Tablescape Tuesday ~ Black and Gold

Welcome to another round of Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Today I’m sharing the table I set for an early birthday dinner for our two sons. Both of their birthdays are in January and Dear and I will not be in Washington on their birthdays so we decided to celebrate with them while we were still in Washington last Friday night.

I bought these great black and gold dishes at Target Christmas clearance. I got 8 dinner plates and 8 salad plates for under $30. I thought they had a more masculine feel than some of my other dishes for the guys!

The heavy black iron candle holder for the centerpiece with the Fleur de lis design was a find at Goodwill a while back. Again, I liked the heavier bulkier look for the guys.

Christmas clearance at Target was great. I went on the day everything was 75% off. The Fleur de lis napkin rings were under $5 for 8 of them. The little gold cocktail napkins were $1.24 for a 4 pack. The two pack of goblets that I decided to turn into candle holders were clearance also but I forget how much. The shimmery gold tablecloth was originally from the Pottery Barn that I bought at Goodwill. Now the really great thing about this tablescape is that we actually sat down and ate dinner at it. It was a great time of celebrating Josh and Dan’s lives and thanking God for them and how they’ve enriched all of our lives!

Josh is married to Laura and all four of these young adults graduated from Inglemoor Highschool in the Northshore School District of Washington in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.  They chuckled at the fact that Black and Gold were their High School colors! Go Vikings! My sister Lana G! was able to join us for our dinner celebration, too. Fun times….

For more Tablescapes around the blogisphere visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

 

Michelle’s Birthday Party

My niece Michelle turned 30 this year and a celebration was in order so family and friends headed to Orange, California to Debbee’s townhome for a party. There was lots of great food including everyone’s favorite Piroshky. We had meat filled piroshky, potato filled piroshky and a cabbage filled pirog.

Here are some of the usual suspects.

The Parentals/Grandparents ~ Nadia and Moisi

Some of Michelle’s aunts and her mommy

Michelle and her auntie ellen b.

Michelle and her son Jackson

Nana and Jackson

Jackson making a serious point!

This photo turned out so tiny in the collage I wanted to add it here since it’s the only shot of Ryan I managed to get and I wanted M. Lou to see her son. So here’s Michelle and Ryan (Jackson’s Dad)  with cousins David and Kristin. I also realized that this is the only photo I took that has Michelle’s sister Melissa in it. There she is way back there behind Michelle.

Happy Birthday Dear!

As of today Dear gets to order off the Senior Menu at Denny’s! Congratulations Dear! Don’t worry for your birthday dinner we’ll go somewhere where they won’t even mention senior specials…

This is a photo from the outside looking in on the work that Dear has been doing in our basement in Washington. He seems to really enjoy doing this kind of stuff after being cooped up in an office at a desk most days.

After all these years I’m even more happy that God brought us together. You are a wonderful husband and father and I thank God for you and pray that He continues to draw you closer to Him. I love you Dear!!

 

Lana’s Belated Birthday Lunch!

So guess where I took my little sister Lana G! for her belated birthday lunch today?

We went to Madam Fifi’s Tea Room in Bothell at Country Village. I was wanting to share this Tea Room with Lana and since this is a rare day when we are both in Washington at the same time we took the opportunity. We were both delighted with the Grand Tea.

Madam Fifi’s Grand Tea
Pot of loose leaf tea or iced tea of the day
Cup of soup or garden salad
Fresh seasonal fruit
scones with cream & lemon curd
Generous tea sandwiches—
Smoked salmon cream cheese with cucumber
Crab salad
Chicken curry salad
Turkey with raspberry cream cheese
Grand assortment of decandent tarts, cookies and pastries.
~
We had the soup of the day and it was wonderful. We also chose the Lady Londonderry Tea. We really enjoyed it and both ended up buying some to take home to savor. It is really hard to treat Lana to a meal. She is very sneaky about picking up the tab. Today I was going to finally win but Madam Fifi thwarted me and insisted on giving us her Grand Tea on the house! Thank you Madam Fifi. We love your establishment and we will be back.

Happy Birthday Lana & Leonard

A Very Happy Birthday to my Sister and my Brother!

Yes, they are twins…

 

Lana, I thank God for you and pray that He blesses you with all things good this coming year. Thanks for all the fun times we have together, shopping, exploring cemeteries, eating, and blogging together. Joy, Joy, Joy is what I wish for you!

 

Leonard, I thank God for all the new things He has filled your life with this last year! Wow, He has really blessed you richly and it makes this sister overwhelmed with joy for you and thanksgiving to our God. I love you my brother!

Since it’s her birthday why don’t you head over to Lana G!’s to see a photo of her and my brother together sporting a fabulous hairdo!

Persian Food and Birthdays

I drove out to Orange County yesterday to meet up with some of my family at Darya Persian Restaurant. We were celebrating my Pop’s birthday.

My brother Leonard was in town overnight from Dallas so we celebrated early. Bottom left photo in the collage are the 3 who have birthdays in the next few days. My nephew Levi on the 27th, my sister Kathy on the 23rd and my Pop on the 25th. The food photos are what I ordered, a lamb shank with a plate of mixed rice with lima beans and that’s not cheese on top, that’s rice with saffron.

Here’s Uncle Leonard with some of his nieces and one of his nephews. Debbee, Levi, Michelle, Leonard and Melissa.

Leonard, Melissa, Jack, and my SIL Kelly.

My nephew Levi, niece Michelle, and my brother Leonard.

Me and my brother Leonard

The party moved from the restaurant to my parent’s apartment for cake and chai (tea). I hit the long road home from the restaurant. It’s good to “love one another”.

Happy Birthday Pop and Kathy…

Happy Birthday to my oldest sister Kathy and an early Happy Birthday to my Pop! Kathy’s birthday is today and Pop’s birthday is the 25th. He’ll be 85 on Sunday.

These photos were taken in 1947 or 1948. My Mother is pregnant with my sister Vera in this photo and Vera was born at the end of February in 1948. My parents had just immigrated to the USA from Iran. That is my oldest sister Kathy in both these photos. Kathy was born in Iran in May of 1946.

I love this photo of Kathy on the swing in the park with all the people sitting on the benches in the background. The men and some of the women with hats on. This photo is also from the late 40’s.

Here’s a photo of Kathy and my Pop taken last night at a family celebration.

 

Saturday Morning Fun!

We started our beach walk at 6:00 AM today! The sun has not shown up in all it’s glory yet…

 

The colors in my photos change as the sun comes up over the hill.

We saw a lot of crabs today. The tide was not as far out and we couldn’t get as far on the sand this week.

The Pirates were afoot and we snuck by their ship.

Dear braved the surf while I took the higher road.

We finished our walk on the beach and were home by 7:45 AM. I then got ready to head out to San Marino, California to meet my nieces, sister, and mom for a birthday breakfast.

On the way to breakfast a car fully engulfed in flames was worth a photo! :0)

Julienne Restaurant in San Marino, California

My sister Kathy and her daughter Michelle

The sisters, Michelle and Melissa

My niece Debbee and me

My Mom

I decided on the Earl Grey Tea. Look at that pretty little bag the tea leaves come in.

A Gruyere omelette with scallions and avocado and rosemary potatoes.

Me, my mom, and my sister Kathy

Kathy and her daughters. Happy Birthday Kathy.

And yes it is hot in Southern California today. This was the hottest my outside temp registered when I hit Woodland Hills. (109 degrees)  Notice that I’m standing still in traffic so no one was in danger when I took this shot. We’re breaking records today. Thankfully it is a lot cooler than Woodland Hills in our town…