year-end 2018

Romie turns  one (Dec ~7, 2018)

PJ's Christmas stockings (with a few add-ins, including NOC-work) are aging well

of course we went to Richardson's for lunch

of course we went to Parlor for dinner

gathering at San Juan

gathering with Stern family

SF crew heads home (one member injured in boisterous badminton battle)

ringing in the new year with Five Crowns

year-end 2017

random T'giving day scenes

2017 Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's cycle was a fun follow-on to the year's full calendar.

ASU tailgating (T'giving weekend)

With all the travels earlier in the year, there were less days during the holidays when we all were together in Arizona.  A plus:  Sreedhar and Janu were still in Arizona to help us observe Thanksgiving.

Sreedhar took the lead in preparing a pretty amazing meal - bittersweet to be using
recipes from his wife - PJ assists with dessert - this was a wonderful evening (2 December 2017)

PJ's handiwork looks as good as ever

Ernest Gales holding Roman Gales - nice!  Christmas Day.  Creche in background.

Closing out a wonderful 2017 and/or welcoming 2018.

year-end 2016

Another year-end, another epic round of holiday doings and fun.

Kerry arrived late on Friday, December 16.  Initial focus was on some tasks for K&L wedding - coming soon! - quite a bit of prep work was accomplished - some vendor meetings on Saturday, for example, attended by those doing the actual prep work.  Also on Saturday:  bridal shower hosted at Nedda and Paul Jr.'s place with Nicole overseeing things in her matron-of-honor role.  Boys weren't invited but we were given to understand that a good time was had by all.  Patrick arrived by Sunday, so after that just waiting for Luis to hit town.

Kerry's shower (Nedda & PJr's place) (12/17)

Shower fanciness!  (12/17)

There were some K&L wedding prep activities that I did help with, if that's the right word:  food tasting at Bianco's over lunchtime on Monday, December 19, and another food tasting at Fuego Bistro on Friday, December 23.  Most all of us as available joined for both events - very optimistic that wedding guests are going to love this stuff.

Tasting crew doing careful work at Fuego Bistro (thanks, Jeff!)  (12/23)

Then there was a major development - at request of Chris, PJ arranged a ring-shopping expedition to Wesley's in old town Scottsdale - this took place surreptitiously (at least as far as Dharma was concerned) on Sunday, December 18.  With a return visit to pick up the final product after Bianco's tasting on Monday.  This was exciting, and sneaky, and the most excellent news.  CPG came up with a truly beautiful ring.  Also on Sunday night:  book club at 706 to discuss Nicole's choice:  Gilead.  And eat some good food etc., with a white elephant gift exchange.  Nice night.

Shopping at Wesley's!  (Note EPG in mirror.)  (12/18)

Big decision, fine result.  (12/18)

On Tuesday, December 20:  we all gather at Brophy Chapel for the Christmas concert by the Phoenix Chorale - third year in a row - joined by Alison and Graham this time - really a quite excellent program, and the group sounded great per usual (though this remains my favorite Phoenix Chorale concert).  We walk over to "Hula Tiki" after, which fit the bill perfectly; drove EPG's car home as the young folk weren't quite ready to shut it down when we were.  Very fun night.

K, EPG, PJ did some pretty good work on tree-decorating.  The two elves didn't let
PJ get away without opening every decoration-storage-container, some more than once.
I like that the stockings PJ made are visible on fireplace in background here.

A different kind of gathering on Thursday, December 22:  some of us join Paul Jr., Cafiso and friends at a new place called the Wandering Tortoise.  We had a very fun evening, the place features quite excellent beers, and Michael was kind enough to share his mega-Stone bottle with our group (20th anniversary version recalling this trip).  For some reason the beers seemed kind of lethal but we all survived; late food at Deluxe.  As mentioned - December 23 was a fun tasting at Fuego - then the young folks spent the evening catching up with friends in Tempe.

