Before I jump right into 2024 here are some leftover photos from our after Christmas family time. Three of us were under the weather but we managed to have good times in the midst.

Thanks to dear Auntie Lolo for taking all these photos. It was a nice finale to 2023.

Our son-in-law treated our daughter with an elegant dinner date for her birthday after they returned home from our Christmas time together. Well done, Andrew!

New Year’s Eve was quiet here, as usual. We had a wonderful church service. We came home and enjoyed a steak meal and we were in bed before midnight on the West Coast. We also put a pork butt in the slow cooker to make the recipe I posted on Saturday. We’ll enjoy that on New Year’s Day. I managed to ring in the New Year with folks on the East Coast of the US!

On New Year’s Day I enjoyed sitting with my coffee watching the annual Tournament of Roses Parade that has taken place in Pasadena, California since 1890. The parade is always held on January 1st unless the 1st lands on a Sunday. When it lands on a Sunday the Parade and Rose Bowl game are moved to the 2nd of January. During my thirty seven years of living in Southern California I only managed to go to the Rose parade a couple of times.

This was one of the times with a friend from Buffalo, New York and a friend from San Francisco. This photo is from 1971 or 1972.

Our own Washington Huskies from the University of Washington played in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day and we watched that game since we have 3 graduates of the University of Washington in the family. Greg also earned his Pharmacy degree from UW.

Greg was at the University of Washington as an older student from 1988-1992. We were able to acquire Rose Bowl Game tickets easily since he was a student. During his time at the University the football team had some of it’s most historic players and wins. The Huskies played against Michigan on January 1st 1992. We and 102,000 other people were at the game and our team won!

I’m happy to report the Huskies won the game and are off to the National Championship Game which will be played on January 8th in Houston. The last 50 seconds of the game were intense but they managed to hold on for the win! Yikes.