potato sausage and a few other things and in spite of the inclement weather, which almost caused us to cancel the party, friends started arriving and soon the house was filled with conversation and laughter. Kids were running around and everyone was having a good time. "Faithful friends who are near to us, gather near to us once more." Tonight we had family from Australia and it couldn't have been better. This is one of my favorite nights of the year.

White Christmas on the Way

The dreaming is over. Unless we have a tropical heat wave to melt two feet of snow we'll have a beautiful white Christmas. Because Denver Int'l Airport is closed, Liz had to re-route her flight into Orange County and won't make it home until Saturday! But she'll be visiting her sisters so it will all work out. Check out the snow on the deck

New Baby Granddaughter!

Yesterday morning Natalie gave birth to a beautiful 8 pound, 15 ounce baby girl--Jenda Zoe Swanson. Liz flew down yesterday so she is the lucky one who gets to hold baby Jenda first hand. Mother and baby are doing great.