Wandering Tortoise provided a fine evening (12/22)

Now it's Saturday, December 24 - for PJ and me, our first order of business in late morning is picking up Luis from the airport - now all are in town and everything is official!  Kerry works with Chris on a multi-layer packaging deception for the engagement ring - Layers of Misdirection.  In the afternoon we head up to Desert Ridge - saw the next Star Wars Movie ("Rogue One") - enjoyed the outing.  Even if rain was pouring down.  We eat some of the marvelous appetizer selection (courtesy PJ and POC), play pool, eventually get word that [K's wrapping job finally had been overcome and] Chris and Dharma were officially engaged - yay!  Dinner is at the Gladly (Richardson's had been booked by somebody else, so a change in venue); this works out really well.  It's such a great group and always nice to gather on Christmas Eve; two plus elements this year:  (1) very nice to have Luis with us for Christmas Eve/Christmas for the first time; (2) very nice to have the newly-engaged couple (it's exciting to share the experience so close to the actual moment).  (Plus Cafiso came through with a couple fine bottles of wine complete with "Capuso" tag.)  Then back to the house for a session of gift-giving - fun, nice, thoughtful; including Grandma's peanut blossom cookies complete with chocolate stars (courtesy NRG).

Christmas Eve at the Gladly.

Looks official!!

Sunday, December 25 - PJ makes some fine breakfasts; POC, NOC, EPG and me go hiking over on west end of Shea, lovely day (if a bit on the cool side).  Then a true feast of appetizers and marvelous beers for tasting - the beer shoppers did strong work, as did the appetizer chefs.  As the afternoon proceeds PJ leads the cooking effort leading up to dinner.  Saeed and Mina stop by; laughs and chatter.  Dinner was pretty amazing stuff.  There was a new board game - involved drawing things - this was fun and kept us amused until quite late.

Christmas Day hiking.

Appetizers and tastings with this crowd (12/25).  Great way to build an appetite for supper.

Bad luck for me, I was hit pretty hard by a cold overnight; otherwise Monday, December 26 was quite delightful - everyone enjoyed being a little less scheduled.  Games, a jigsaw puzzle, great leftovers, more appetizers.  All but me go over to a party at Mary Beth Stern house in the evening.

Old school entertainment.

And that was pretty much it for such a nice break - PJ back to work Tuesday morning; Kerry and Luis fly back to VA; at least Patrick was able to stick around for a few more days, so that was nice.

Working on the mini-tree with my friend 
(downsizing it seems like a good idea 
given pool table and everything 
else going on in the room).

Christmas concert . . .

We started off the holidays right – a most enjoyable concert attended by PJ, just-arrived EPG, and me.  This was the Phoenix Chorale’s Christmas concert – at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Phoenix on Saturday evening, December 20.

Some reasons for attending:

• We've been big fans of the Phoenix Chorale for quite a while (see for example, this discussion of perhaps my most favorite concert).
• We know or have sung with several current and former members; also, director Charles Bruffy conducted portions of this Chanticleer event.
• The concert featured Christmas music arrangements by Ola Gjeilo – we like his stuff, he is a regular arranger-composer for the Phoenix Chorale, plus he married our former Choral Union conductor.
• EPG had identified Gjeilo’s music earlier this year via youtube or however (per his own instincts, no recommendation from us, a neat more-than-coincidence in terms of overlapping taste).
• This group is really good.  There's a reason they've already won two Grammy awards.  Entirely a cappella performance, constant completely exposed lines with nowhere to hide unless the singers are just nailing the notes.  Which they do.

Yakking with Ola, post-concert.

Gjeilo did a Q&A before the concert – quite interesting to hear him discuss the challenges of coming up with fresh arrangements for songs that have been arranged literally thousands of times.  (Occasionally we could remember snippets of his thought process as we listened to the concert.  But mostly we just listened.)

There’s something about sitting there with your wife and son – in a darkened church – every seat taken, everyone entirely focused on the performance – listening to Christmas music – especially the familiar-warm carols! – the music moves and floats above and around and through the church – in addition to appreciating the present one cannot help recalling other times and places and singers with these same lovely, reverent songs across the decades.

Who knew Christina Rosetti (of pre-Raphaelite eminence) wrote the lyrics for the so-lovely "In the Bleak Midwinter?"

