A Fascinating Read

Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly

Killing Kennedy is a fascinating book.  It goes through the three short years of John F. Kennedy's presidency with tidbits about Jackie and his various relationships, The Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crises, Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination.

It is very interesting, but it is not tedious and sleep inducing, in fact, I stayed up past midnight reading it.      I can see that Mr. O'Reilly would have been a fantastic history teacher, I couldn't wait to find out more. I wish it was longer and included more details, but I feel like I learned a lot and enjoyed the journey.  I'm going to read Killing Lincoln after The Gods of Gotham.  I hope Mr. O'Reilly writes many more books about great historical people.  Other authors could learn a thing or two about keeping the story interesting.  

LOVED this book, one of my all time favorites!

Park City

 On Michael's Birthday, we headed into town after dinner.  It was SOOO COLD!  The town itself was all lit up with lights in all the trees and lights strung across the streets.  It was a bit late but we still had fun taking pictures.

 HH and the kids skiied everyday (Michael snowboarded) and they had such a good time.  We saved some money by buying a 5 pack of lift tickets at Costco.

Michael and Delaney at the top of the mountain.

 The girls had fun, but had a hard time keeping warm.  It was really cold, but luckily, they had sunshine on most days.  It snowed once or twice on them.

If or when I return to the snow, I will have to buy some warmer clothes, a wool coat and regular boots just didn't cut it in this snowy climate.  I totally get all the furry boots and down jackets that I see all the time in the stores but never buy because it is so warm here in California.  

Park City/Deer Valley - Empire Pass Condo

A couple of days after Christmas, we loaded up the car and made the 12 hour drive to Park City for a week of skiing.  We stayed in our friends beautiful Condo in Empire Pass.  This condo was beyond luxurious.  Press a button and shades came down, the fireplace turned on and the floors heated.  This condo was also bigger than my home and uh, nicer!  The condo was also designed by Barclay Buttera. A Deer Valley ski lift was right out the back door and the condo association provided a shuttle on the hour to go into town and a service called Dial a Ride that would come and pick you up and drop you off anytime, no charge and no tipping allowed.  

The living room 

Fireplace and TV in the living room.

 Kitchen chalk full of Viking appliances and a great expresso machine. 

 The dining room.  I know that these big benches look so cool with this table, but they were awkward to sit in.  It was hard to scoot up to the table, it had to be a group effort - 1, 2, 3!

 The girls bedroom.

More of the girls bedroom.

Below was Michael's room.  Each bedroom had its own full bathroom.

 The Master Bath - the floors were heated and that huge shower was a steam shower too along with a big jacuzzi bathtub. 

 The Master Bedroom

 There was another bedroom that we didn't use and a personnel ski locker.  For one week, we were living the life.

Everyday when everyone left to go skiing, Daisy would wait with her eye on the door.  

This was an amazing condo and we loved it.  

Secrets of the Manor House

For all of you who love watching Downton Abbey, I think you will like this series by PBS about these famous castles and what went on in them.  The first one: Highclere Castle,  premiered last week right before Downton Abbey.  The story line of DA follows somewhat closely to that of the true history of Highclere.  The show recounts the past and gives you a glimpse into the current families lives.  I found it very interesting.  

Highclere Castle

(Downton Abbey)

Hampton Court Palace

The next scheduled Manor House is that of King Henry VIII.  It should be quite fascinating, given the scandalous relationship with Anne Boleyn and the fact that Henry made Cardinal Woolsey give the Palace to him.  It is one of my favorite places to visit in London, it is beautiful.

Chatsworth Castle

Chatsworth Castle is the third house on the list and there are many books about The Duchess of  Devonshire and the weird relationship between herself, her best friend and her husband.  Her best friend (who later married the Duke, had two children with him while living with them as a guest of the Duchess).   I've never been to this Castle/Manor house before but it is now on my list. By the way, the Duchess of Devonshire that I'm talking about above, was a Spencer by birth.  

Althorp

(The Childhood Home of Princess Diana)
This is the Earl of Spencer's home and the final resting place of Princess Diana.  This should be interesting.

