Sat.-Sat., December 24-31, 2022
Christmas was a little different this year than what was expected.
Linda, myself and Marilyn
with our Mother Chuny
a few years ago at Christmas
Our normal routine is to gather all of my side of the family at our house on Christmas day to open presents and share one of Laurie's wonderful home cooked meals.
With our Mother still in a skilled nursing facility in Pasadena and my sister Marilyn, still recovering from the open heart surgery that she underwent threw about three months ago, things just had to be different this year.
This week would be another one filled with daily drives to Pasadena to visit my Mother.
I took a few minutes to drop by
Pasadena's venerable Vroman's Bookstore
As a youngster my Father, an avid reader, would take me to this wondrous bookstore on Thursday nights to find another book for each of us to read in the coming week.
Great memories at this spot . . .
Laurie found this HUGE mushroom
growing in our front yard this week
And these as well
Michael and Jacob built this
gingerbread football stadium
during their shared vacation time
Typical Christmas day weather
in Southern California
This Christmas it would just be Laurie and me, joined by Michael, Vanessa, Jacob and Mary to celebrate the day at our home.
Laurie likes to be creative
Just another delicious example
Princess Mary being dramatic
Jacob and Mary alternated
handing out the presents
A Los Angeles Rams pillow
was the perfect gift for Jacob
It's ALWAYS Happy Hour
for my bride
NFL TeenyMates was another
on the spot gift this Christmas
How did Santa know?
After opening a beauty salon gift,
I was Mary's first customer
She decided that I needed a new shade of lipstick.
How could I say no to her?
Michael and Laurie watching
my makeover in progress
I just had to have some purple eye
shadow as the UW Husky Alamo Bowl
game was fast approaching
Happily looking like a new man, it was now . . .
. . . Laurie's turn in the salon chair
Admiring an autographed baseball
that Micheal found hidden on a shelf
Our smaller than normal gathering was still a good one punctuated by . . .
. . . a much needed Rams win
of a rare Christmas Day game
On other fronts . . .
Laurie now has a favorite dwarf
that Snow White rarely talks about
So true . . .
If you are either a scientist or a
Big Bang Theory TV show fan,
you got this one
My take on any New Year's Diet plans
The Italian DI season will soon
get underway for our beloved
Varese Skorpions
On Thursday night the #12 ranked,
10-2 Washington Huskies were in San
Antonio, Texas to play the #20 ranked,
8-4 Texas Longhorns in the Alamo Bowl
Before driving home from Pasadena, I called Laurie to see if she needed anything for the game as Michael, Vanessa and Jacob would be joining us to watch the bowl game. Mary was with her other grandparents on this night.
Laurie said to bring home some munchies.
So I stopped at Porto's Bakery
in Northridge to get some of their
famous meat pastries and empanadas
Saying no to these churro croissants may earned me a chapter in a new Profiles in Courage book due out next Summer.
The Alamo Bowl was topsy-turvy
In the Second Half, the Huskies
rose to the proverbial occasion
A solid win to finish the season
with an 11-2 record and a possible
Top Ten finish in the final polls
The University of Washington started playing football in 1889. This is only the fifth time in program history that a Husky team has won 11 or more games in a season.
Here is the list of those five great Husky seasons:
1925, 11-0-1 led by Head Coach Enoch Bagshaw
1991, 12-0-0 led by Head Coach Don James
2000, 11-1-0 led by Head Coach Rick Neuheisel
2016, 12-2-0 led by Head Coach Chris Petersen
2022, 11-2-0 led by Head Coach Kalen DeBoer
What a great accomplishment for first year UW Head Coach Kalen DeBoer, his staff and the players!
Still, to put this all in perspective, #5 Alabama improved to 11-2 on the 2022 season with their 45-20 Sugar Bowl victory over #11 Kansas State.
This was the Crimson Tide's 25th 11+ win season since first accomplishing that feat under legendary Head Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in 1961.
With this year's Sugar Bowl win, Alabama has now won 11 or more games in 13 of the last 14 seasons. The only non 11+ win season in that stretch was the "totally forgettable" 2010 campaign when the Crimson Tide went an unacceptable 10-3.
Hopefully this will be a huge
springboard to the 2023 season
Even though next Monday's 109th edition
of the Rose Bowl game is not part of
the College Football Playoff (CFP), I still
think that the traditions of this bowl game
make it the best game of EVERY year
PAC-12 vs. Big Ten, the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop, usually picture perfect weather, it just doesn't get any better than that.
Of course with the CFP expanding from four to twelve teams in 2024 as well as USC and UCLA jumping from the PAC-12 to the Big Ten the same year, the Rose Bowl may never be the same again.
Sad.
As for those two CFP games played on the last day of 2022 . . .
The Fiesta Bowl was a WILD ONE!
#3 TCU Horned Frogs (13-1) 51
#2 Michigan Wolverines (13-1) 45
And so was the Peach Bowl . . .
#1 Georgia Bulldogs (14-0) 42
#4 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-2) 41
The CFP National Championship Game will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Monday January 9, 2023, between #3 TCU (13-1) and #1 Georgia (14-0).
It should be a great one too, I suspect.
Reading Is FUNdamental!
Fred Vargas strikes again!
Her Paris police detective character, Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, is interesting to say the least. Her plots make you do some serious thinking about crime of course but also about your own personal life and relationships.
I can't wait to read the next book in this series.