The effect is pretty powerful, and builds as we go along.

By the time we get to the closing/climax of the concert – four Gjeilo arrangements of familiar Christmas carols – it's of course difficult to use words to describe this portion but EPG was kind enough to find the audio tracks for these songs  that very night (very nice online versions, very similar to what we heard at the concert).  So I’m going to post two of the songs here (I added a photo or two to support posting the audio tracks via youtube; this is a common method but new for me, and I should re-post later with more photos, or not).

First song:  “Away in a Manger” – all in all a pretty simple arrangement (if anything like this can be considered so).  But Gjeilo enhances the melody line immeasurably by adding some gorgeous/wistfulness-inducing movement beneath it (via beautiful mostly hummed chord progressions).  I think it’s just fantastic:



Next was my clear-cut favorite of the evening - The First Nowell.  Very similar technique via the use of the underlying chord progressions.  But the soprano soloist’s descant line (if I'm using that term correctly) at the very beginning foreshadows much to come.  Listen for it against the male soloist as he starts into the second phrase of verse two.  Verse three might be (OK it definitely is) my favorite – Gjeilo alters  the melody (sung by the sopranos) ever so slightly – the men hum below (a basso continuo effect I think), the alto line moves so-warmly against the soprano-melody, then the solo soprano descant lifts and floats as the verse proceeds. . . after the “chorus” section of this verse three I was actually pretty worried that the song might be ending - doesn't it sound like it might?  But to our relief Gjeilo gives us verse four - entrusting the melody to the soprano soloist (with plenty else going on in the other voice parts)!  Hard to describe the effect in the church that eve as all these song-elements float around and enchant us, the oft-ethereal female voices evoke the 1st Christmas angel-singers about which the carol is written after all, the concert is winding down, memories flicker, and at that point the audience, certainly me, was let’s say emotionally ready, or vulnerable, or something, for just this kind of Christmas-song-moment – well, see what you think:



[And note that the arrangement returns full circle to the solo soprano descant at the very end.]

Chorale Christmas concerts always end with a crowd sing-along of Silent Night - my little wife's favorite - everybody sings and this was very lovely and I think of many things including David Clark Isele's beautiful ND Glee Club arrangement and Veronica Dockendorf Gales earnestly singing this with her grandchildren on the St. Joe hill farm 50+ years ago (including original German Stille Nacht verses once Sister Doris had taught these to we then grade-schoolers).

After chatting a while with singers and composer, we three moved onto a fine and quite late dinner, with thorough concert-rehash, at the St. Francis on Camelback Road.  And EPG (our chauffeur for the evening) played these very tunes for us in the car, all the way home.  Which was important and good because the replay for this sort of thing is best commenced in the exact moment.

Twas yet another fine+ event.

Year-end 2012

As in several previous years - I don't seem to post much stuff in the last month or so of the year.  Mostly because of the typical year-end rush - work, visitors, holidays, fun.  Or something.

Thanksgiving turkey in danger.

This year felt more rush-y than most; hard to compare from year to year, but probably also more fun.  Some stuff that happened:

Herman in danger?

1.  Thanksgiving break (extended version).  If I'm remembering correctly, Patrick and Kerry showed up the weekend prior, and Kerry was able to stick around through almost all of the week after (per next paragraph).  Typical fun, wonderful Thanksgiving cooking, etc.  Nicole and POC back in Chicago for the holiday.  Kerry's visit was a sneaky surprise, well executed.

Hmmm.  Coloring contest, 4th place winner.

2.  CPG goes to the doctor(s).  CPG had his long-awaited jaw rework performed on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.  It was a big process but all seems to have gone very well indeed.  Kerry stuck around to support her big bro.  She and PJ slept overnight in CPG's hospital room two straight nights (spartan accommodations at best).  K helped PJ do some home nursing, then PJ took over; I didn't do much except a few things while PJ was away (next paragraph).  CPG set himself up on a couch, complained remarkably little, eventually got back to eating somewhat normally.  Success.

Nursing (or is it camping?) team settles in for CPG sleepover(s).  Yup, that's all of their bedding.

