Yes, I do live in a Pottery Barn catalog. (I wish)

I'm not jealous. I'm not.
I know what it looks like.
A spread from a Pottery Barn Catalog.
But you're wrong.
This was our Fourth of July picnic. Here in Orange County.
Yes, that is teak furniture. And Tommy Hilfiger quilts.
And fresh flowers. (not jealous at all!)
I felt like I had fallen into a fabulous Lifestyle Magazine. (Heavy Sigh)
And no, I had nothing to do with it. =(
This is all the doing of my amazing friend, Tamera.
She of the Most Excellent Taste in Absolutely Everything.

There were dozens of kids and adults sharing in this magnificent feast and Tamera was just cool as a cucumber playing hostess to us all. Did I mention how fabulous she is??


As her husband said, the event had been "Tamerized" and of course, turned into something beyond incredible.

I always read lifestyle magazines and wonder who those lucky people are who get to entertain and be entertained in such fabulousness. Well, lucky for us and thanks to Tamera, this time it was us.

The level of comfort we enjoyed for the picnic and fireworks was beyond anything I ever imagined. And the company - forget about it! What a great group of people and kids.
Which just leaves me curled up in a fetal position, sucking my thumb and calling for Mama, because I now have to deal with my jealousy issues. I totally want to BE her!!! (I know.)
Seriously, she is genuinely wonderful, and sweet, warm and generous and creative and completely lovable and down to earth.
And she's MY friend. See? A charmed life.

Hey T, can you "Tamerize" ME??? =D
(Thanks again for the Best 4th of July EVER!)

PS. Yes, I did cry during the fireworks. Thanks for reminding me of my own personal weakness...sheesh! ;-)

Thinking of you

The Hallmark people are so clever.
You can pretty much get a card for just about any occasion. 
So if you're thinking of someone, you get them a "thinking of you" card and sign it and send it off. The recipient opens it and thinks, "Ah, someone's thinking of me."
It's a very sweet exchange all around.

However, I think I can one-up Hallmark today. This is one of my very favorite things about blogging. I can pay tribute to a friend and say "thinking of you" in a broader arena.

Here's my friend, Gene. Of The Train Report (which we still get regularly, but that's not important right now), who is celebrating a birthday today. "Hi, Pastor Gene!"

Thanks to unlimited texting, our wonderful friend, Gene, has taken "thinking of you" to the next level.

A few years ago, Eric went to see The Moody Blues in concert with a friend and sent a video-text to Gene. Ever since then, we will randomly receive from photos like these:


Translation: Thinking of you.
It always makes us smile. Thanks, Gene!

And of course, we still get a regular train report from the town of Hanford, California (is it a city yet??).
Here's the New and Improved Train Report for 2008:

Hallmark can stand to learn a thing or two from our good friend and his fabulous sense of humor. ;-)

Happy Birthday, Gene.

We love you and we're thinking of YOU today. =D

Tuesdays with the Millers

We have a standing beach date on Tuesdays.

Our friends, the Millers have two delightful young men, Josh and Chase, that happen to be the same ages as Lucy and Jonathan.

If you're a parent you know that one of the trickiest things about having your kids have friends over, is that you are not sure you will really get along with the parents. I mean, you'd like to, because you already have the our-kids-are-friends thing in common, but it can be.... well...tricky. (If you're not married with children, it's like meeting the boyfriend of an old friend and not being able to find what they see in them. See? Tricky, but that's not important right now.)

Back to my original story and the standing beach date.  It's the very best of all possible worlds. The kids love being in the water. Which gives us moms HOURS of uninterrupted gabbing time. Something we'd probably NEVER do in real life, but at the beach, what else is there to do?? See. Perfect.

The best part is catching them being themselves:

While this very serious building work was going on we moms (Jana and I) did some time traveling. Yes, it wasn't that long ago our kids were doing this very thing. But weren't they about half their sizes then?

It never gets old. I could watch this Miller Building Circus all day long. Or at least every TUESDAY.

