Merry Christmas

We're out!  Leaving in about 15 minutes to fly back east.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Ah, continue the holiday spirit!

We haven't updated the blog too much in the past week or so.  Not because we're lazy, but we just don't have a lot to say.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty normal (with Christmas cheer thrown in here and there...the shopping, preparing, etc).  A shout out now to my Deedahn for ordering a large shipment from Omaha Steaks that arrived before Thanksgiving.  Ian and I have been cooking a delicious treat every night (pork chops, burgers, franks, steaks, lasagna, sole fillets....the list goes on).  So we've had some good eats at home.

Last night was my company holiday party, and a party it was.  It was our first official Microsoft holiday party, and quite the soiree.  A whole block of a building, with different rooms set to project different parts of the world by way of culinary style and music theme.

  Ian and I got all decked out, got our pictures taken prom-style, drank some top-shelf liquor, wine, and beer (you go, Microsoft!), and mingled a la corporate goodness. 

 It was interesting to be part of such a huuuuge party--I'm never good at predicting how many people attend an event, but I'd say in the low thousands for this one.  Deck the halls!

The rest of this rainy weekend (besides getting stuffed with brunch), the unprecedented happened.  Ian helped me with the Christmas cards!  I even have photos to prove it.  

And he did such a brilliant job, making cute little sketches and saying funny things.  

Much better than I could have done it, and it's so refreshing not to have to decorate (yes, it was do-it-yourself card year), write, and address all 60 Christmas cards.  Because I also have to send all my clients Christmas cards, and man is it a lot!  Anyway, thanks to Ian for being so sweet about it.  Very helpful, thank you.

And now, we have 3 busy days ahead of us (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), before flying back to the East Coast for the holidays.  Yeehaw!

In the Christmas Spirit

It's been a strange holiday season.  I'm going back and forth between feeling the Christmas spirit, and feeling like it shouldn't be Christmas yet.  Or like it's actually June and I'm pretending it's Christmas (in San Francisco, anyway, the weather is the same in December for the most part as it is in June).

I'm blaming it on the late Thanksgiving.  The fact that we had Thanksgiving, and within a matter of days (not even a week!) we were into December.  Fast forward simply a week in December, and Ian and I are flying home for Christmas in 2 weeks!  How time flies!  I still have Christmas shopping to do!  And we hadn't even decorated....

Until this weekend.

On Wednesday, we walked up to Delancey Street Christmas trees just a few blocks from our house, and picked out this awesome 3-footer.  Our trick is to pick a smaller tree then place it in our front windows on a storage container (the one we actually use to keep our holiday gear).  From the outside, it looks pretty big, but in our living room, he's a little guy.

Here's an observation about buying Christmas trees in a lot.  When I was growing up, I can't really remember a time where we had a real Christmas tree.  For as long as I can remember, we have had the same fake tree (that my Dad still uses, and I "borrowed" for a time when living in Kentucky).  So, I never realized that going to get a live tree would be such an experience.

What happens is straight out of my 2nd grade play, which was called The Littlest Christmas Tree.  Or perhaps thinking about poor Charlie Brown's tree.  Or the fact that my family consistently gives personalities to inanimate objects.  Still.  What happens is that I tend to think like my inner 8-year old self and wonder if the tree's feelings would be hurt if I don't choose it.  Or wonder if they're sad they're not big and fluffy, but kind of scrawny.  If their boughs droop when person after person pass them by, without so much as a glance.

So I find myself whispering my likes to Ian, so the trees can't hear.  How psychotic is that!  Or I'm tempted to find the most "full bough" challenged, the smallest, the crookedest tree and select that one to go home with me.

But I don't.  Within, oh--about 10 seconds, I found our little man.

  

We tagged him, grabbed some mistletoe, and were walking home with him.  Our 2nd annual tradition.

Fast forward until this weekend, and Saturday was the day!  I wrapped presents to help get me in the mood in the afternoon, drinking some wine and keeping some cheesy holiday movies on in the background.  Ian worked on a project and then played xbox live with his friend Cliff, and drank some holiday Maker's Mark.  It wasn't really holiday, but I'm sure it helped him feel the spirit.  Then we made (ok, Ian made) a wonderful dinner of filets, potato croquettes, carrots, and broccoli. We finished off by baking sugar cookies.

