Merry Christmas to all.

Many have asked and now here is the recipe for my Hot Wassail.

Dry ingredient:
2 Tbs. Cloves
4 cups sugar
12 Cinnoman sticks
6 Tbs. of candied ginger (crushed up) or 2 Tbs. of powdered ginger. (just as good, much simpler)

Wet ingredient:
6 qts. water
1 gal Apple Cider
3 qts. Orange Juice
2 cups Lemon juice

Directions:
Put the 6 quarts of water into a large pan. (this makes 3 gallons so it's best to make it a very big pot) Toss in the dry ingredients, sugar, cinimmon, cloves, ginger, bring to a rolling boil and let it boil for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes turn off the heat and let it sit for one hour. After one hour, add wet ingredients. If you want to let it get stronger, leave a few of the cinimmon sticks and a few of the cloves in the storage bottles. Heat and serve.

Enjoy all, and Happy Holidays

Two More Days to Mike & Hillary

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend Anna and Jesse were here for a concealed carry class that we put on at our home. We had a good turn out. While they were here we had the chance to go to the California State Fair. We had a great time. We went on several rides and spent the afternoon trying fair food and looking at the different displays that were available. The giant fairs wheel was kind of fun. In a flat place like Sacramento you can see a long way from that height.

Sheryl spent some time with a long-time friend and past dance coach who does a Lucy exhibit every year. The Lucy candy factory was the theme this year.

The following day we spent some time in the Lake Tahoe area. We took Rocco and Copper and they loved it. I stayed with them while the others explored some of the indoor sights. The dogs and I took quite a long walk on the beach and chased the surf. All in all it was a nice afternoon.

Sheryl and I had the opportunity to visit with Peter and Michelle and the kids for several days. Peter was between school and his residency. We were able to spend some truly quality time with them. Here we visited Jamestown and the kids had a blast chasing the geese around the park. We had a nice lunch and escaped the heat for a few minutes. The park was really beautiful and green. After we visited Jamestown we took a ride to Yorktown and checked out the visitors centers. by that time the kids were sleeping soundly in their car seats.




One of my favorite times was when we visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Gabe was a scream. We took some great pics. I guess the best part was watching the kids play in the fountains. My favorite was Gabe playing in the drinking fountain. We had several opportunities to just hang out and play with the kids. Peter and I also went fishing on the James riveer on morning. The sunrise was awsome. The water was very high. I'll look forward to fishing it at low water.

Well, It's comming up on 9 months since we left Moab. We sure miss it. Our good friend Gwen Seely has calld us a couple of times, and the spring where we use to get water, "Matramony Springs" , was closed down the other day. They said that the water was not clean. That is too bad. Loved that water. It would be fun to go back for Easter and be there for Jeep Safari, but we are making plans to go and visit Michelle and Peter and the kids.
















Michael Sean and Hillary had a baby boy on Valentines day. They named him Talen Kanyon. We will be going to Salt Lake for the baby blessing on the 19th of may. Lots of traveling in may. Should be fun. Hopefully we'll have lots of good pics to post for the month of June.















This is a great pic. We'll be going up to Salt




Lake this weekend, 1 May 2009, to attend the blessing of




Talen Kanyon Kennedy. Check out this Kennedy Family blog http://mikehillsbebe.blogspot.com/2009/04/sorry-so-long.html and see what going on with Mike, Hillary and Talen. It's fun to see the family grow.