Thanks, Guys!
 

I love my Summer Tuesdays! I know. Charmed.

My Afro-Cuban Weekend

Another fabulous post by Kikita

I know I've mentioned how much I adore my African friends, so you can imagine how excited I was to have plans with them all weekend and pretend I was African instead of Cuban.

On Saturday night, I was invited to the World Harvest Summer Concert where my friends from Milele would be playing.

Ok, so technically I've only seen them play one other time - but that's not important right now. ;-)

Since I love music, any concert is a blast, but this one was especially fun because of how much dancing and crowd participation is involved.  To my surprise (and infinite pleasure), the group had everyone stepping back and forth in what I know as I Cuban Conga!  AND THEN they started doing a sideways salsa . . . Being the humble and sweet girl I am, I obviously thought these dance moves were done specifically for my benefit.  =D

After the concert, amid the sounds of Africans speaking loudly and quickly in English and Swahili (which sounds just like a Cuban party, only not in Spanish), someone mentioned how the Cubana danced like an African . . .

Huh?  But before I could get to the bottom of that comment, the conversation had moved on to the dinner party the following evening.  That night couldn't come fast enough.  I starved myself all day expecting my first time tasting African food would be a positive one.  I was not disappointed!

Dinner was served buffet-style starting with basmati rice, followed by a mixed vegetable dish (squash, zucchini, and carrots - I think), next was the chicken which was obviously made with onions, garlic, tomatoes (Cuban staple foods) plus a few other spices. As I made it to the end of the line of food, I heard a choir of angels making a heavenly "AAAAAAAHHHHH" sound for there, practically glowing from it's heavenly smell, was a food I couldn't wait to pile onto my already full plate . . .
MADUROS!!!

WHO KNEW?!?!

All the food was absolutely as delicious as I'd hoped.  I was "forced" to have a second plate . . . just to be sure it was as tasty as I thought.  It was.  The plantains were cooked perfectly.  And they were fresh!  Oh what a happy moment!

After dinner, the African music got louder and it was time to dance.  They tried to show me some traditional African dances . . . which were the dances from the day before.  This time, when everyone was shocked at how well I "caught on" I was able to explain that we were doing Cuban dances.

So, I thought I'd be spending a weekend as an African and not as a Cuban, but I was wrong.  I ate maduros, danced a conga, and took 5 hours to say good-bye in the traditional African Cuban way. =D

It's a small Afro-Cuban world after all!

Be careful what you wish for...

SIGH.

My closest, oldest, and dearest friends all live so very far away. And I really wanted to spend time with someone to de-compress from all the frantic let-me-show-you-the-highlights-of-California activity of the past few weeks. (This is a perfect example of my whiny prayer life, but that's not important right now.)

My very favorite stress-escape is to go for a walk in The Park.

The Park, as we like to refer to it, is Disneyland. =D
I think it's a local law that if you live in South Orange County you must have a Disneyland pass.  Seriously. I don't know anyone locally who doesn't. It's just  a natural part of living in this sweet, squeaky-clean, white whole-wheat bread bubble that is The O.C.

So, yesterday I had to drop my car off for maintenance, which meant that:
1) I was already out of the house and on the road.
2) I was heading north on I-5.

I know. It's a total rationalization. But keep reading...

My niece and Park-buddy, Helen, agreed, not only to follow me while I dropped off the car (thanks, Helen!), but that we were already half-way to Anaheim and it would be a shame to waste the trip. (See? I'm not the only one. =D)

On a side note, my very dear friends, Pam and Gene, who live way up in the Central Valley, also love Disneyland. In fact, that's where we always meet them when they visit, and I was still in that my-friends-live-so-far-away-woe-is-me zone. Thank goodness we have cell phones that can send photos and texts, because we've come to rely on that as the very best way to share our lives.

They often send me videos or photos of the time they spend with their sweet granddaughter, CJ, or we exchange photos of what we're having for dinner. And, of course, Gene sends us the daily Train Report. Thanks to the beauty and convenience of electronic communications, I sent Gene a text sharing what I was up to: "It's a Disney day!"