Below is PBS' description of the show from their website:

The enormous popularity of period costume dramas set in the English countryside has led to huge interest in the real-life stories of the amazing homes that dot the landscape and often serve as the settings for these lush productions. This new five-part series explores four of the best-known and most-storied homes in England, and provides a primer for  understanding the inner workings of the British manor houses in the early 20th century, revealing the gorgeous décor and furnishings of the homes as well as the incredibly rich history of their occupants. Secrets of Highclere Castle  Home of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, this castle is best-known as the setting for the immensely popular drama Downton Abbey. Secrets of Henry VIII's Palace  Originally built for Henry VIII’s confidant, Cardinal Wolsey, this house is said to be haunted by the ghost of the executed Anne Boleyn. Secrets of Chatsworth  The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and home to his family since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549. Secrets of Althorp - The Spencers  Childhood home of Princess Diana, this estate is the family seat of the Spencers.

Christmas Dinner Tablescape

I realize I am a little late getting this tablescape up on the blog.  We left a couple of days after Christmas to go skiing in Park City (I don't ski, but my family does), and I totally forgot that I did not put these pics up.  

So here is my wintery Christmas table.  I've shared the centerpiece before, but I've now added the dishes and crystal.

 I used my daughter's Opal Innocence china along with some sparkly silver placemats from Pier One and some iron chargers from Horchow.  The chargers were brown initially, but I spray painted them white and I've enjoyed them ever since.  They really go with a lot of things.  The crystal is Waterford's Colleen Essence and the silver is Towle.

I've finally acquired all the red wine and water glasses, so next year I will concentrate on some champagne glasses.  I would like to mix it up a little and maybe get a different design, but we will see what HH thinks about that.  

 Enjoy!

Books I Read in 2012

I LOVE to read.

I LOVE bookstores.

I thought I would share the books I read in 2012 because I know that when you love to read, picking out a new book to read can be overwhelming; so many to choose from!

I love to go into bookstores and I'm usually attracted to a book by it's cover, but I have to pick it up, read the synopsis and read a little snippet before I'm sold.  This presents a problem when you own a kindle.  I love the ease of reading with the kindle, but it's harder to pick out books and I miss going to the bookstore.

One of my goals this year was to read ALL the Jack Reacher books. So this year I finished 10 books including the latest one.  I'm all caught up.

Anyway, here is the list:

1.  Deep Down

2.  Bad Luck and Trouble

3.  A Wanted Man

4.  61 Hours

5.  One Shot (one of my favorite Jack Reacher novels)

6.  Running Blind (another great Jack Reacher story)

7.  Without Fail

8.  Worth Dying For

9.  Second Son

----------------------------------First 9 books are all Jack Reacher by Lee Child-----------------------------------

10. The Night Circus (again; LOVE this book)

11. Life of Pi

12. Casino Royale (First James Bond book, I thought he seemed like a wimp in it.)

13. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (High School was not like this for me)

14. Lake

15. 16, and 17. Odd Interlude #1, #2, and #3 (loved these books by Dean Koontz)

18. The Human Stain

19. The Sixth Man

20. Odd Apocalypse (loved this book too)

21 and 22.  Fifty Shades of Grey and Darker (have not read the last one yet)

23. The Shoemakers Wife

24. War Brides

25. 11/22/63

26. The Mongoliad (didn't like)

27. French Women Don't Get Fat

28 Grave Peril

29. Alice in Wonderland

30. The Red Garden

31. The Hunger Games

Some books on my list for 2013:

Killing Lincoln

Killing Kennedy

Gone Girl

Ready Player One (My husbands favorite book of the year)

Champagne Punch

While looking through Southern Lady Magazine, I can across this recipe for a Champagne punch.  They called it "The Charleston", but when I tried to find it on line, I couldn't.  

We made this punch for cocktails on Christmas Eve and it was so good that we served it with waffles the next morning (a fresh batch).  

The Charleston 

from Southern Lady Magazine

4 cups pineapple juice, chilled

4 cups orange juice, chilled

1 cup vodka

1/4 cup grenadine

1 bottle Champagne (chilled)

1. In a large pitcher, combine pineapple juice, orange juice, vodka, and grenadine, stirring to combine.

2.   To serve, add Champagne, stirring gently to combine.  

Enjoy!