Christmas Time in Arizona

Tis the season to be jolly! El Penasco, the restaurant Swede performs at on Fridays and Saturdays, put up their tree... the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, that is. Ha, the thing is leaning over Swede, I know you probably can't tell, but I got such a kick out of it. Maria, our favorite waitress said she did everything she could to fix it. Where is my Aunt Nancy, and can we get some of Lesley's decorations? Next to Swede is a vihuela, a Spanish descendant of the guitar. Great for Renaissance music.


As the holidays come into full swing, invites are flying for festive gatherings. Saturday after Swede's performance, I got us lost trying to find my friend Cliff's house. We arrived after they had already finished the flight of white wines. Cliff is a teacher friend of mine that I met at New Samaritan last year. We have been camping and Kayaking with Cliff and he is like an extended member of our family. We all adore him! How could you not? Look at him here, enthusiastically reading us the label of this fine red wine.

A votre service! As you can see, we each have a wine judging sheet, so that we can write down the names of the wines we try and rate them on a scale from 1-5.


Cliff is a History teacher and loves to take us back to the past. Zabrina and Wyatt had their first taste of Neil Diamond! "Hello my friend, hello.... just called to let you know... I think about you every night... da da da... hello.... "

Tosa, Kristina, Nicole

And some oldies that I know the words to but can't necessarily identify the original artists, like "la la la la la la la la la means, I love you!"

Beannie, Tosha and Cindy

"I'll leave my home in Arizona, and head for the Frisco Bay. 750 miles I'll roam, just to make Santa Cruz my home. Sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the tide roll away, oooo, sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time!" By the way, Swede and I are both applying for jobs in the areas south of Frisco. I'm applying for Stanford to study Sustainability Engineering, and there is a music conservatory Swede is interested in. We hope to move there by the end of December.


Before it was all over, we each got a fortune cookie. Mine said: "Genius does what it must. Talent does what it can... in bed!" BTW, Wyatt had Root Beer wine and Beannie had Orange Cream. The people I actually labeled above were the ones who stayed until the end and I was able to write down their info in my address book so as not to forget their names!!! These are all teachers at Cliff's school. What an amazing staff- made me want to work with them! And of course, they are special ed! Ha- that's my area of specialty... it takes a special person!

Thanks for the memories, Cliff!