Happy New Year
I was filling out some medical forms yesterday morning, and they provided me with my first opportunity to correctly note the year as 2019. I am happy to say that I nailed it every time. I have strong recollections of taking about a month to get the correct year back in the days when we wrote checks. Now I rarely even have to sign my name to anything. When Bill’s nurse visited yesterday, she told me I have great hope for a wonderful 2019, and I couldn’t agree more.

Sock Hop
I had heard through the grapevine that Court has taken to wearing crazy socks. I almost didn’t believe it because he is soooo not the type to wear crazy socks. And yet, on Christmas Day, he proudly showed me this…..

Seeings as A Christmas Story is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and the “Pink Nightmare” scene is among my favorite scenes, I couldn’t have been prouder!

Suck It In
There is nothing more humbling than trying on old clothes. Bill’s kids somehow got ahold of his college fraternity jacket. With great glee, they convinced him to try it on. That was 50 years ago, people!…..

Heck, we were happy that he was able to wear his McLain plaids to Christmas Eve services…..

Smile: You’re on Candid Camera
It’s hard to get a serious photo these days. Here are a couple of photos that were taken over the holidays. The first is the gathering of all of our grandkids, and the second is the gathering of many of my great nieces and great nephews at Bec’s New Year’s party…..

Everyone’s a comedian.

Early Celebration
For years, Bec, Jen, Bill, and I have eaten a noon meal on New Year’s Eve Day at Houston’s Restaurant in Scottsdale. That way we are home before things get crazy. This year was no exception…..
Food’s On
I’ll leave you with a scattering of evidence of some of the yummy things I ate over the past few days…..

Ciao!

The year of the Lord 2018 went by in the blink of an eye, as they all seem to do as we get older. It was fun to go back and look at my blog for the past year, as I had forgotten all about a lot of the fun things we did. That’s one of the few good things about getting old: every day is a new day!

January
Shortly after our annual January 1 gathering at Bec’s, she, Bill and I headed off to Sin City: Las Vegas. The highlight of the trip was watching Bec’s daughter Kate (Jojo Diggs) perform as one of the Jabbawockeez dance troop…..

February
This month is always highlighted by Bec’s annual Mardis Gras party…..

Since food is often part of our winter activities, I was very excited to learn how to make summer sausage in February from our AZ neighbors, the Harpers…..

March
Unfortunately, my March highlight (or lowlight) was a trip to the hospital for a bowel obstruction. Don’t I know how to have fun? Bill and I also took a ride out to Saguaro Lake to look for the wild horses. This was as close as we came to spotting them…..

April
We entertained some of our family for Easter…..

May
We came home from AZ to spend the summer and fall in Denver. Our first activity was the celebration of Cole’s birthday…..

Maggie Faith celebrated her birthday shortly after. It wasn’t too long before the McLains boarded their RV and left for their three-month trip to the western part of the United States.

June
Jen and I put on our cowgirl boots and headed off to Pawhuska, OK, where we visited All Things Pioneer Woman…..

July
July was a busy month. Bill and I took the train from Denver to San Francisco, where we met up with the McLains on the Road…..

Jen and Bill and I spent an evening listening to Keith Urban in what was an incredible concert at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater in Denver…..

A night at the Bear Creek Distillery — a local Denver distillery owned by the son-in-law of friends helped nurture my growing love for whiskey…..

Our month concluded with a visit from some of our Vermont family — Heather and our 6-year-old grandson Micah…..

August
Construction continued on our Denver house with the installation of new windows…..

Bec and I took a driving trip to Nebraska to visit places from our youth, and spend time with some of our favorite people — a few of our cousins…..

September
Bill’s participation in the research study for Parkinson’s began in September. After a bit of a rough start, it is working very well to date…..

Bill and I went to the theater downtown, where we watched the musical Beautiful, featuring the story and songs of Carole King. September brought us some wonderful news when our son Allen announced that he and his girlfriend had gotten married…..

We celebrated with a reception shortly after that. The family gathered, including another visit from the Vermont McLains….

October
The upside was a visit to Estes Park to listen to the elk bugle. The downside was a second trip to the hospital for yet another bowel obstruction. Enough said about that.

November
We made a quick trip to our AZ home to check on the house. We finally got rid of Bill’s old Ford Escape which had died earlier in the year….

Thanksgiving was at Dave and Jll’s house, with a much smaller group than last year’s.

December
We prepared for Christmas with some baking…..

Our construction was finally complete, ending with the installation of new carpeting in our bedrooms…..

And we celebrated Christmas, the highlight being the gathering of ALL OF OUR GRANDKIDS…..

Just reading back about my past year makes me tired. And that’s just a snapshot!

Best wishes to all of my readers for the year ahead. Let’s pray for peace, kindness, and good health.

We had a great Christmas celebration — or maybe I should say celebrations because the partying went on for days. I would say that all nine of our grandkids liked our presents to them. But having said that, I must add that three out of the nine had quite memorable reactions.

