Thanksgiving at Our Homeby Angie
30 Nov 2008
10:11 am0
This was our first year to host Thanksgiving in our own home, with family coming into town to join us! Roger & Kathy flew in with Dallyn (whose Phantom touring company has brought him to San Fran this month) on Tuesday. Jon drove over from Emeryville and spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with us. It was so much fun! With only six of us (all adults), we tried to keep things simple. I think we had it pretty easy, cooking-wise.
What did we serve? Why, turkey, of course! We actually “salted” our turkey instead of brining it, and it was fantastic! We also had stuffing (but not stuffed into the turkey), and fantastic gravy. Then there were mashed sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls & jam, salad, and – for dessert – pecan pie and cranberry pudding. Yum – I’m getting hungry again just writing about it all! Our table was beautiful because my friend Joleen Mills let us borrow her Fall decorations and china table settings, and Kathy and I bought fresh cut flowers for the centerpiece.
With Dallyn and “Grandma Hoffman” in the same house, we had lots of family-wide video conferences with the Bayles family. Kathy and I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday cooking. Also, while Jim was really sick last week, we discovered a new X-box game that hooked us both: 
“A Kingdom for Keflings.” This was a big hit with our visiting relatives, so someone was playing it at almost any given time throughout the weekend. On Thanksgiving – our last evening all together – we had family prayer together, and talked about the many blessings our family has to be grateful for. We all expressed gratitude for our families and the Gospel during these troubled times, as well as for the secure jobs we each have right now. It’s been a wonderful season of Thanksgiving!
The California Zephyrby Angie
20 Sep 2008
9:09 pm0
We rode on a train! A couple of months ago, when we were discussing the Hoffmans’ visit out here to see Kehlet Mansion, Roger brought up the idea that we could travel up to Tahoe by train, so we checked out the Amtrak website and looked at the routes and cost and such and decided it was a great idea! 
So this weekend we rode the California Zephyr from Martinez to Truckee. Martinez is a little further than the Emeryville Station, but it was a lot smaller and quieter, and the parking was free! We rode in the coach section, where there are pairs of seats that look a lot like those on an airplane (only much roomier and without seatbelts), but you can move around from there to the lounge car, the snack bar and tables downstairs, or the dining car.
The lounge car has more windows, and seats that swivel to face outside or tables where you can sit and play card games and such. We played “Mille Bourne” for hours and also a card game I made up called “All Hands on Deck” – trying to perfect the rules and the point system. The hot food in the snack bar wasn’t great – all microwaved stuff – but they had candy, juice, soda, and other convenience items for sale too. 
To eat in the dining car, you have to make a reservation well in advance. We had lunch there on the way home and I thought the food was very tasty.
It was about a five-hour trip each way, and delays and things made us arrive much later than scheduled on both trips, but when it comes to relaxing travel and beautiful landscapes, it can’t be beat! I highly recommend it, and hope we’ll do it again sometime!
Recovering from surgeryby Angie
2 Jun 2008
2:06 pm1
Thank you, everybody, for your prayers and well-wishes for us since my surgery. I am doing very well and hope to be back to normal in a couple more weeks. I have been very well taken care of: My wonderful, adorable, thoughtful husband has been at my beck and call as much as possible since I got home from the hospital. He and Jon spent a large portion of their Memorial weekend entertaining me (playing “Secret of Mana”
with me for hours on end). 
My mother-in-law, Kathy, visited for a week to keep our house running smoothly. I received phone calls and visits from wonderful friends in my ward and from family members all over the country (thanks, Audrey!). I even had my own pet therapist on hand: Jaquie wisely stayed off my lap, but spent long hours curled up next to me on the couch or my bed.
Getting around the house is still a little difficult because of the incision (for those ladies who have had a C-section, you probably know what I mean), and I can’t carry very much or drive yet, but I’m certainly improving. My doctor called when she received the lab results on the cysts they removed to report that everything was benign – hooray!! My post-op appointment is next Tuesday, so if there is anything else interesting to relate, I’ll keep the blog posted.
Christmas Decorationsby Angie
4 Dec 2007
10:12 pm1
Jim and I weren’t going to buy a Christmas tree this year, since we will be spending the holidays in Utah… but as I was planning for our St. Mikulás Day Hungarian Feast, I just felt like we needed some decorations to accompany our festivities. I was going to Target anyway, so I bought the tree on sale, and just cheap little lights and ornaments… it was only about $20 in all, but it looks quite pretty all put together (if I do say so myself)!
So, here are some pictures of our lovely little tree. Look, there are already some presents under it! Those are actually Mikulás gifts: some are going into our friends’ shoes during our Mikulás dinner, and the package on the right is from the Hoffman Mikulás in Utah, for Jim and me.
In the picture on the right, you can see where the tree is set up. I know it doesn’t look like a fantastic spot, but we don’t really have a fantastic spot for a tree this size – it either hides or gets in the way (hm…sounds like I’m talking about a pet ferret or something).
I also included this picture of Jim (playing Guitar Hero), so you can see how tiny a three-foot tree looks beside a six-foot person. Small, but sure cute! Hey, like me!