Top Gun

Our Top Gun Photos....

santa has his ways of checkin up on you

we had a very magical moment on saturday! i was standing in the front doorway talking to my neighbor and what to my wandering eyes should appear.....santa claus delivering mail at 5pm! what a treat. i hollered for vanessa...away to the window, she flew like a flash, gazing in sheer amazement. santa saw her and waved..her eyes were huge...MY eyes were huge. she ran to the front door and stood with me.

He was dressed all in blue, from his head to his foot,
and his clothes were all clean and he even wore boots.
A bundle of mail he had flung on his back,
and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes--how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He gave us a ho ho ho and a warm friendly wave
and off on his route, the 57 degree weather he must "brave"!!
Santa came to check up on us here
in good ol san diego...where were his reindeer?

But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he walked out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

an ol' friend

so last night matt got a chance to meet a little bit of idaho. one of my dearest friends whom i have wonderful memories of, was in san diego on business AND had time to hang out. matt has already had the opportunity to meet aleeza (my partner in crime)...but last night we hung out with ryan white...who was my first REAL highschool boyfriend! we had dinner and talked...we went out for drinks and talked...we went to the KC barbeque (where top gun was filmed) had a beer, talked and laughed our butts off!! i was so happy that matt had a chance to meet ryan and ryan had a chance to meet matt! like i said...a little peice of idaho. smile. oh...mom. dad. chris. cliff. ryan says "hi"
such a fun time! ill post the pictures we all took at the top gun bar as soon as i get them!
in the mean time, here are some fabulous reminders how gorgeous fall is...

racking and dry-hopping

this is called racking....moving the fermented beer (wort) into another glass carboy...you filter out the sludge with a mesh bag and a "racking cane" (used to siphon out the brew).
then we drop a bag of hops in to the brew and let it sit for a week or two. we will be bottling hopefully next wednesday, so that we can take some up to the folks house for christmas! half way there!! so far it taste very grapefruit-y(that is the chinook hop)...quite hoppy...but thats how we like our beer here in the mann household. our favorite beer isnt called "pure hoppiness" for nothin'!

christmas decor

sax-a-ma-phone

we received our first christmas gifts in the mail yesterday. they were from my grandma cay and grandpa leroy...
i opened up the boxed and inside were two wrapped gifts. one for matt and i and another for vanessa. vanessas had specific instructions to open a few days before christmas. she has been trying to 'break into' her gift...and needless to say she has NOW been successful.
this morning she opened up the gift....a gold santa claus holding a saxophone...plays a jazzy version of 'santa claus is comin to town'...she LOVES IT.
so now, i have to call my grandma let her know....oops. that singing santa is gonna get some mileage, that is for sure!!!
matt was JUST saying yesterday....'ya know jen, people are gonna start buyin vanessa loud toys...cause WE but loud toys for others...'
he is going to laugh when he sees/hears....sax-a-ma-phooooone santa!!!!!
thank you grandma! thank you grandpa!!!
xoxo

santa claus

santa claus

so we went christmas shopping last night. it was about 3pm.....it was nice.
we got all of our shopping done except for a couple people. one of those people is matts brother who lives in japan. he has been there for two years teaching english. so will be getting him something light weight...like a shirt. while out and about we saw santa claus. first off....to even get vanessa excited about leaving the house to go shopping (what two year says "go go shoppin'") i told her we were going to go see santa claus....she grabbed a hat, ran towards the door and was more than ready.....shouting words that sounded like 'santa claus'.....
as we made it through the mall....what did our wandering eyes see? a sleigh...empty. santa was across the way getting coffee.
vanessa was sooooo excited to see where santa "should" be. she said "wheres santa claus"...i pointed to the coffee shop....and she just stood there. disbelief.
mouth open, eyes big....she slowly waved. he waved back......
i asked her if she wanted to go see him....her feet where like 50 pound weights. would not move. in fact, she was done. she said "no".
we continued our shopping and occasionally ask "would you like to go see santa claus?" quickly she would respond "no".
it was starting to look like 6pm....EVERYONE was christmas shoppin'....and the line for santa claus was quite long. we stopped to wave bye-bye. and watched other children talk, laugh, hug, take pictures with santa claus....she just sat in her cart... mouth open, eyes big.
i think what it came down to was....I wanted the santa claus picture. vanessa was happy keepin her distance...observing. which she is rather good at.
so, next year!!! (thank goodness i didnt buy christmas cards where you had to insert a picture. i was totally thinking i was going to use the coveted santa calus photo)

vanessa pictures

pictures

This is MY (Jenny's) very First HOMEBREW....Five gallons of IPA. I used Cascade, Chinook, and will be dry-hopping it with Centennial Hops. We'll see how it turns out in a few weeks. I might end up with five gallons of crap...who knows. But i am very excited. We will be bottling this, rather than hooking it up to our kegerator. Once I get better, THEN we will attempt it.

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