3.  PJ goes to Chicago.  Second weekend of December:  PJ traveled to Chicago and helped Nicole box up the stuff in the condo.  They visited some of the local restaurants, etc.  Reportedly got a lot done.

Crossing the U.S.A.; steely resolve in evidence.  Like the pioneers.  Inspirational.

4.  Holiday concert.  ASU Choral Union performed its holiday concert on the second Sunday in December - very good crowd at Gammage (it's been a few years since we did our Christmas concert there).  We did a version of "In the Bleak Midwinter" that I really liked.  Also liked our version of "In Dulci Jubilo."  Concert was good.  (But I had zero fans in attendance, between illness, travel, work commitments.)

5.  Christmas break (extended version).  Kerry and Patrick again were able to arrive early and stay late - nice!  We didn't decorate the house (again) but may do so next year.  (K did put a goofy Rudolph type mat outside the front door, however.)  Christmas Eve dinner at Beckett's Table - worked out well.  Our cooks did a great job on Christmas dinner.  PJr/Nedda arranged Suns tickets for two nights in the GT box, fun.  MB hosted a dinner one of the nights after Christmas.  Steve, Laura, Gavin Buck stopped by a couple times.  Etc., no doubt I'm forgetting a lot.

CPG at townhouse on
Washington St. 

6.  Movies.  Went to the theater with groups twice - unusual for PJ and me, we haven't been to the theater since this one.  Saw "The Hobbit" - first of three parts, Peter Jackson does a very fine job with these things.  And I like 3-D.  Saw "Les Miserables" - I think this version really worked.  But I'm not very objective about this musical.

POC admiring kitchen/dining area.
Washington St. townhouse.

7.  POC and Nicole arrive from Chicago.  POC (with Kent) took a three-day joyride in a rental truck full of the condo furniture, arriving mid-day 12/29.  "GroupMe" updates kept us informed.  Nicole (with Erin) flew in on 12/28.  Poised to move (with CPG) into a quite delightful townhouse right at 7th St and Washington in downtown Phoenix.

Drybar'd for NY Eve.

8.  CPG and POC move downtown.  While POC was on his joyride and the ladies were lunching at BJ's, we were working 12/29 to pack up CPG's stuff at 11419.   On 12/28 we also were dealing with Nicole's remaining stuff at 11419 (K was useful with this).  Rented a truck on the morning of 12/29 and got most of the stuff out of 11419, in truck (lots of help from EPG and Pat H) or carloads.  PJ set up the townhouse kitchen, yeoman effort.  This will be a great place for them to live.  It was quite fun for the nine of us to work on this project together (with assist from Pat H).  Lots of work, rapid move-in.  It is exciting to have them finally settling into AZ (though Nicole has a bit of work wrap-up remaining in Chicago).  

9.  House to ourselves.  Mark it down:  12/29/12 was the first day since 5/8/81 that PJ and I had all of our kids living outside our house and paying their own rent.  We believe this is a permanent arrangement.  (12/30/12 was a big cleaning day for us, as you might expect.  And then we hosted the entire group for a PJ-prepared spaghetti dinner that same evening.)     

10.  New Year's.  Dinner on New Year's Eve at Mary Beth's with a small group, very nice.  Tom Lordan discussed his upcoming trip to Miami for ND's national championship game with Alabama.  Next-gen had a nice time at townhouse and "Copper Blues."  They showed up surprisingly early on 1/1.  Had some kind of nice chicken dinner for everyone at night.  Patrick drove back to Santa Monica evening of 1/1.  Kerry left 1/2.  Nicole left 1/3. 

Ready for a night on the town, or something.  NY Eve.

All nice as can be (other than those departures) (and that 2012 went by too quickly).

Onto 2013 . . .

Christmas loot

This turned out well!  My siblings have organized an annual Christmas gift exchange, going on for some years now.  PJ and I had the good fortune to be on the receiving end from Carol (and Jim) for Christmas 2011.

Well, so what if the stuff arrived at the end of January - it was worth the wait.  Photo (click to enlarge, per usual) shows most of the goods - Nome-roasted coffee and vanilla-oatmeal soap(!) from some MN operation, for starters.