The fire was lit, Christmas music was on, eggnog filled my glass.  And so we decorated our little tree, who I will now name Martin.  It feels really nice to see these old ornaments that now tell the story of Ian and I as a family.  

We bring them out, talk about where they came from, how long we've had them...good times.

Oh, it's getting so close to Christmas!  We leave for NC and VA in about a week and a half.  Can't wait!  Time to watch some Christmas favorites....

fruit. round one

I really enjoy apples. I've always eaten apples, but I feel like recently, I've really been connecting with those guys. Maybe it's because I've given other varieties a try. I'm finding there are good ones out there besides the ______ delicious breed.

Honey Crisp for insistence. WOW! they have my favorite apple trait: A good pop when you bite into them. I don't know if they have these everywhere, but MAN are they good.


How have I gotten involved with the apple you ask? well, Whole foods is the reason. For lunch, if I can't decide what to eat, I walk over Whole Foods and get a "golden gate" sandwich (toasted) or a soup. Then I walk over to the apples and pick one up for my mid afternoon snack. Since they have what amounts to an apple buffet, I started branching out. I thought that for 85 cents, I can afford to make a mistake if I don't enjoy the taste.

I still don't dig baked fruit as much as raw. I don't know what it is, but still, when I see apple pie, I don't think yum. (I do think "It might be okay with ice cream" but that's a different story)

Okay, why does it smell like Indian food in here? It's 4:30. Who is eating Indian food this late in the afternoon. It'll spoil their dinner. From what I can tell, It's not going to be very good. I usually like the smell of Indian food, but whatever that is, it smells terrible. I'm going to investigate the odor.

not what I expected.

Oh, look at the time, I want to get out of here soon. I'm meeting Lori downtown. That means I have to go home first, get some things, and then jump on the train. I hope it's not too busy down there with people doing their holiday shopping.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

How Much is that Doggie in the Window? [arf, arf]

Oh, Christmastime.  I read an article in Advertising Age today praising Macy's New York for making good on their multi-decade streak of beautifully decorated shop windows for the holidays.  And I thought, yes, it's magical.

But can it compare to the shop windows of the San Francisco Macy's at Christmas?

I doubt it.

Not only do they deck the halls with style and flair (also piping holiday songs onto the street), but they do so in the name of charity.  Here's where I get in trouble (and make a lot of detours by the Macy's windows for a couple of months).

It's the SPCA annual drive.  The windows are meant to look like picturesque SF home fronts (plus the added fake snow...SF won't likely see any of the white stuff)...but, add to that scene irresistible puppies and kittens up for adoption?

  

Oh no...let the crowds draw close.  And enter me, wiggling my way to catch a glimpse of the puppies.  Oh, the puppies!

Hooray for Tiny Turkeys!

Ian and I have had off work since about 6 pm last Tuesday.  Yep, it's Sunday night.  It felt like a lifetime off.

We had about 30 minutes to hang out at home (read: run around the house straightening) before driving to the airport to pick up my Deedahn and Jeff. I had spent some time Saturday creating them a sign, and we came equipped. I guess you could say they were a bit embarrassed.

Not to go into all the detail of our time together, but it was nice piddling, relaxing, running around the city, eating. Wednesday was super crummy weather-wise, which also happened to be the day we chose to go to Alcatraz. 

Alcatraz is still cool--I'm not one for audio tours, or any tours for that matter. But the tour is very interesting, and well-worth the time.

Other highlights have to include that we stumbled upon an ice skating rink in Union Square on Thanksgiving Day and gave it a go. Ian and I always tried to go last year. We even went to the ice skating rink at the Embarcadero Center last year, only to discover it was the day sponsored by Starbucks--aka, free hot chocolate, coffee, and skating. Needless to say it was too packed and we never made it on the ice.

