Tuesday, February 8, 2011

THE BEGINNING OF 2011



                        First of all, we had the best winter ever in St. Louis since I moved here. Lots of snow and more predicted to come and I love it. So far I have gotten pretty good exercise shoveling snow for the past few weeks.
The view from our garage

Hard at work with my little helper

Very enjoyable work in this weather

Just about done


Other exciting things have happened already this year, like Donna`s Birthday, the Australian Open, the Super Bowl, baby-sitting Nitro, and the main event, Tony and Amy’s visit all the way from Panama City Beach.

I love to feed the birds when it snows

Close-up





Regrettably, not everything went my way, I was very disappointed when my boy Roger Federer lost to the joker in the semi-final, and also, my favorite, Steelers had to take a loss against the Packers. Well, I guess I have to live with it.


Jacob and myself still had hopes for the Steelers at this time

Even Luke started to get in to the game


Brian was stressed out for nothing, his Packers finally won

Luke lost interest in the game and put the final touch to his wolf sculpture



Everything else went great. Tony and Amy arrived on Wednesday night, the day before Donna`s Birthday. They woke up to 11 inches of freshly fallen snow. I believe shoveling snow was the last thing on Tony’s mind, but he helped me and ended up doing most of the work.


Amy and Tony's welcome platter

Good looking fruit for being in the middle of winter


Donna took off from work and we celebrated her birthday with good food, drinks and in good company with Daniel and Eric. Gina (prior engagement), Karla, (work), and Brian and family were missing the party. By the way, we did not see Brian all of January, being busy plowing streets and parking lots for his snow removal company.


Great conversation between two super ladys



Except a tiny trip to a local bar for 3 hours we spent the next 3 days at home, eating, drinking, dancing, playing cards, playing the wii and taking care of the dogs. Great Fun!! Times like that pass really fast and sadly Tony and Amy left us Monday morning. Can't wait for our next reunion.

Let the card game begin

Russian rummy

Happy winners

The score keeper

The dancing begins


Dancing queen

Good time


Tony got in on the action



It can`t get much better

Amy relaxing with Lola and Tahyo

Tony looks content



Tahyo and myself needed some rest




Beginning February Gina and Daniel spent a week vacation in Acapulco and we spent that time baby-sitting Nitro.


Nitro never rests around me


but is an angel with Donna


Nitro


I believe he had a real good time over here, roaming free and tasting some gourmet table food! I saw a tear in his eye when he had to leave to go back home.



Thursday, February 3, 2011

NEW YEARS EVE PARTY


                         Our fifth annual new years eve party started off great, with some cocktails, hors d'oeuvre, fresh salsa, guacamole and tortilla chips. Also, for the first time we had a 4 course gourmet sit down dinner, everybody seemed to enjoy.



Menu
*
Maryland Crab Cakes
fire roasted pepper and lobster sauce

Montricher Salad
with cucumber, hearts of palm and beets

Fillet Mignon and Scampi
port wine sauce and garlic butter
julienne carrots in beet juice
spinach soufflé
swiss gratin potatoes

Personalized Coup Monte Carlo
vanilla ice cream
fresh berries with fruit sauce and
Grand Marnier


Main course

Fresh baked Swiss Zopf


Preparing the dessert

Final product

Donna and Windy enjoying the coup



                       The first 2 hours after dinner where full of fun and laughter. Soon after, our entertainment directors lost control of the party, due to tremendous alcohol consumption. Lets face it, the WII dancing challenge is fun until everybody has had their turn, but after 2 hours it started to get pretty boring.

Instructions from Eric

Full action dancing challenge



                        So we decided to play a card game, but it took a while to relocate to our playing table down stairs, so some people started to play pool and others gave darts a try. When we finally settled down to play cards it was too much of a challenge. We gave up and played darts for a while but soon we drifted back to the good old dancing challenge to 3:30 in the morning. I guess, I was wrong about the boring part!

Trying to get a card game together


 
                        In the mean time we enjoyed the midnight champagne toast and snack of a variety of canapés.



Midnight Hors d`oeuvre

New Year Toast


Last traditional picture of the old Year


Starting the New Year

Everybody had a great time all night

Eric, Joe and Sara

Donna and Nitro


Gina

Brian

Windy


Karla

Windy and Myself

Observing the dancers


Daniel, Gina and Nitro

Brian and Windy in conversation over parenthood




Overall a great success.