Day 249: Another Family Feast

Tonight we hosted a dinner with friends & family to celebrate some holiday cheer. I gotta hand it to my son Harrison who made from scratch, delicious ginger & carrot soup, and roasted a pork shoulder roast ... oh my goodness, so yummy! I made my mother's mashed potatoes and our favorite vegetable, brussel sprouts. Wow! What a dinner.

Pictured here is college boy Brandon with his Papa Joe.

I sipped my yummy champagne and Brian poured delicious wine for all. We had 12 teenagers and one pre-teen (our niece Esme).... can you imagine the energy in the house with all these teens. I of course LOVED it!

Pictured here are my gorgeous nieces Olivia (17), Esme (11) and Zoe (19)

I love the house being full of friends & family, especially the kids.... and I love entertaining. I spent days decorating the house to make it festive and it brings me great pleasure to have a warm and cozy home.

Pictured here are three of my favorite boys Son Harrison, good friend Ryan, and good friend Griffin. Love these boys!

And below is a picture of good friend Justin Ruder mowing on a yummy lamb chop that Harrison made for appetizers!

Between last night's dinner at Lawry's and tonight's beautiful party at home, it's beginning to feel like the holidays for me! And I'm lovin' it!

Day 231: A Long Day

Wow, today was a long day. Hubby Brian and teenager Spencer headed out at around 7:30 a.m. this morning to drive to Malibu High School. Spencer had a game at 10:00, had to be there by 8:30 a.m.

I stayed back with Harrison and pal Justin Ruder. All three boys had to be at the park by 4:30 for a 6 p.m. game. In between Brian spent the day in Palmdale doing an ACN presentation and met me at Clover Park in Santa Monica for the 6 p.m. game. (ACN is Brian's second business, launched just about one year ago).

In between I of course was at the market doing a large grocery run (I feel like that's what I do a lot to keep this house stocked!)

We did not leave the park tonight until 10:00 p.m.! I mean the park lights went out. It was ridiculous. Overkill at its best. Boys played 9 innings instead of the usual 7 innings and then I guess coach was so pissed at how they performed he made these kids at night, in the cold, run so many sprints, it was making my eyes spin.

And as if that wasn't enough he decided to punish the Team Captains for not acting more "like leaders" and made them run MORE sprints. One of the Team Captain's is my son Spencer. By 10 p.m. he had clocked 10 hours of baseball. I mean really, that's just over the top even for a die hard baseball Mom like me. I mean I wasn't sure if the Coaches were trying to punish the parents as well!

So here it is 10 p.m. on Saturday night and of course it's Los Angeles so every restaurant suitable to take 5 teenage boys, in dirty uniforms, to eat at was closed. And of course they were starving ... having been at the park since 4:30.

Well, guess what, we ended up at Carrows on Ocean Park Avenue (it's opened until midnight in case you ever need a joint to eat at opened late). It's a coffee shop like Norm's or Coco's.

Can I tell you it was the best way to end a very long day of craziness watching these teenagers mow on steak and chocolate crepes for dinner at 10:30 at night. I was just grateful they served wine and happily had a glass!

Life is never boring with teenagers or baseball that's for sure!