Santa was very good to me. I'm feeling great and I'm with
Jenée. That's all I need.
Oh, I did get some really cool socks.
Happy Holidays everyone.
After our dinner, we caught up with our pals Karen and Randy Hutchinson for a New Years Eve celebration at the Montage in
Laguna Beach.
We had a wonderful New Years Eve dinner with our friends Dennis and Lori
Puddester. We had dinner at
Kya in the La
Casa del Camino Hotel in
Laguna Beach.
WE've come full circle as this is the first place we stayed years ago before walking around town and finding our home in
Laguna Beach. Dennis and Lori were determined to get home and tucked in by 9 PM - newlyweds! Gotta love em'.
Here's my bride
chillin' with Katie beside our (real) Christmas Tree. Garrett and I picked it out and set it up.
Jenée did the trimming - nice. Katie thought all the lower ornaments were her personal toys - isn't she special!
The master chef Garrett (
Jenée's son) is carving up the Christmas Eve turkey. Garrett prepared and grilled the turkey and everyone agreed it was the best they've ever had! Garrett plans to go into the Police Force, but he'd make an excellent chef as well.
Ah yes, time to catch up with friends in Southern California. We spent an evening with our friends Linda and Ron in downtown
Laguna Beach. Linda and Ron are moving in together on board Ron's 36 foot sailboat. They are planning to set sail together in the next few years. Linda comes from
Chelmsford, MA, so she is a wicked
hahd Patriots fan too. God Bless her.
Here's the wine tasting team in great form.
OK, here's a flashback from late 2009. Marc and I played hockey together over the last few years on various teams. Marc is a former Montreal Junior A (highest level below professional), while I'm a former Boston pond hockey Junior D (which is ... oh nevermind). As a matter of fact all the guys pictured here after our championship game win are "Players" with the exception of the goon in the middle. Check out the score. We dominated with only 5 skaters and one goalie for 60 minutes. But I digress.
Here's the gang outside one of our tasting locations.
Here we are outside our little cottage - great place. It was loaned to us as a favor to Marc.
Jenée and I stayed at the Grassi Family vineyard where we were treated royally. We got to sample a bottle of their Cabernet. While I'm not drinking these days, it was excellent. Marc plans to feature it at his shop - look it up.
We visited the Reynolds family winery in Napa Valley and they definitely had wine. Matter of fact they had casks of wine from many other winery's in the area. I counted labels from 15 other family winery's.
To properly kick off 2011 we joined our friends Marc and Louise (seated on each side of Jenée) and Louise's brother Jean and his wife Joanne Coté. All are from Montreal and were a blast to hang around with. Marc and Louise own La Maison Gourmet wine and cheese shop in Mission Viejo, CA. They were tending to their wine shop business and invited us along for great wine and food. Let me think, okay - I'm in. Marc found this great lunch spot in Calistoga.