And then the handmade stuff:  a Christmas ornament (featuring some sort of Nome beach-rock hanging from the bottom; a crocheted (I think) something-or-other type of wash cloth; and, finally, the pièce de résistance :  "I knew this place" - a hand-made book featuring a series of photos from EJ Gales's St. Joe hill-farm.  Most of the photos were taken in recent years by Carol or Jim; others photos date back to my childhood, or all the way back to EM Gales's childhood - yes, this is effective.  A vibrant farmhouse to a deteriorated relic (and now burnt down) over the course of, say, 100 years?  Many, many memories for me - "place" mattered.  This book required a lot of work - what a fine gift.

My only concern with the book relates to the cover - it is a fabric intended to evoke the farmer's favorite outfit, the "overall" - great idea perfectly suited to the theme - but if I handle the book too much (a genuine risk), will fingerprints start to show?

One more gift box still to come, we understand.

Definitely a great sibling-gift; I've received a number of fine ones; actually had started a post over at this soon-to-be-revived website on some old-school games etc. received at Christmas from CCG a year or two back.

Nicole + POC in AZ (December 15-18)

 We enjoyed a quick holiday visit from Nicole and POC - they arrived Thursday evening (fortunately for them, in time for a wondrous chicken saltimbocca meal courtesy of PJ).  They brought some Christmas gifts along (and all in all the gift-giving process was more exciting than anticipated); some gifts were from their South African honeymoon, including a "cape of good hope" t-shirt for me (which is quite fine since I do like to think about that particular spot).

Friday evening they treated us (including Nedda and MB) to dinner at a place we've been wanting to try - Beckett's Table - this was a delightful experience.  Also the only point during the weekend during which we took photos.  Highlights included watching a hobo get disavowed by POC and chucked out the door; best-in-show meal = pork osso bucco; good AZ IPA; s'mores ("deconstructed") for dessert featuring bacon dipped in chocolate (as our spokesmodels display in photo).  Nice!


Saturday was a nice day - looked at South Africa photos and videos; visitors showed up for lunch (and the picture show); Saeed and Mina stopped over in early evening for an enjoyable session with drinks and snacks; then went to the annual Steiner Christmas party.

Sunday - NFL red zone; some errands; some zoning out; PJ came up with a delightful pork roast dish with a tomatillo or whatever sauce that needs to get into our regular rotation, it was so good it may take over my birthday menu.

Then an airport run, and we'll look forward to the next visit.

Does this count (as decorating)?

Due to the recent somewhat disorganized state of our house (and perhaps a bit of laziness, at least on my part), we have refrained from putting up Christmas decorations for the last couple years.

However:  we do have excellent neighbors who, among other positive traits, decorate quite nicely for the several holidays.

And this year:  a very nice ornament appears, clearly on our property.  Making me grateful for the gratis-decoration.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas music . . . it's that time of year . . .

I think this medley is useful if one is looking for that Christmas "spirit" - it's from ASU Choral Union 2007 holiday concert (some photos here).  I like it, especially the "Lo, How a Rose" segment.  

But it's all quite nice, and a good way to get into the season.

Must have had same penmanship teacher

Christmas card envelopes for 2010.

Top version is from my mother.

Bottom version is from my godmother.

The 1930s penmanship instruction apparently has stayed with them; perhaps somehow augmented by genes or environment (notice how family members sometimes have similar handwriting?)

As always, click to enlarge.

Christmas 2010

There were lots of nice moments in Christmas 2010 . . .

1. PJ did lots of prep, including baking: cranberry bread, chocolate cake, etc.

2. Kerry and Luis arrive evening December 16 (Thursday). Among other fine activities: lots of euchre games. Luis (my partner) = quick learner, deliberate player, undaunted by simulated snores from the competition. We won more than our share.

3. Ray and Linda Christmas party on December 18 (Saturday) - food was better than ever, enjoyed the conversation, even did a bit of Christmas caroling. So that was nice. Fancy dinner at home Sunday evening following NFL red-zone and associated fun throughout the day.

