Posts Tagged grandma

Grandma’s 103rd Birthday in Seattle

8 November 2017

A 2 hour airport delay means shepherd’s pie & bangers & mash meals at the SJC airport Britannia Arms with a teal margarita, sticky toffee pudding, and a friendly Lab from Germany, then finally in the air with a pretty pink moonrise over the clouds. Safely in Seattle now for Grandma’s 103rd birthday party tomorrow!

Happy 103rd Birthday to Grandma! Another great house party with mimosas plus bakery quiche & several cakes all courtesy of of cousin Stephen! Loved the toddler birthday card modified with an extra century, the Scrabble tiles card, and the world record plaque for most buckets of weeds…haha!

We visited Grandma at rehab today so I played piano for a small audience in the lobby and Mom sang with me for a couple songs. :)

Fun afternoon with my Peterson cousins!

We should have brought the giant birthday balloons to rehab yesterday in the van…haha!Southwest SeaTac’s Halloween decorations are still up with a cute Seattle skyline painted on a real pumpkin, and both our San Jose and Sacramento flights are at the same gate…haha! Goodbye to Seattle but we will see Grandma again for Christmas!

Quick Visit with Grandma in Seattle

21 March 2016

Are plane selfies still a thing? Or was that just last year? Grandma has had a couple of bad weeks healthwise, so I’m taking a quick last-minute trip to cheer her up while she’s still stuck in rehab…

Are plane selfies still a thing? Or was that just last year? Grandma has had a couple of bad weeks healthwise, so I'm taking a quick last-minute trip to cheer her up while she's still stuck in rehab…

Posted by Britta Peterson on Saturday, March 19, 2016

I guess our plane was so early we circled wide since when we finally came out from clouds, the water was to our right flying south…then I saw my first aerial view of the Spaceneedle just before we passed it! We were still l so early that I was halfway to baggage claim by our scheduled landing time. Now I got lucky and instead of the shared van I booked, I’m the only passenger in a swanky town car…but Seattle traffic on Saturday is just as bad as the rest of the week so we are barely crawling along…

I guess our plane was so early we circled wide since when we finally came out from clouds, the water was to our right…

Posted by Britta Peterson on Saturday, March 19, 2016

The physical therapist says that Grandma is definitely moving much better than when she got here! If she keeps this up she might go home this coming week, as long as she agrees to help coming every day, sticks to the new low-salt diet, and keeps drinking more water. :)

The physical therapist says that Grandma is definitely moving much better than when she got here! If she keeps this up…

Posted by Britta Peterson on Saturday, March 19, 2016

Already on the way home, with my traditional bowl of Ivar’s smoked salmon chowder for lunch in the air after a Dungeness crab breakfast sandwich. A TSA agent and plane stewardess have gotten a big kick from my color matching, even my water bottle. When I left the plane, one laughed & said “Bye Miss Matchy-Matchy!” 😉

Already on the way home, with my traditional bowl of Ivar's smoked salmon chowder for lunch in the air after a Dungeness…

Posted by Britta Peterson on Sunday, March 20, 2016

Grandma’s 101st Birthday in Seattle

7 November 2015

We made it to Grandma’s house! Do you think I traveled with enough teal?

We made it to Grandma's house! Do you think I traveled with enough teal? 😉

Posted by Britta Peterson on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Grandma wanted a margarita and an enchilada so we are having Margarita Tuesday. We told them she’s turning 101 tomorrow so they brought her a flaming layered tequila shot and sang!

Grandma wanted a margarita and an enchilada so we are having Margarita Tuesday. We told them she's turning 101 tomorrow so they brought her a flaming layered tequila shot and sang!

Posted by Britta Peterson on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Kim brought her 10-month old puppy Guido and her year-old granddaughter to wish Grandma a happy birthday! That’s a 100-year age difference opening the presents together!

Kim brought her 10-month old puppy Guido and her year-old granddaughter to wish Grandma a happy birthday! That's a 100-year age difference opening the presents together!

Posted by Britta Peterson on Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Grandma was treated like royalty at Canlis tonight for a delicious fancy birthday dinner! Grandma & Mom were here for their opening night back in 1950, and the grandson Brian Canlis had to take a photo with her while hearing old stories about his grandfather.

Grandma was treated like royalty at Canlis tonight for a delicious fancy birthday dinner! Grandma & Mom were here for…

Posted by Britta Peterson on Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Grandma enjoyed her new birthday presents today!

Full disclosure: she bought the new computer herself but all the conversion from the old computer, setup, lessons, and tech support are some of my birthday gifts to her. The motorcycle is a joke since my rich cousin has so many cars at his house that his bike stays in Grandma’s garage. We keep walking past it so I wanted to take a photo.

Grandma enjoyed her new birthday presents today! 😉

Posted by Britta Peterson on Thursday, November 5, 2015

The celebrations continued tonight with my Peterson cousins, aunt & uncle coming over to wish Grandma a happy 101st birthday!

The celebrations continued tonight with my Peterson cousins, aunt & uncle coming over to wish Grandma a happy 101st birthday! :)

Posted by Britta Peterson on Saturday, November 7, 2015

Today’s brunch was the last of the parties for Grandma’s 101st birthday! Mom made a bunch of goodies and I made the entire three-layer cake, including the sculpted modeling chocolate, handpainted, double-sided 101 topper. Now we are already at the airport to fly home. Happy Birthday Grandma! So glad we could celebrate all week with you!

