It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Enjoying Grapevine, Texas, With Jean, Evie's Sister

Backpack Ready

It's 7:20 and Rami has just returned from his Crossfit class.  I have been up for an hour, with Kaia on the couch, having my coffee, reading the morning papers.  It's been nice to not keep up on the news the last ten days. 

Yesterday our morning routine did not change much.  I was up early with Rami, followed by Beth and Marisa, and by 8:00, all three were off to school or work.  Evie, lucky gal, slept in until 8:30, catching up on her sleep.  I took Kaia on a nice long walk around the neighborhood and it felt good to be outside, the sun up, the air beginning to warm.  We both showered and were dressed by 10:30 because we were driving to one of Dallas's older suburbs, Grapevine, and meeting Evie's sister Jean to do some shopping and have lunch.  It was a half-hour drive and the highways and cloverleaf interchanges in Dallas always amaze me,  a city built for automobiles.  We parked at the restaurant and Jean picked us up and we drove to the retail area of Grapevine, a go-to place for tourists and locals.  The street is filled with all kinds of shops, wine stores, restaurants, occasionally broken up by a park, decorated for Christmas, playing Christmas music. 

Christmas In Grapevine

Candy Cane Park

It was a bit bizarre as it was sunny and warm, trees still green, some leaves falling.  Christmas season in Texas I guess.  We hit quite a few shops, not much to my liking so I usually sat outside and people watched.  We did buy some Hatch chili powder, enough to last us for years, our only purchase.  Around 1:00, we drove back to Winewood, one of Jean's favorite restaurants and easily found a table as most had already eaten lunch.

The Bar at Winewood

It had a great bar, a nice ambiance for lunch or dinner, a good choice.  Jean and I ordered a glass of wine but Jean sent mine back because she thought it was too rough.  I agreed and was happy with my Cabernet instead of a Malbec,  Jean ordered an ahi salad, Evie a salad with strawberries, and I had the French dip sandwich with fries, all three exceptional. 

Jean And Evie

We finished lunch by 2:30, in time to have an easy drive home, with minimal traffic for Dallas, crazy for Chautauqua.  It was fun to see Evie's sister Jean who lives in a senior community near Denton, Texas, complete with a golf course, restaurant/clubhouse and an amazing art/workshop area.  She's made lots of friends so it was a good choice to move there.  We were home just before 3:00 and Beth was home, working on a couple of papers for her classes.  Marisa was picked up at 4:00 and came home bubbling with enthusiasm even though she had quite a bit of homework.  She always seems garrulous after returning home from school which is fun.  While I took Kaia for another walk, Evie got caught up on the news, Marisa did homework and Beth left around 4:30 for a class project in Dallas with disadvantaged kids. 

Around 6:00, we opened a bottle of wine and Evie got busy with dinner, having marinated chicken thighs for 24 hours with a mixture of six or seven ingredients.  We were also having squash so she cut that up and roasted it and made cauliflower rice and a salad.  We ate about 7:30 when both Rami and Beth came home and dinner was great, the chicken devoured, the squash and rice practically gone.  We then relaxed, watched some of the Dallas Maverick game because the Slovenian star, Lucca Doncic was playing and none of us had seen him play before.  He is as good as the pundits said.  We then watched Chopped as one after another disappeared to bed, tired from the long day.