But this year, although warm outside, Jeff, Ian, and I donned our rented ice skates and took to the ice. Deedahn, holding numerous coats, sweaters, and 1 purse, waved to us from the sidelines. A picture of him so familiar to me through all these years.

What can I say? We're suckers for some holiday fun. I am pretty nervous in my old age, so I was a bit slow and wobbly. But at least my butt never hit the ground. And winging around to see the huge tree in Union Square (it was lit on Friday night) was not so bad, either. It was essentially a whole hour of a grin plastered to my face.

We got a late start with making dinner as a result, but Ian put out some tasty Mt Tam cheese (a delicious local favorite), and Deedahn opened the bottle of Kir Royal he brought back from Paris. Lovely. We had all the traditionals--turkey (our 2-year streak of tiny turkey breast--all 3 pounds!), stuffing, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, sweet potato biscuits, and pumpkin cheesecake. Not a bad endeavor.

The other notable favorite outtings (because why would I blog about the awesomeness of going to bed at 10pm most nights, or enjoying cups of coffee in the morning with my dad?): Golden Gate Park, our dinner at Magnolia, and brunch at Foreign Cinema.

Well, maybe also my walk with Deedahn in the morning after their arrival. It was fun taking him around the neighborhood--seeing Mission Dolores church, Dolores Park--then walking down 18th to Market and back home.

I may also want to mention our "brunch" Friday morning (post-Thanksgiving). It started with Deedahn waking up and having some cheesecake with his coffee. Then Jeff microwaving some mac and cheese for breakfast. Putting Tootsie on the TV. After I made some blueberry muffins, we all filtered in to watch Tootsie and munched on them. I also decided mac and cheese sounded good, so I made myself some. To which Ian returned that call, came back from the kitchen with his own mac and cheese AND pumpkin cheesecake. Which Jeff met, by getting his own cheesecake and heap of whipped cream. Which spawned Deedahn into asking for some mac and cheese. So we made him some, but not before he also asked for turkey. I finished us off by eating a piece of pumpkin cheesecake. It was a lovely disaster chain reaction of a morning, that found us coming out of our food / Tootsie coma at about 1 in the afternoon (still all sporting our pj's. my idea of perfection).

OK--back to other stuff. Golden Gate Park is incredible. Why don't I ever come here? I will start. We took the N pretty much to the ocean, which is also just incredible. 

Then we walked to the edge of Golden Gate by the Dutch Windmill. 

On through trails of fragrant trees, bushes, and flowers. All the way over to the Bison Paddock.

 

Yes, bison. Then further along past lakes and waterfalls, doggies, runners, walkers, bikers, lovers, kids, ducks. Onto the Japanese Tea Garden, which alas, was closed for the day.

On then to Haight Street. To Magnolia, which happens to be a place Jeff loves to eat, but Ian and I have never been there. It was perfect. We were chilled a bit, tired of walking so much. Sat in a booth, ordered our brews, and a delicious gastropub feast ensued. Stuffed, we walked down Haight, and back home.

So Foreign Cinema for brunch Saturday before they left--it's been over a year since I've been there for brunch, but man is it delicious. So glad we made that decision. We made the trek on a gorgeous Saturday morning. Sat outside, and feasted on the homemade pear and raspberry poptarts, a croque monsieur--and then we all had our separate dishes. It was delightful. Headed to the airport, and the only thing happy about the separation is the fact that we'll see them in a few weeks.

It's setting in a bit about how precious the time is...Deedahn is moving to Paris everyone (for those that didn't know). And it's so much harder to get there now that we're living on the west coast. It's like every minute counts. A rare thing that we can all be together at once. Even rarer come January, but we'll do our best.

In the meantime, Ian and I have been preparing for Christmas. The Christmas tree lot has moved a couple of blocks closer to our house, and we're readying ourselves this week to get one. It's good to see a few windows on the street donning lovely, bright lit trees. It's starting to appear everywhere--lit snowflakes line Market Street, wreaths and bows don the streetcars.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, and I can't wait!

Hello again!

