We went Christmas shopping today, well sort of

Hi! 1st day of December and 23 more shopping days. Only kidding because I only have a few things to get and the malls are not in my future. I don't fall into the "lets go to the mall" crowd. We did go shopping today but not what you would think of normal Christmas shopping. I'll get to that in a little while but first a little update from last night.

The Company Christmas party went off well despite the heavy rain. I prepared for the possibility of bad food or food I wouldn't like by have a bowl of left over chili. To my surprise it was quite good. They had it catered buy a company that had it act together. Appetisers for the cocktail hour and the menu had salad, a rice dish, steamed veggies and three main courses, roast beef, stuffed chicken breast, and Mahi Mahi. You were able to have it all if you wanted and the roast beef was moist and the fish was very good. Dancing, door prizes and the same uncomfortable conversation when your spouses don't have anything in common to your work mates.

The Twisted's all dressed up and out to have a nice evening out.

I introduced Mrs Twisted to all my co-workers who showed up and we even won a door prize (gift card) so it was ok I guess. I tend to prefer not socializing with co-workers, but it was almost expected that you show up to this event. We enjoyed the dancing as the night went on. One of the managers and his wife looked so smooth and they danced as one. One of the others reminded us of the Seinfeld episodes where George described Elaine's dancing as "full body dry heave" Alcohol does a lot to peoples inhibitions and the company Christmas party is not were I want to do something I would regret on Monday morning. Enough said.

We have a newspaper in the lunch room and in Fridays paper there was an article that described a naval ship that was going to be open and on display for a limited tie on Saturday. Mrs. Twisted wasn't real thrilled about going but I enjoy the technology so we drove to Seal beach but were met with a huge crowd to do the same thing. As we pull close to the entrance of the yard an officer said it was a 3 hour wait to get on board. We decided to pass on walking on the ship and walked around down town for a little while.

This is as close as we got. Notice the line of people along the bottom of the ship waiting to board.

So change of plans and we drove south to Rogers Garden to pick out our Christmas ornaments for this year. This in no regular garden center. They have a year round Christmas ornament section and gift shop. We always buy a new ornament each for the tree since we really didn't have any when we had our first Christmas. Each of them we picked together or were gifted. Rogers Garden is located in Newport Beach and is quite a place to go look at fresh flowers and plants no matter what season it is. For those of you who are in the cold weather locations around the globe, this is why I live here. December 1st and you can buy roses in bloom and much much more. Rogers has a specialist on staff in the rose section who is a Rosearian. Never even knew that was an occupation.

Hard to believe it's December 1st with all the color and blooms making the air so fragrant.

All the Kale dressing up the flower beds

This place has a Santa who sits in a beautiful old gazebo One of the original gazebos from Disneyland's Carnation gardens, and even before that it was used to be on Main Street where the flag pole is now. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.apepenpublishing.com/images/msbandstand-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.apepenpublishing.com/vault/postcard.html&h=380&w=600&sz=87&hl=en&start=98&tbnid=N7WbrHlgTpqa4M:&tbnh=86&tbnw=135&prev==

Early 1950's picture of the gazebo

after the Carnation gardens were built

Where it sits today, 20 miles south east of the park in Corona Del Mar/Newport Beach. They decorate it for each holiday and Santa is here each year for an alternative to you run of the mill Mall Santa. Just an odd thing for a garden center, but this is Southern California and nothing surprises me anymore. a few miles away at Fashion Island another local outdoor high end shopping center, they build a special house for Santa near the Koi ponds. Most homeless people would love a house like this but it's built for Santa to use for about 6 weeks and then torn down each year.

Back to my story about Rogers Garden....

Lynn at the Ravelled Sleave was talking about artificial trees at $599.00 and I saw this 12 foot for $1,600. Why would you pay so much for a tree? People who have too much money and not enough sense that's who.

they had this huge rotating ornament that was about 4' in diameter rotating like a disco ball. I couldn't find a price tag.

The ornaments went from room to room to room.
These two are as large as footballs. What kind of tree would support a huge ornament like that?
The oriental pot was pretty in the purple but the Chinese lantern was so delicate like it was real paper and not ceramic.

This was almost too funny. I saw this replica of an ancient sculpture but I said it looked like 7:15 am when Mrs. Twisted leaves for work and I'm still snuggling in bed. She wasn't amused. :)

I thought I would show all of you the pansies in bloom. So much for it being December, try telling the flowers...

Hundreds and hundreds to chose from and all in bloom.

The Italian Cypress trees that are trained to be twisted are one of my favorites

Here are the ornaments we bought.

Mrs. Twisted loved the glass and wire chandelier and I found a lavender blown glass orchid.

Life Is Good