4. Postino's lunch on December 20 (Monday). Including Kerry, Luis (host), PMG, PJ, CPG. Always nice to have a small pitcher at Monday lunch, even if it was Hoegaarden.

5. Nicole and POC arrive late evening December 21 (Tuesday).

6. Constant running around for several days by Nicole, POC, Kerry and PJ dealing with various wedding prep matters - I hear they made a lot of progress.

7. Bridal shower hosted by Linda on December 22 (Wednesday). I hear they all had a very fine time. Ray and I joined would-be bowlers (CPG, EPG, PJr, POC, Luis, Alex, Richard) during their $4 pitcher warm-up at Uncle Sam's; then the two of us had dinner (and Bosteel's Tripel Karmeleit) at Delux. Came back home to video game hell as the bowling idea had been thwarted by "league night." Then bridal shower folks showed up for a recap.

8. Dinner at Mary Beth's place on December 23 (Thursday) - nice per usual - pork roast, creme brulee (chocolate), card playing, fun. And Herman was there. PJ and I came home after, and the rest of the folks went down to Tempe.

9. Christmas Eve (Friday) - perfect weather. Had nice basketball games down at the park, followed by conversation in the house (with Steve Buck in attendance for awhile). Did a preliminary demo of iMemories family videos, played even more euchre, went to dinner at Rokerij.

10. Poor PJ had to work on Christmas Day. But this left the field open for others to cook - and they did so with great success. Including KHG with cheesecake (photo), POC and NMG with appetizers (including some POC-family specialties), CPG with most everything else (including a wondrous prime rib (sponsored by POC)). I spent lots of time trying to figure out my new coffee maker (photo). Had dinner after PJ gets back from work. Opened some nice beers (PJ gifts to me) before dinner (award winners were the Charles V and Bosteel). Started watching another round of the iMemories family videos (featuring extended interview with EPG prior to his first day of kindergarten). Then switched to photos (using the throw-box hooked to TV and associated with my laptop). PJ and EPG (the workers) eventually had to peel off. Photos continue for the rest of us, with extended running commentary from the usual non-stop talkers. Finished; 2:15a; we must have spent four-five hours looking at this stuff. I had absolutely no idea it was so late (but then again a two-hour nap aids endurance). Fun night/morning.

11. December 26 (Sunday) = travel day; by late afternoon we had lost all our visitors. PJ and I go to the Village Tavern for dinner. Tired; with many excellent memories. We need to do a better job with photos.

2010 holiday concert notes (ASU Choral Union) (December 3, 4 and 5, 2010)

A few more notes about the holiday concert we (ASU Choral Union) performed with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra . . .

1. It definitely was a pops concert. Lots of variety: traditional, solemn, and playful carols; a sing-along; soprano soloist; dancers; youth choir; a humorous duet performed by the conductor and the soprano soloist.

2. The conductor was very effective at communicating with the audience, keeping the pace moving along, etc. All of this resulted in a very engaged audience, which was nice.

3. Some local dance company had put together dance performance items for several of the songs. Including a Nativity scene during one of the Enigma variations, plus some basic leg kicks etc. during a more upbeat portion. This worked (some trepidation at the rehearsal).

4. It was nice to have the opportunity to do a program more than once. Needless to say, the performance can improve with repetition.

5. Performances were Friday evening; Saturday afternoon; Saturday evening; Sunday afternoon. This gave us the opportunity to explore some downtown places. Went to Majerle's after the Saturday afternoon performance (Winterhook = good); also had dinner at Pasta Bar before the evening performance. Went to Hanny's for dinner on Sunday - but since it didn't open until 5, we ended up filling the time by having a drink at some other place down the street. This all was quite fun.

6. We appreciated that Laurel and Virgil (visiting AZ from IA per their typical winter pattern) made the trip downtown for the Sunday afternoon concert. We had a nice chat outside Symphony Hall (per photo).

7. Though all of this is incredibly nice, in the end it's about the music. For me in recent years, it feels like the Christmas season doesn't launch until the holiday concert rehearsal with the orchestra. Then I'm ready to go.