I've been thinking a lot about this blog.  For starters, I missed you guys.  What I actually do is walk around the streets of San Francisco writing the blog in my head.  So that by the time I actually might make time to update it, those words have long since disappeared to the non-existent audience in my head.  Alas.  

What I think is that I will stop apologizing for being remiss in writing.  I even had conjured up in my head (oh, about a month ago) something clever about how this blog was Ian's puppy.  How he made it, promised he would feed it and take it out, but when he finally got the puppy, his parents actually had to nurture it.

I digress.  Back to my original reason for posting.  I've been thinking about why Ian created this blog to begin with.  While it's since turned into a narrative of "we did this, we did that:" essentially a good way to stay connected with our loved ones, it ends up getting away from its original design, which is actually selfish by nature.  It was originally set up to document our life in San Francisco.  The title, "Making it our Mission," while sounding completely dedicated or almost religious, is actually a pun on our neighborhood, the Mission.  It's supposed to be all about our discovery of the city, or settling into new life.  Selfishly, it would be great to look back on this and remember when.

We've passed a pretty big milestone in our absence from writing.  Our 1-year anniversary since moving here.  Unfortunately, we did start the blog much later.  But if I were to comment on our 1-year, I'd say something about how different it all is now.  How when we first moved here, we felt like glorified tourists for a long time.  Or, how we made such a big deal about how we needed to explore, how we needed to take advantage of living in such a great city.

All of those things have evolved.  It's not that we don't try to take advantage now.  In fact, in the past few months we've really been enjoying the city.  But I will say that what's changed is the constant desire to feel obligated to explore and discover.  What I've learned about San Francisco is that it has a pulse of its own.  There's a distinct vibration, and maybe once you stop trying to find every nook and cranny of each neighborhood, you'll notice it.  Because it's always there.

When we moved here over a year ago, we stayed in temporary housing in Nob Hill, right on the Cable Car line.  If you've ever been near a cable car line, you'll know that there is this constant humming.  Of electricity in the tracks.  That's what this city has all the time--a life, a vibration.  It's constant and everyone and everything is a part of it.  It seems like it's living to me.

If I wanted to run down the list of things that we've done since we last wrote: Yosemite Park for a weekend and our 2-year wedding anniversary.  Yes, two years!  Seems so long ago, and it's truly odd how I love being married more each day.  I should qualify that.  I love being married to Ian each more every single day.  It's an amazing feeling.

Yosemite was incredible.  We stayed at a bed and breakfast, the weather was lovely.  I have to say that every scene looks like a fake backdrop.  It was majestic, and it's incredible that we're so close to such magnificence.

I've been to Toronto for work (my first time there as an adult)--it was good.  Ian came with me up to Seattle, and we had a great time exploring around.  I actually was just back there last week.  What else?  Our brother-in-law (Hilliary's hubby) came during a business trip and we had a nice dinner together.  The following weekend, Ian's parents came to visit, and Hilliary surprised him by also coming for his birthday.  The weekend after that, our good friend Carmen came to visit.  I've been to Napa (twice)--ridiculous that it's only an hour away...my heros live there (at least the ones I like to drink).  It was like going on a Beverly Hills star home tour if I were into celebrities.  I mean, imagine rows and rows of your favorite wineries!  I was star-struck.

Alas, here we are and it's Thanksgiving.  My bro and Dad are flying here tomorrow, and I can't wait!  

Other item of note is that my office moved...I now work "at the mall."  At least our offices are right above the main enormous mall in SF, and so my life has taken a turn as a result.  I can go into more detail later.

I guess this is just more introductory to say we've been really busy and enjoying life.  But I do want to get this blog back to where it started and to focus on San Francisco and our life here, how we've adjusted and found balance.  It's been such an interesting city to get to know intimately.  Sometimes I feel like I know it so well and nothing surprises me.  Other times, I look around at all the familiar places and everything seems new all over again.

We both joined yelp.com and review restaurants and places that way.  You can look us up and our reviews.  So, we may not review so much here.  Just know we're brunching it every weekend like normal, but we do try to cook more at home.  :)

Enough for now.  Just know that I know this blog is in serious need of attention, which it will get.  Just maybe in a different way.