Christmas in Colorado (Saturday, December 24th, 2016)

The torch was passed this year for the first time, to the next generation.  Our oldest daughter and her husband hosted Christmas Eve dinner at their house and started the formation of some new traditions for the family.

We have always had a nativity under the Christmas tree at our house, but the new tradition is a kitty under the tree.  I like it!

We started out with the family gift exchange, which is always a lot of fun.

The longest running tradition is the reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  It started when our nephew (he's the oldest) was five months old, and has continued through the years; every year! We have now added our son (in-law), our nephews girl friend and our youngest daughter's boyfriend.  Our niece was on the phone since she couldn't be here in person this year.


Then we enjoyed a fabulous dinner of soup and sliders.  Oh my.... what a treat!

Some of the family had to leave to attend other events, but Steve and I had been invited to stay the night, so we had the opportunity to attend the Christmas Eve candle light service with our oldest daughter and her husband.  They usually attend services at a small satellite church near their house, but for Christmas, all of the services are held in the main church.  We have never attended a service at a mega church before, so this was new to us and a lot of fun.  The church was huge and had a lot to offer.

It was a really nice service, with pastors from all of the locations participating and making the service very special.

Once the candles were lit, it was a beautiful sight!

After the Christmas Eve service was over, we headed back to their house for a nice quiet evening, hanging out with the kids and our grand kitty.  

When we awoke the next morning, Santa had come and our grand kitty (recently neutered) must have been a good boy because his stocking was full of treats.

The passing of the torch this year was a big milestone for our family.  All of the kids are growing up and starting their own lives. It is a very mixed blessing, knowing that they are all doing well, but also realizing that life is changing and so are traditions!

Gluten Free Gnocchi; A Total Success! (Friday, December 23rd, 2016)

Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend love to experiment with recipes and try to re-create things they have had somewhere else. They recently came up with a recipe for pink sauce that they knew we would love, so they wanted to make us dinner.  The only problem was that we can't find a gluten free pasta that we really like, and we wanted her to be able to enjoy dinner as much as the rest of us.

So our daughter and I decided to try our hand at making gluten free gnocchi.  Since it is made mostly with potato, we thought that it might turn out better than regular pasta.  So this afternoon, we found a recipe (on the internet of course-glutenfreebaking.com), and got all of the ingredients.  Like with everything gluten free, the fear is that it will not hang together. 

We ended up making a few changes, which is common for us, and when we got to the section where it told us to roll the dough into logs and then cut the logs into bite sized pieces, we realized that was a pipe dream, and decided to roll the dough out about 1/3 of an inch think and then cut it into bite sized pieces.  This may not be conventional for gnocchi, bu neither is gluten free, so we're going with it.

Here is how our recipe ended up:

2 lbs Russet potatoes, washed (they are a high starch potato)
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour 
2 large eggs
at least 2 tsp salt
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Bake the potatoes until tender, then cool (overnight works well)
Grate the cooled potatoes using the small grater, into a large bowl.
Whisk together rice flour and sweet rice flour, set aside.
Whisk together eggs and 1 tsp salt, pour over the potatoes.
Work the egg mixture into the potatoes with forks until it begins to hold together.  Mixture will be sticky.
Begin working the flour mixture into the potatoes a little at a time.
Use some of the flour mixture to flour the counter.
Once the potatoes begin to form a dough, turn it out onto the counter and begin to knead by hand.  
Continue to add flour mixture until the mixture is firm and not sticky.
Divide the dough into eighths, and work with one piece at a time, covering the remaining dough with a wet cloth.
Roll the piece of dough out to about 1/3 inch thick, then cut into bite size pieces (about 1/2 in by 3/4 in), and roll each piece over a fork or gnocchi board.
Transfer the gnocchi onto a lightly floured (using gluten free flour) cookie sheet.
Formed gnocchi can be either frozen or cooked right away.
To cook, boil a large pot of salted water.  Divide the gnocchi in half, cooking each half until they float.  Transfer cooked gnocchi to a bowl for serving.

We then put the cut pieces on a cookie sheet dusted with rice flour. We were experimenting with the sizes of the pieces as well, and decided that the size didn't matter for cooking them, but the smaller pieces were nicer to eat.

We boiled them in small batches, fearing that a large batch of them would fall apart more easily, but I think we would have been OK in larger batches.

When we took them out, they were still intact!  Yay!  Another gluten free success story!

So we enjoyed a fabulous dinner of gluten free gnocchi with pink sauce!  

