Champagne and OJ with a little shot of Grand Marnier is soooooooo goood! The GM just smoothes everything out. We also tried Champagne with Pom juice and GM....both good but I am a stickler for tradition, and like the Mimosa with GM best! As you can see, we had very fresh squeezed OJ to enjoy with the breakfast this Christmas morning. (Picked right out of our friends yard in Scottsdale)
I tried a new recipe this year for the potatoe part of breaky. I sliced some russet potatoes very thin, then heated some grapeseed oil in the pan and added fresh thyme from our winter garden 
My winter tomatoes are just looking good now!!!!So, place the potatoes around the pan in a nice little circle and then a little salt and pepper, and once they have browned nicely you can try and flip them!!! LOL. well, you can see that I am not that good at flipping spuds! Anyways, they are very tasty little crispy devils.
And then of course, Eggs Benny! So good and decedant! You know those traditions, can't break them or you know what!!!!
And of course, the most important tradition for me is the Christmas day motorcycle ride. GOTTA TELL YA, ALOT WARMER HERE THAN I AM USED TO!!!!! Loved it. Rode up to Frank Lloyd Wrights school of Architecture to have a look around and found that they were closed on Christmas day! Oh well, great ride for us! Left there and headed out to Fountain Hills and then west again to our little part of the world!
We got a lovely invite to longtime friends of Daniels for Christmas dinner and got a very nice treat. Great dinner and got to meet some new people. Here is Catherine and Rogers Christmas dinner table. They were very graceous hosts and have a lovely home. Good friends and such a nice family...Thank you Catherine and Roger.
Catherine on the left, "Martha Stewart" in the middle and myself!
ps: great kitchen too
more to come later....heading to Las Vegas on wedsday for a couple of days....
Happy Holidays to everyone!
This is one of my neighbors, Sister Carol Fleming. She was putting out her lights when I asked what they were called. She told me that this is a long time southwest tradition. People put out the luminaries to represent the lights that were put along the way to help Joseph and Mary find their way to the manger.
As you can see, she has the lights leading up to her very own manger in front of her house... 
They really do look lovely and get you in the spirit of Christmas.
A perfect southwest picture of Christmas Eve here in Scottsdale....much love and holiday wishes to all my family and friends. I love you. 
He let me get closer and closer and closer
And, then he started showing off for me...don't you just love the color of his head! In this picture it looks red but it is actually brilliant pink. And his chest is vibrant green.
To recap, we took posession on the 31st of Oct, and started work the next day. We cleaned up and trimmed up the trees.
The back yard after we had it cleaned up of all the doggy stuff. And tore down the exsisting broken down water feature turned fire pit... along with some fake grass and a pretty ugly pool surround.
The back yard once the new grass with irrigationand pool had been replastered. We also took down the fence but left it in case the new owners felt they needed it. The back yard is completely enclosed and lockable so, we thought it would look nicer without the extra fencing. Also, we had the concrete decking painted to match the pool and the paint on the house.
The old second bathroom. Look at the colors in there before YIKES!!!! We re-tiled the showers in both bathrooms as they were old and out dated. We kept the vanity in this bathroom. It looked good and after a good clean up, she was very nice indeed.
The living room from the front door. We kept the ceiling fans as they were really cool. We widened the doors in this room to give the illusion of openess....we wanted to take down the whole wall on the left but it was load bearing, and would have been too much to do both in time and in $$$. $$$ that we may not have made back....
The kitchen from the hallway that leads to the bedrooms....
Does anyone want to buy a house in a really nice area of Scottsdale?????? Just call Dan Rooney at Rooney Realty!!!! LOL
Lovely little girl in her christining oufit. She was baptized the saturday of the party as well.
And fitting to a spanish birthday party, was the pinata...Oh my gosh, the kids and adults all had such fun. There is a rope that is tied to the pinata. One man on one side and one on the other....when the kids come and try to hit the pinata open the men pull on either end to make the pinata jump and dance to make it more challenging to hit...
Kids from all ages are encouraged to hit at it and break it open to let all the candy inside come out....while a child is "at bat", the group was singing a verse from a song, and once the verse was done, that was the end of that childs turn.
And, to keep it warm (as they serve it all night) he places the soaked banana leaves in a cooler and then puts the yummy beef and pork into it. All of it is shredded to be served with corn tortillias.
After the baptizmal, the family goes back to the family home to enjoy some home made pezoles (don't know if I spelled it right) It is a yummy flavored broth with shredded beef, cilantro, fresh finely diced sweet white onions, and lots of fresh lime juice. I am sure that there is other ingredients but I am not sure what they are. I do know that this soup was very tasty....
So, the dinner was served by the family to everyone that was there...I would say there was about 35 people there including a ton of kids. Your dinner plate comes to you with a sweet tasting pasta salad, home made beans, and the yummy slow cooked shredded pork and beef. There is fresh finely chopped white onions, cilantro and key limes on the table to put on your meat. Then warm and very fresh corn tortillas. SO DARNED GOOD
And of course....tequila. Albert had asked Daniel if he drinks tequila and he said that he had, so when we got there, Albert brought out a nice bottle. He didn't have any, but I did!
They also cleaned up around the playset that I get to make new again...this is actually the view from the side of the house where we put a new block fence to and have added a wrought iron gate. It will be nice to see the kids playing and to be able to enjoy the Koi pond by just walking through the new gate.
The front yard has also been cleaned up and the trees trimmed to look better and to let lots of light in. I noticed today that the yellow rose bush beside the Koi pond is flowering now that it is getting light. So pretty.
On the inside, the new wires have been run to update the wiring, the pot lights in the kitchen have been put back in working order, and the old light fixtures have been removed and redrywalled. Also, where ever we opened up door ways needed to be fixed up. The interior walls here are kinda spackled, so where ever there was a repair or refurbish, they had to go over and respackle it. That's what this fellow is doing. 
This is the master bedroom that we opened up the small door leading to the masterbath and then to the hallway. The house was orginally built in 1960, so the house had a lot of small rooms and spaces. We wanted to bring it into this century, so we eliminated some of the doors that had no use and enlarged some to make the house appear to have a open concept.
We also guted the bathrooms. The tile that was in there originally was either too small for todays times or was UGLY. This is the new tile in the master bath....I like the accent tile in here. Lots of pretty different colors. Trust me, we are definately painting the whole inside too. Yuk on that orange!
This is the second bathroom. The shower seems quite small, so we put in larger tiles and added some accent and also raised the showed head up so that people over the height of 4 feet will be able to shower without bending down to rinse off!!!
That's all for now...Ciao