He responded quickly, as usual, asking which land I was in and what we were up to, followed by - "Where are you exactly? Send a picture."

So I did.....

And moments later.....

MY FRIEND!!!

It felt like a surprise party!

So.... I got to spend the afternoon walking in The Park with my BFF.

I LOVE it when the planets align and God intervenes to give me exactly what I hoped for. (in spite of me being such a Whiner-Baby. =D)

After 4 cups of wine... am I Jewban? Or Cubish?

No. We're not Jewish. . . most of the time. . . but we were tonight.

We had the wonderful pleasure of being asked to participate in a Passover Seder this evening.  Our dear friends, Barry and Anne Koff and their kids, Jonathan and Shoshana, were our very gracious hosts and teachers. Seriously, we learned so much about the Passover rituals.
Every food, every drink has a holy tradition. It was all so fascinating and quite dramatic.
So, as Barry led us through each part of the service, he explained in great detail the symbolism behind everything we did and ate. We eagerly learned the lessons of the history of Passover as seen in the book of Exodus.

We tasted the bitterness of the slavery of the children of Israel.
We re-enacted the ten plagues of Egypt.

Jonathan turned water into "blood." (very dramatic moment!)
Barry represented the darkness by being blindfolded.

(I LOVED seeing my boys in their yarmulkes. =D)

Adam very tentatively drank from the first (of four!) cups of wine.

We all took turns reading the story of the Passover and the Exodus.
We even sang traditional Hebrew prayers.

At first we were all very tentative, but again, those four cups of wine we had to drink to the merits of the Children of Israel, really kind of loosened everyone up. You see, the Children of Israel had four great merits even while in exile: (1) They did not change their Hebrew names;
(2) They continued to speak their own language, Hebrew;
(3) They remained highly moral;
(4) They remained loyal to one another.
(To which Adam was loudly toasting, "I'll drink to that!!" and very enthusiastically, did.)

Then it was time for the Hallel, so when they pulled out the instruments and the singing started and the tambourines were sounding, we all jumped right in with great (four-cups-of-wine!) enthusiasm. (Hallel - where we get the word - Halleluiah!) Look how I learned stuff!

It was a very noisy and joyful Jewish celebration and we felt privileged to be a part of it.
Thanks, Barry and Anne for sharing yourselves and your lives with us. - "L'chaim!" 

Finding Nemo (and everything else, too.)

It's not like I don't already have enough projects going on in my life.  But this one I couldn't resist.

If you're the holder of a Disneyland Passport (which we are) this will be as familiar a sight to you as it is to us.
Most of our friends are also passholders and Lovers of All Things Disney.
So last week Helen (my niece) calls me:

"It's Gina's Birthday and I want you to make one of your Disneyland Scavenger Hunts for her."

Create a GAME?? Are you kidding? No need to ask twice. I'm all over it. We are all such uber-geeky lovers of anything competitive. I swear.
So we went to Disneyland this week and I took my beloved camera with the longer (40-150 mm) lens and went nuts.

Here's how we did it:

1) We took pictures of things (signs, statues, landmarks, etc.) all over the park.
2) We printed them and put them into a mini-album ($2.00 at Target).
3) Helen took Gina to Disneyland yesterday and gave her the album.
4) Gina had to provide photo-proof she had found the 40 items. (I won't mention how old she is. wink. wink. =D)
5) I have included the pictures in a photo album over on the left called Disneyland Photo Scavenger Hunt if anyone is in So Cal and going to Disneyland and feels like playing. I gave hints in the photo comments section as to which "land" you need to be in to find each item.

Can I just tell you right now that Gina ROCKS!!

She claims she had a blast finding everything.  I think I had more fun coming up with the game.

Happy Birthday, Gina! I hope you had a great day.