Maggie Faith asked for — and received from Bill and me — an electronic label maker. She couldn’t have been happier. She spent the next few days — and likely beyond, though we left on Thursday, so I can’t say for sure — labeling just about anything that wasn’t moving. Coffee cups, books, shelves, other furniture, and so on. She apparently was heard proclaiming that it was her favorite gift.

We gave Cole a magnetic building set. It might have just been because it was the first gift he opened on that magical day, but he ripped the paper, saw the colored box, and squealed with joy before he even knew what the gift was.

But far and away, the funniest reaction was from 6-year-old Micah. Earlier on Christmas Eve Day, he had admitted to me that he liked — no, LOVED — banana bread. “Banana bread is my favorite thing,” he said. “But I don’t like it with nuts.”

After he left, I remembered that many moons ago, I had thrown three bananas into my freezer for the express purpose of using at a later date to make banana bread. Voila! A perfect time.

I made the bread (no nuts) and took it over to their house that afternoon. No one was there but Lauren. She took the bread and suggested that we give it to Micah as a Christmas gift.

After he opened all of his presents from Bill and me, Lauren went and got the banana bread. “You have one more present, Micah,” she told him.

“BANANA BREAD!” he exclaimed at the top of his lungs. “I LOVE BANANA BREAD.” He came and gave me a great big hug. Then he got a serious look on his face. “Are there nuts in it?” he asked cautiously.

“No nuts,” I told him.

I love when people are easy to please.

Here is a photo of Bill and all of our grands as we gathered this past week…..

Have a great weekend.

When I started writing this blog some six years ago or so, my plan aligned with that of Jerry Seinfeld and his comedy show about nothing. I wanted to write a blog about nothing. I didn’t want to write a food blog. I didn’t want to concentrate strictly on fashion or home decoration or crafting. I wanted to write about anything I wanted to write about each day.

The only limitation I put on myself was that every Friday I would do a book review. I love to read, and I read a lot. I have faithfully stuck to my guns, blogging every Friday about books.

On Fridays, I get a lot of “likes” from strangers who peruse the internet for book reviews. One hit that I don’t get on Fridays is that of my brother. Dave is one of my biggest fans. He proclaims that he starts each day reading and enjoying my blog. While he doesn’t comment on Nana’s Whimsies, he often will send me a text with a comment about what I wrote.

But he doesn’t read my blog on Fridays. He’s not particularly a reader, and has little interest in book reviews. And for the six or so years that I have blogged, he has complained weekly about my Friday book reviews. But he isn’t complaining without offering his alternative, which is a weekly pizza review.

Yep. He thinks I should write a pizza review each week. I can’t seem to convince him that my readers in, say, Omaha, have little or no interest in whether or not I like a pizza restaurant in Mesa, AZ. I have stridently ignored his suggestion.

Until today. Why today? Because today is my brother Dave’s birthday. So, in lieu of a present, my gift to him is PIZZA REVIEWS…..

Fatman’s Pizza
Fatman’s Pizza is a Chicago style eatery located at 2430 Apache Trail in Apache Junction. As there are a huge number of retired Illinois people living in the East Valley, it was a smart move to locate this restaurant where those former Chicagoans are looking for some of their old familiar fare.

From the time you walk in the door, you are inundated with familiar Chicago memorabilia…..

– from the W of the Chicago Cubs to a blast from the past — Bozo the Clown (who this non-Chicagoan finds absolutely terrifying)…..

In addition to pizza, Fatman’s offers the typical food one would see at one of the million or so family-owned pizza places located in Chicago. Fatman’s offers both deep dish pizza and the pizza that is more familiar to South Siders — the cracker crust that originated in St. Louis. My husband was  born and grew up on the South Side, and he is thin crust all the way. A purist, he prefers sausage, and the sausage should have fennel seeds.

As fun as it was to see all of the Chicago memorabilia on the wall, my pizza expert Bill was unimpressed with the pizza itself. The sauce was bland and the sausage didn’t impress either of us. Plus, they gave us the option of having our pizza cut into triangular slices, and ANYONE from the South Side knows that thin crust pizza is cut into squares…..

The restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol, perhaps because it seems to make its money from a carry-out business. They only take cash, and there is an ATM on premises. The place was pretty quiet on a Friday night. Sorry Bozo. I don’t think we would return.

Osteria

Our next pizza adventure was more successful. The fairly-recently-opened Osteria, located at 5609 E. McKellips Road in Mesa, is a higher-end restaurant offering a complete breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu that includes delicious pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven, as well as salads and pastas. Bill and I ordered an Italian chopped salad, and then shared a pizza featuring their homemade fennel sausage and red onion…..

The salad was beautiful, offering such familiar Italian ingredients as salami and provolone cheese. The pizza was delicious, with the charred crust with which we became so familiar while traveling in Italy. Osteria offers a full bar, and they had an extensive wine list with many affordable choices. They also have a daily happy hour.

We were impressed, and will return to this restaurant, perhaps to dine on their outdoor patio.

