Busy weekend and good times

Before I begin here I must thank Mrs. Twisted for being the taskmaster or I may not have been able to complete the gift socks on time. One day to spare and here they are.





Saturday night we went to the family Christmas party. 25 family members and lots of people I haven't seen in a few years.

Chris playing some guitar as we all sing along to some Beatles.
Jen, my daughter, with her 4th cousin. Same age and so much in common


My Brother and his wife taking in the madness around them.

Jen sharing some quality time with her Uncle and Aunt.

Mrs. Twisted took this before we lost too many to the late hour. This was 13 of the 20 or so that were there before. You know how hard it is to get everyone together for a picture.


Day two... Jen just received her permit two days earlier and wanted me to give her some behind the wheel driving lessons. Her Mom wasn't too anxious to be the first one to teach her and I enjoy passing on my lessons. Lesson one; channel Frank. Huh? Readers of my blog remember the trip to teach my son the fine art of parallel parking. I told my son about Frank Sinatra and how cool, calm and smooth he was in his life. I know he wasn't perfect in life but he personified cool for a generation. So I planted the seed of relax and be cool in his head with these words. "Channel Frank" bring his relaxed persona into your life while you drive. No herky jerky motions and unexpected actions. My son took this to heart and when the driving examiner came in to the car before his test he just closed his eyes for a second and softly said to himself "OK channel Frank". He inquired what was going on and after his brief description he was relaxed already and passed with flying colors. I know he isn't channeling his spirit but it just takes the edge off the tension and so far it works with my teaching style.

Not to compete with Lynn but here is my littlest in all her glory behind the wheel.

We had a wonderful time and she is going to be a responsible and safe driver in spite of the squeal. We drove for almost 3 hours. Starting in a quiet industrial complex and learning the way the the car reacted under different situations. Foe those of you who know the the traffic of Southern Ca, if you can drive here you can drive anywhere. We moved on to streets and with the great progress she made so quickly I had her on the freeway the first day. Well three well placed thought out trips. with increasing traffic each time. Trying to build her confidence and expose her to various situations in a very short amount of time. We took a little break because I needed to do a little last minute stocking stuffer shopping and I had her in the car pool lane on the 405 flyover to the 55 on the way home. She was flying in more ways than one. I was very proud of her because she was cooler than Frank today.

We had dinner at her favorite restaurant and home by 7:30. One of the nice things about Southern Ca at Christmas is the weather. I told Jen to bring her swim suit because the pool here is heated year round.


Nothing better than a night swim.


A dip in the hot tub to relax and enjoy was interrupted by this little splash fight.



So nice to relax after the long day.

After the post swim shower I shared some memories of past Christmases and we hung up some special hand made ornaments my mother made over 25 years earlier. Each one had special meaning to me and I wanted to share those with her.

I knew I had to drive her back on Christmas Eve so we had our Christmas on the 23rd late night before bed.
She loves everything pink so we found a scarf & gloves set in cashmere for her to use when she ice skates and snow boards.

And last but not least she loved the socks. She slept in them that night. :)

Tiny Tim say's god bless us everyone and Life is Good