I think this should become a tradition before Christmas every year. It was a fabulous night spending time with these two great kids. Love them!  And the gnocchi turned out great.  It is so nice to have a pasta that tastes like the real thing!

Since We've Been Home (Saturday, December 17th, 2016)

Life has slowed down a bit since we've been home, but we've still had some fun events to reflect on.  

Shortly after we arrived home, we received an invitation to attend our son (in law's) promotion ceremony to 1st Lieutenant.  It gave us a chance to see both of them and to celebrate his accomplishments. 

Then we celebrated Thanksgiving with the family, a great time for all of us.  It's always nice when we can get as many of the kids together as possible. 

And over the Thanksgiving holiday, we got to meet our new grand kitty Albert.  He is the greatest addition to our family.  My whole life I have been allergic to cats, but somehow, so far, I am not allergic to him.  I sure hope it stays that way!  We don't get to see him as often as we'd like, but he is adorable!

I've also been doing some stitching on a Christmas tree skirt for our oldest daughter and her husband, but it definitely isn't going to be done this year.

But the biggest change at this point is how cold it has gotten.  Nine inches of snow and seven degrees today.  It's quite a shock from the temperatures in South East Asia.

I don't think Steve is having much fun today, but I'm in the toasty house just taking pictures.  Not too bad for me!

Final Evening in Hanoi, Vietnam (Saturday, November 19th, 2016)

From the Hanoi Hilton, it is about 2 miles back to our hotel, so we decided to make our way through town on foot to have some time to process all that we had seen. 

Our first stop was the Hanoi Tower, right next door to the Hoa Lo prison.  It has a small shopping center on the first floor that we decided to check out.

Already decked out for Christmas!

Our first stop was the super market, because we love Asian super markets! And they're really fun to visit with Chris and Helen bacause they acually know what to do with some of this stuff.

Chris gave us a quick lesson on rice noodles.  He showed us the different kinds and talked us through how to cook each one.  Thanks Chris!

We probably spent close to an hour in the market, just looking, and even buying a few things, before heading back out into the mall. We all decided it was time for a Vietnamese coffee (because we all have a slight addiction), so we stopped in the food court in the middle of the mall.

After enjoying our coffees and the company of great friends, our next stop was a very small market right next to the Hanoi Tower. Quite a different feel than the Hanoi Tower.

We headed back to the lake, which was closed to all vehicle traffic because it is Saturday, so we were able have have a leisurely stroll. It made it so safe and easy to walk around and enjoy the sights of the area.  They even had these cute little cars for rent for the kids.

Then a leisurely stroll by the lake.

A woman pulling taffy.

Helen being her adorable self!

It's hard to believe how quiet the streets were with no motor bikes.

We stopped at a little place called Wrap and Roll for lunch and made our way to their upstairs dining room.  Again, it was a tight spiral staircase leading to the second floor.  This restaurant had very clean indoor restrooms on the second floor, and a dumb-waiter type of elevator for moving food between the kitchen on the first floor and the patrons on the second floor.  We had a very nice, huge lunch for about $8 per person, before rolling ourselves out the door to continue on our walk.

Our waitress came over and helped us put our sauce together.

After lunch we made our way through several more crowded market places before returning to our hotel.  As we spent time in some of these markets, all we could think of was fire code!  This can't possibly be safe, but it's fun to experience, so we just always made sure we knew where the closest exit was. : )

One of the nice vendors offered me a seat on her kindergarten chair. She was so nice that I couldn't say no.

I took a picture of this parking structure because I knew we would be coming back outside tonight for the night market.  So just remember...parking structure by day.

And check out these electricians working on the power lines.

We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for our farewell dinner.  It was at a little restaurant near our hotel called 5 Spice.

Our fabulous tour guide, Papa Khanh.

The farewell dinner is such a nice chance to reflect on the trip and make sure we get a chance to say goodbye to everyone before we leave, especially our gracious tour guide who has put up with us for the past three weeks.

Then back to the night market, the social hot spot of Hanoi.

Here is another picture of the parking structure from earlier today. It is now a food court, hopping with cooks and patrons.

Our final stop for the night was our favorite little dessert place just down the street from our hotel.  This young girls works here every night, and is such a joy to be around.  We came here for dessert just so we could see her.  They also make a great flan that is hard to pass up.  Not too sweet, just right!  Here she is dishing some up for us.  

We have made so many great memories, with so many great people on this trip!  I'm sure we will cross paths with several of them again as we plan future trips to far off places.  Farewell Vietnam!