Oregano’s Pizza and Bistro

Oregano’s Pizza has locations scattered throughout the Phoenix metro area, and they have recently opened one in Fort Collins, CO. While it’s a chain, it has the feel of a family-owned restaurant, though they are all decorated in the same way. Diners listen to Frank Sinatra and other crooners as they munch on their pizza and other Italian goodies…..

Oregano’s is flat-out Bill’s favorite pizza in Arizona. He grew up eating at Fox’s Pizza in South Chicago, and purports that, while not as good as Fox’s, this is the next best. The fennel sausage is sweet and delicious, and the cheese and seasonings are full of flavor. While deep dish is available, you can bet we have never ordered it. The crust is thin, crispy, and chewy. They offer a pizza cookie for dessert that is served warm and offers chocolaty goodness.

Oregano’s has a full bar, and though there is often (usually) a wait, that wait time has significantly decreased due to the opening of several new restaurants.

Oregano’s is one of our favorite pizza joints in AZ.

No matter where you live, go out and enjoy a pizza tonight in honor of my brother Dave, who has been known to order a pizza with sauerkraut, jalapenos, and anchovies. The cooks literally came out of the kitchen to see who ordered such an atrocity!

Happy birthday, Dave!

Dave and his seven grands!

Believe me, this family has not forgotten the meaning of Christmas. Still, yesterday was important for another reason. December 23 is always the day that Bill and I spend with Court and his family. I make a big dinner, and we open gifts. For the past five years or so, I have prepared racks of lamb for this meal; however, this year we enjoyed a prime rib…..

…..thus, kicking off what we refer to in our family as our Season of Beef. From here until January 2, our family enjoys a variety of versions of some kind of beef, from beef tenderloin to prime rib. It’s What’s for Dinner.

This evening we will spend with some more of our family, that time being kicked off by a Christmas Eve service in which our little Maggie Faith will be singing with the children’s choir.

Between now and after Christmas, my blogging is likely to be hit-or-miss, mostly miss. We leave for AZ on Thursday, December 27, and so perhaps the next time you hear from Nana will be on December 28, or maybe even December 29.

I will leave you with my two personal favorite Christmas pictures: The first is a photo of Kaiya (who was about 4 at the time) and Mylee (who was about 2), who had just been caught opening up their presents early one morning while their parents were still sleeping a few days before Christmas…..

Have you ever seen such guilty faces?

My second favorite photo is of Jen’s grandson Austin, who had just been forced to put on the Christmas jammies she had gotten him. The resemblance to Ralphie in A Christmas Story never fails to make me laugh……

Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family who support me by reading my blog. I appreciate you all so much.

Despite all of my complaining about the aggressive drivers that I have seen this holiday season, I have seen a similar number of people who are kind and thoroughly enjoying the holidays. While in downtown Denver yesterday afternoon, I saw a business woman dressed in a suit, but wearing a headband on which there were two small brightly wrapped gifts perched on her head. I also saw a man proudly wearing this…..

His children were undoubtedly very proud of him.

But perhaps my favorite holiday tribute was a photo that I saw on Facebook, featuring the Holy Family created by stones on the beach. Someone went to a lot of work, and knows the meaning of the season.

Most of all, our Vermont family have arrived safely and will spend the next few Christmas days with us, and that makes me smile.

Have a great weekend.

Baby, It’s Cold
I am senstive to the Me Too movement, and I have no desire to enter into the fray regarding the song Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Generally speaking, it’s never been one of my favorites anyway. Having said that, I will tell you that you will have to pry the version of that song as sung by Hayley Reinhart and  Casey Abrams out of my cold, dead hands, so to speak. I simply love hearing both of their voices and the playful way these two friends sing to each other. So there.

Tinker Bell Singer
The little 16-year-old girl who won this season’s The Voice — Chevel Shepherd — was frankly amazing. Our eldest granddaughter is 15, and it’s hard to imagine that this girl is almost the same age and can sing like Loretta Lynn. I thought it was a fun season, despite some of the drama, drama, drama, and I was glad to see Chevel win.

Thanks for the Memories
Tuesday night, while watching The Voice, I began scrolling through my Google Photos, and then I simply couldn’t stop. The photos go back way further than I remembered, and it was indescribably fun to reminisce. Here are a few of my favorites…..

Court, giving his firstborn her first bath. Mostly, he’s staring at her in wonder.

When Bill was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s, he had a lot of difficulty picking up small items like screws. He is putting something together, and he asked Kaiya to help him. I can’t look at this photo without crying.

Papa and Alastair before walking age. (Alastair’s, not Bill’s.) I didn’t remember this photo, and I can’t tell you how happy it made me to discover it.

Joseph and Micah have been traveling by airplane since they were tiny. They are always eager to come visit Colorado, and you can see it in their expressions.

This photo was taken at my 50th birthday party, and it’s a treasure to me. You might recall that I had pink eye at the time, which accounts for my eye slits.

Dad, holding Bec, when she is just a wee tyke. He was so handsome.

Dad, as a young baker. I love this photo because it’s such a good shot of the back room where all the magic happened.

I can’t tell you all of the photos that I perused. Hundreds of them, most of which I didn’t recall having. A trip down memory lane.

Ciao.