I should quickly explain that Gina has been hanging around MBFCF since she could toddle. She's definitely one of the family.  So of course, none of this surprises her.  It's so awesome.

Now I'm thinking I want to go back and do another scavenger hunt over at California Adventures and maybe a kid-friendly version just for the kid areas.  I can feel my creative booster rockets preparing to launch.  Stay tuned. I'll be letting you know whenever someone chooses to play and lets us know.  I'll also be letting you know if my brain accidentally explodes. ;-)  I should have been an Imagineer. (sigh)

And because I have Gina's attention (and I can). . .

We use this clip of my brother-in-law dancing with all the women in just about every family video we've ever created. It's our very favorite.  Gina is in this scene, which puts her in every single one of our family Christmas videos. See? Family. She's the one of the far right with the long curly hair and the butt bow. (lighten up. it was the 80's - everyone had a butt bow!) If you look closely enough you'll see a little blond girl trying to get in the dance - that would be my Amy.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Gina! You Wild Thing, you. And yes, you made the video again. =D

A dinner to DIE for. . .

Meet my vampirish children:
Dwayne Denartery and Anita Lotta Tai-Pei.  ;-)

(aka: Jonathan and Lucy as their murder mystery characters)

Jonathan turned twelve a few days ago.  And poor guy, he always gets the short end of the celebration stick around here, since his birthday is five days after Christmas.  It's not that we don't celebrate, (you KNOW we do) but it's never a big party. 

It always takes me by surprise.  Always.  (how embarrassing is this?)  December 25th - Christmas comes. Then the day after (the 26th) , I am sitting basking in the wow-I-pulled-it-off-again glow of the day after Christmas and then usually on the 27th I jolt awake from a sound sleep and yell "Good God! It's Jon's birthday in three days!"  Okay, I confess.  I know.  Bad Mother.  There I said it.  = ( 

But, lucky for me, this kid has never complained or cared.  He feels loved and secure (he always says) and I don't need to do anything big to prove to him that I love him.  Shut. up.  (how amazing is that?)

Ah, but having been raised a Catholic Cuban Woman (which always wins the Trifecta of the Guilt Olympics) I cannot let it lie.  I might be a Bad Mother, but I'm an Awesome Party Planner. ;-)

So, this was the year.  We had a big murder mystery dinner with Jonathan and his friends.  I remembered to invite them two weeks before Christmas.  (ooh, there must be a prize for this somewhere. =D)

It was a dinner party for eight called "Barbecue with the Vampire" (as opposed to interview) and each guest had a character to play and was to come in costume.  What a great group of suspects we had!  Their parents were present also and we had a great big Pulled Pork Barbecue dinner (looked a little like shredded flesh, but that's not important right now) and a fabulous Death by Chocolate Cake!

My favorite part of this whole affair was the decorating and getting it all together and making all the preparations and of course, we all helped detect who among us was a killer.  (I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. =D)  (notice the garlic scattered about the table. . .)

In fact, all the free surfaces in the house were covered with garlic.
This is what you would've seen if you had come to our front door that night:
That's right, I added garlic and bats to my lovely Christmas wreath.  It totally works, doesn't it?  ;-)

So, the party is over. And now

I have pounds and pounds of garlic. . .

My son is deliriously happy. He got his party. And I have tons and tons of garlic.
What to do?

MOJO CRIOLLO! (of course!!)

7 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1  medium-size onion, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup sour (Seville) orange juice
  OR
1/4 cup sweet orange juice, MIXED WITH
1/8 cup each fresh lime and lemon juice

1) Using a mortar and pestle or a food processor, crush the garlic with the salt to form a thick paste. 2) In a mixing bowl, combine the garlic paste, onion, and juice, and let the mixture sit at room temperature for 30 minutes or longer.

3) Minutes before you are ready to serve the mojo, heat the oil over medium-high heat in a medium-size pan until it is very hot, add the garlic mixture (do this quickly because it will splatter), stir, and serve immediately.
4) To reheat, simmer over low heat until heated through, 6 to 8 minutes. The sauce keeps several weeks refrigerated.

