All Lights Lead to Nana

Tonight we video-conferenced with Uncle Erich, cousin Gabriel and cousin Mary, decorated the Christmas tree and set up Grandpa Nemeth's Christmas train set.

Sunday Farmers Market

Where's Liam?

USA! USA! USA! USA!

Citizenship party -- today we drove to Napa to celebrate Gerry Walshe's US citizenship with he and his wife Pamela -- the theme of the party was dress-as-your-favorite-US-character. The photo below shows Pamela as Lucille Ball and Mark as a shady business guy looking for a bailout and with ties to organized crime.

Nana and Gerry talked about their favorite parts of Ireland -- Gerry is from Country Mayo, just north of where the Feeney side of our relatives are from -- Galway. Gerry will be running for president in 2016.

Saturday Morning

We got a head-start on Sunday's family entertainment night with a warm-up jam on Saturday morning -- Melanie played guitar, thumb-piano and shaker, Nana played kitchen utensils and Mark played guitar and harmonica. Liam played shaker and rolled back and forth while smiling. Liam then played guitar.

Football Friday

Nebraska beat Colorado in a very dramatic/high-scoring game with a school-record 57-yard winning field-goal on 4th and very long. Nana jumped up for joy and began clapping and dancing excitedly while at the same time trying not to wake Melanie from her nap -- Liam was baffled as to what was going on and stared at Nana with concern. It was Liam's first football game and the first time being allowed to watch any TV.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Melanie and Nana spent several hours on the night before Thanksgiving making pies. (We ended up having pumpkin pies, chocolate/pumpkin pies, cheese cake, cherry pie and pecan pie.)

Nana and Mark kicked the morning off with the stuffing preparation. It's been a family tradition for Mark to cook the bird and stuffing, however Melanie really enjoys cooking and Mark's stuffing the year before was dry, so...the tradition was on the line.

Natasha, Sean, Josh and Caitlin all came over, each bringing tasty additions for the celebration (Natasha brought brussel sprouts, Sean brought chop salad, Josh & Caitlyn brought a quinoa dish, organic wines from Chile and Keith Olberman/Martha Stewart's chocolate/pumpkin pie.). We ate, drank and were merry, finishing the evening off with games of Frank's Zoo, Hearts and Wits & Wagers.

This was the first Thanksgiving that Mark and his mom Nana had spent together in California. It was a classic. Thanks everyone!

PS -- The stuffing, as did all the food, got rave reviews.

The Day Before Thanksgiving

Today Liam strummed guitar, played piano and Casio and took us on a joy ride to see Brittani Spears, while drinking from his bottle.