Did you hear about the dyslexic Satanist? He sold his soul to Santa.
We rested up last night knowing full well we were going to be walking a lot today and indeed, we did. Off to Huntington Gardens for a walk in the gardens and a spot of tea…make that two spots! But first, a Christmas memory.
Christmas MEmory #13 – Alone & Not Alone At Christmas
Like many before me, I was divorced after many years of marriage . I lived alone for a year in an apartment in Downey adjacent to Rockwell. Sue and I began to talk soon thereafter and in was 1987 when we first got together in a serious sense…although I knew her from 1974 from the Avionics Development Laboratory in Downey.
She and her mother invited me to Christmas Eve at Sue’s home Christmas dinner at Rita’s home the next day. I will always cherish those moments. The three of us watched movies, drank hot chocolate plus perhaps someting a little harder!!! Going back to the apartment Christmas Eve was pretty hard but I had the next day to look forword too.
I was pretty lonely missing the kids but Sue and Rita made up for it in being kind, understanding, generous, and loving. (I am happy to report nothing has changed in 30+ years!!).
This year, my Mother joied in on the celebration making it even better. My mother really really liked Sue and her mother so being together was not like beoing on pins and needles the while time.
That’s when I started to learn how to bake as Rita barked the order “Get your apron on young man…if you are eating here, you are cooking here”. For several years thereafter, Rita and I would bake bread and other delights. One dish comes to mind and that was “Mushroom Pie”…it was fantastic! Rita taught me how to make many things and sometimes I would tear out a picture of something that looked good and say to he “Let’s make this”.
Mom and Rita really hit it off…amazingly so as Rita was a college graduate from New York and my mom was an 11th grade dropout from Oklahoma. You might think this would be a receipt for disaster but it was a receipt for love instead!
One time we did a steak tasting evening. Sue could not partake of it but I bought six different steak and we cooked them and ate them…by the end of the evening we had absolutely no idea which on weas what…we laughed about that for years!
That Christmas we discovered the Candlelight Dinner Theater in Claremont and have been going ever since. We did the English Pub Restuarant at the beach and even did Sir Winston’s on the Queen Mary.
It was very memorable and I thank by bride of 30+ years and her Mom, who has departed this Earth, for the helping hand in a time of sadness.
Today we headed north to Huntington Library for tea and a walk in the gardens! The Rose Team Room is quite nice featuring many little foods and a wide selection of teas. It was wonderful. Please join us!
In the tea room we laughed and giggled the whole time. Sharing each other’s tea, we got to taste spicy Aztec to pumpkin! Of course the teasing evolved around the foods.
Then, we were off for a couple of hours walk through the gardens. We began in the cactus gardens and wondered through the New Zealand/Australian forests and then up to the Japanese and Chinese gardens, The weather was terrific and the colors spectacular. Take a gander at this tree:
It was approaching 4:00 PM and the Sun sets at 4:40 PM today so we high-tailed it back to the entrance so we could get on the freeway at 5:00 PM!
Great fun with friends! We are amazed at how much we can laugh in a period of a few hours and just enjoy learning more and more about people!
While going home we decided we needed a drink at Old Ranch and they happened to have carolers but Brian and I were pain a pretty-penny NOT to join them…so we sat still and were good except for the fact we discovered we both loved the old Science Fiction movies!
Meet our good friend, Robby the Robot!
After arriving home, we watched TV for a while and then crashed as we have an early doctos appointment in the morning. We watched some NCIS-LA and then it was lights out.
