Sylvia's Scenario

I got another gift in the mail today and decided to blog about it as I sit here and drink my second cup.   My sister, Laurene, sent me some Chai tea on this Christmas Eve and it really hits the spot as I take a break from wrapping presents and preparing food for tomorrow.  It was a very pleasant surprise to receive in the mail today. Laurene made this same tea for us on  sister's weekend   over Memorial Day weekend.  I loved it then and I love now.  I love this Chai tea so much that I texted her and told her I wanted to put it on my blog.  I didn't realize it had such a story to go along with it so now I want to share the story on this Christmas Eve, a most appropriate time.   This should be another "guest blog" like  Aunt Velmas Waffle Cookies  but Sage isn't here to write about it. You see, she died of ovarian cancer in September 2013 at the age of 24.  Sage was my nephew's girlfriend, my nephew who is Laurene's son...

Our Japanese adventure continues with exploring the city of Yokohama where Nick and Sachiyo lived when Nick first started coming to Japan for work in 2011.  Nick gave us a detailed tour of the city our first day there and then we stayed over night at the Royal Park Hotel located in the Landmark Tower which is 73 stories. Yokohama is a large Japanese port and big tourist attraction, located just south of Tokyo, with lots of upscale shopping, restaurants, an amusement park, and museums like the Cup of Noodles Museum  where you can make your own recipe of a Cup of Noodles. The area of the Landmark Tower is built on re-claimed land in the 90's so everything is very new and modern. My favorite part was Chinatown which is Japan's largest Chinatown and one of the largest Chinatowns in the world with over 500 shops. We just happened to be strolling through Chinatown at lunchtime which is lucky for us because there is food ...

Goodbye 2012 and Hello 2013! We spent the last four days of 2012 celebrating the year's end in San Francisco My reward for completing  my list   and surviving the feasting.  San Francisco during the holidays is so beautiful and festive and full of so much to do and so much to eat! And we got our fill of all of it!   There is so much history  and tradition and we could feel it's presence everywhere we went. My highlight was going to the Nutcracker which I haven't seen in years. I loved the music, the costumes, the dancing…well, everything.  The venue was gorgeous, of course - the War Memorial Opera House…again... full of history.  It's where the United Nations began a very old and elegant place perfect for the Nutcracker with lots of nutcrackers on display. Being the tourists that we are, we had to buy one for a souvenir. This guy was just begging f...