Solemn Travelin' Tuesday for MeHello Friends! I would like to apologize for my daily not being complete yesterday. I received a call from my sister Danielle early in the morning that a close family friend had passed away very suddenly. 
The day pretty much became nutty after that. I will be heading for the wake today to pay my respects. Unfortunately, it also happens to be my mother in law's 92nd birthday today. Our plans were for the whole family to go visit her in Rockland County, NY this evening, but I will be heading for the wake instead, while the rest of the gang heads to share a birthday dinner with her. I bought her a lovely necklace while I was in Taos, New Mexico in October, which I hope she likes!! 
As I started to tell you yesterday, my Christmas tree looks lovely, thanks to Gianna and Kelsey, who did most of the decorating. I had planned to post some pictures yesterday, but never got a chance to, so here they are today - - the three of us trimming our 2014 tree! 
Today is also Travelin' Tuesday and as usual, I'm excited to give you an update on our upcoming trips! Tanya and I booked some accommodations for our Cousins Yellowstone Road Trip! For the first two nights of the trip, we will be in Jackson Hole and we will be staying in hotels. During this stay we'll head over to the Grand Teton National Park - cannot wait!! For nights three through six, our entire gang will be staying in a condo in West Yellowstone, for which we are fully booked, as we will be visiting Yellowstone National Park. The last night (seven), we'll be back in Jackson Hole, where the girls and I will be departing from back to New York. I cannot tell you how excited I am to see both of these National Parks. I love our road trips as they are not only, obviously fun, but they are also so casual and down to earth in terms of our packing. Well, peeps, I must be heading out for what will be, I'm sure, a long and stressful day. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!!! See ya back here tomorrow! -E 
| Find me in the KitchenHave you ever had those days where you can hardly remember waking up that morning? And when you do, you can't believe that memory wasn't days ago, because it feels like ions ago?! Well, I am have been having several days like that! I was out and about getting "stuff" done from the point I left the house yesterday at 7:15a, until getting back from the movies at 12:45am. I was all over Orange County, in and out of 10 different markets trying to hunt down the necessary ingredients for our Christmas Eve and Christmas Menus. 
There were about 3-4 items which I had the most difficult time finding and it wasn't unit the last store that I finally checked them off of my list! Then I had to pick up the kids, go get Dave and head to the IPC Christmas Party - to which, there was sooooo much traffic that after the 35 minutes in the car to go pick up Dave, it took us over 1.5hrs to get to the party! Lastly, we headed back to Anaheim Hills in the fog, found that Mika was over, gave her some gifts, sang Happy Birthday, and then headed back out and to the movies! 
Liz and Mika
As for today, I'll be in the kitchen for several hours prepping and starting to cook for the upcoming big meals, as well, as do lots of baking for all the goodies that this family is looking forward to! I'll be posting our menu tomorrow!! 
I do plan to take a few breaks from the kitchen this afternoon and take Cosette to a horseback riding lesson, go get a much needed mani/pedi, and then later this evening take Dominic to his fitness classes, and go with Dave to pick up a couple of last minute gift ideas.. It is Travelin' Tuesday... And with all of the holiday planning, and festivities going on, there has been less time to plan travel. But we have still managed to lock in the accommodations for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and for West Yellowstone. Which I feel good about, knowing that after the holidays I'll be off on my ski trips and before you know it the Cousins Yellowstone Road Trip will be upon us!!! I have made the decision... Not to fly into Jackson Hole, but rather to make our portion of the trip an even BIGGER Road Trip, and go up to San Francisco, and then up to Portland before heading over to Jackson Hole and meeting up with Elisa and the girls. I'm totally stoked!!! We've still go to book Dave's flight to Utah, and secure a few fun activities for our Winter Carnival Quebec Trip which we should do here pretty soon for the upcoming trips that we are all very excited about! Oki doki everyone, I've got to go put my apron on and get to work in the kitchen! Next time you hear from me it'll be Christmas Eve!! -T 
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