We're already marinating a beautiful skirt steak in that killer mojo and singing old school Cuban songs and we've decided to call that meal,  Barbecue with A Cuban Choir.  And I'll tell you right now that it's going to be our BREATH that is the KILLER.  ;-)

I like it. =D   

Afro-Cuban after all . . .

I thought I knew my mom inside and out, but she is still able to surprise and amaze me. 

(Hi everyone, it's me, Amy)

Let me give you some background . . .

One of my very dear and very beautiful friends, Sheila (Not the blond. That's my other friend, Ashli, but that's not important right now), works for her mother's non-profit organization Outreach to Africa. 

Anyway, through Sheila I met Christian.

Ok, I know he can look . . . well . . . rather "hoodlum-esque," but don't judge the book just yet . . .

He's in a band.  The band, Milele (that's Swahili for "forever ") raises money for orphans with AIDS in Africa. 

Anyway, he and Sheila invited me (and anyone I wanted to bring) to "come listen to another group visiting from Africa."   Ummm . . . OF COURSE!  They didn't have to tell me all the wonderful things THAT group was doing because they knew I would go and see for myself.

And for some reason, I wanted Mom to come too.  Most of the time, I don't bring Mom to my multi-cultural nonsense, because it is usually just that . . . nonsense.  But here were two amazing people doing amazing things for their country, and I took a shot and invited Mom.

I didn't think she'd say yes.  But she did.  And I was in shock, but excited.

We got there early.  She met and charmed everyone the way she always does . . .

When the concert started they asked everyone to get up. Mom got up.
When they said march, she marched.
When they said stomp, she stomped.
Everything they had the audience do, she did. 

SHE EVEN JUMPED WHEN THEY SAID JUMP!

All I kept thinking was, "Who is this woman?"

I kept telling her, "Mom, I'm glad you came, but you don't have to dance around . . . it's ok."

It wasn't until afterwards when she said,"Yes I did!  YOU of all people should understand that when you hear that kind of music you can't sit still!"

Well, yeah, but . . . I didn't think SHE felt that way . . .

And she talked about how connected she felt with Africans, "because we Cubans have the same roots."

Well, yeah, but . . . I didn't think SHE felt that way . . .

She was so touched and so enthusiastic about the concert, she stopped and bought Milele's newest cd and even a keychain for Lucy. "We have to support them!"

Well, yeah, but . . . WOW.  I guess I don't know my Mom as well as I thought . . .

But I am happy to be able to share my inner Afro-Cuban with her . . .

The best moment though, was when she pretended to know Swahili and jumped right in speaking gibberish, "Angongo burda blonga!!"

And they said, "You are right.  Your daughter is a beautiful blond."   ;-)

Es pa'l jalo uin

It's not about the dressing up and getting candy.  Heck, I can do that any day. ;-)

It's that now we have put Traditions in place.  And they must be respected.

First it's the trip to the pumpkin patch to choose the best carving pumpkins and I always make them pose behind the cut-outs.  (They were much more willing when they were younger.  Now they have reputations to worry about.  But they still do it... for me. =D)

Round one: Jonathan and Daisy.

Ben got distracted with the toy cars.  "Where my punkin go?" (too cute!)

There has to be a choco-fest.  (Did I tell you I can't have chocolate? It's so wrong.)  =(

Then the rest of the carving-posse arrived.

And this was the culmination of the evening's work:

What I like most is that even when we adults get tired, they carry on, because it is A Tradition now.
I think that's cool.  I love that their friends feel so at home here. 
I love that there is so much LIFE going on.  They're noisy and busy. And that's as it should be.
I love when they are being creative and having fun and sharing.
There is a sense of abundance.  Lots of pumpkins, lots of candy, lots of food, lots to do.
Lots of life.

Because even though we know that it's Halloween and it has that whole day-of-the-dead thing going for it, we are very busy just seriously celebrating LIFE.

Happy Day!