Today's brunch was the last of the parties for Grandma's 101st birthday! Mom made a bunch of goodies and I made the…

Posted by Britta Peterson on Saturday, November 7, 2015

Sunset somewhere over the clouds and downtown San Jose at night. Home again and looking forward to my own bed tonight. Onyx greeted me at the door of course, but I hope the other kitties forgive me for being gone!

Sunset somewhere over the clouds and downtown San Jose at night. Home again and looking forward to my own bed tonight….

Posted by Britta Peterson on Saturday, November 7, 2015

fun with Grandma!

18 September 2009

Grandma last saw my house in June 2006, when nothing yet had been done except some minor repairs, some paint & some decorating. She’s been seeing photos all spring of the kitchen remodel & other projects, so on her way to a wedding in Santa Rosa, she asked to come stay with me…hooray! This is the first time Grandma has visited me without other family around, so it was fun to have time to ourselves, like the Alaska cruise last year. :)

She stayed with my cousin in Menlo Park the first couple days, so my cousin brought her to my house the day after Labor Day so she could see my house too. My cousin was impressed, and she’s difficult to impress, with much more expensive tastes than me! :) After she left, we finally got dinner started, with fresh sourdough bread, caprese-inspired heirloom tomato, feta & balsamic vinegar salad from my garden, and a new recipe I’d found for Bermuda Onion Marmalade, saying it went well with chicken or pork, so I had chicken breasts for us. Grandma was excited to see my experiment, so she was very interested in the recipe, and she helped stir while I got out other ingredients. Since it was an experiment & only a recipe for the marmalade, next time I would add the raw chicken in earlier, since some of the onions got extra carmelized, but it was so tasty Grandma requested the recipe! She’s complaining about slowing down, but I want to be that healthy & active when I’m 95! That’s Johnnie Walker Red Label scotch with water on the rocks as her favorite evening cocktail… 😉


Grandma eating chicken with bermuda onion marmalade and fresh sourdough bread, all made in my new kitchen! :)

The next morning we both slept in – hey, I was on vacation myself! – had a late & leisurely waffle brunch, then met Cyd at the Savannah-Chanelle winery in the Saratoga hills for free wine tasting since Cyd is a member. All 3 of us bought the 4-pack special of the 2006 Pinot Noir & the Pinot Noir Rose we tasted, so combined together we got the case discount too! I had thought we’d just go back down through Saratoga, but it was such a beautiful day & Grandma was enjoying the breeze in her hair in the Briata, so we decided to continue over the Santa Cruz Mountains to see the ocean! Grandma lives on the Pacific herself so it’s not that exotic, but Puget Sound is a lot different than the California coast. 😉


In the Santa Cruz Mountains in the Briata after wine tasting at Savannah-Chanelle, heading for the ocean!

It was nearing 4pm when we drove through Santa Cruz, with a ton of rush hour traffic already starting, so we took Hwy 1 up just far enough to see some coast with some crops growing right up to the cliffs & pretty clear blue ocean. I knew there were some cool cliffs with craggy trees at Davenport, so we parked there, walked about 10 ft for the best view, then it was so windy we got back in the car & headed back. I used my GPS on my new iPhone to find a route to cut through the mountains back to Hwy 9, which took us down Big Basin canyon & up again, but was a very nice drive, and much better than just sitting in Santa Cruz traffic!


At Davenport on Hwy 1…gorgeous day!

We took it easy before dinner, Grandma enjoyed the sunny patio with her Johnnie Walker Red, then we went to Left Bank in Santana Row since I’d never been there & wanted to try it. We each had a different savory tart & shared the cheese plate, which was perfect portions for both of us. We had just enough time after dinner to check out Z Gallerie & Sur La Table before they closed, then I hooked up my laptop to my backyard projector & showed Grandma all the Eerie Elegance podcasts from last year up through current…she was impressed! It was funny to see them so huge…8 ft wide! Talk about extreme zoom for the eyeball painting! haha…


After-dinner entertainment…showing Grandma my Eerie Elegance podcasts at Cinema Brittahytta

Thursday morning I set Grandma’s hair after leftover waffles, then we got on the road for Santa Rosa by around 1pm & got to the hotel just before 3pm. No top-down this time since freeway driving would have messed up her freshly-done hair! 😉 We checked in & got in contact with her friends, then it was a big party on the deck outside Jonelle’s & Grandma’s room at first with Savannah-Chanelle wine, scotch, some of my sourdough bread, my homegrown grapes, smoked salmon from Alaska & other munchies from others, but then the bride’s parents had bought BBQ & wanted the whole Dontos clan to come over, and their house was about 5 minutes from the hotel. Since there was no point in even trying to get through Bay Area rush hour traffic by leaving Santa Rosa that early, I went with them too, driving Grandma with me, close enough & slow enough we had the top-down for those few minutes, and that was a hit with everyone to see us with the top down…haha! We all went back to the hotel by about 9pm, when Grandma said “It’s too early to go to sleep!” so it was back on the deck awhile longer chatting again. They were strongly twisting my arm to stay the whole weekend with them for the wedding & everything, and they are a fun bunch, but I declined & got home with no traffic around 11:15pm…whew!

Incidentally, all these photos were taken with my iPhone 3GS, which sadly has no flash, but has a camera with almost as high megapixels as my trusty Nikon Coolpix 995 from 2002! The top-down photo was when we were on the side of the road when we had to take a cellphone call, NOT while I was driving of course! 😉

Grandma said she had a really great time & I told her I did too! Maybe we can make this an annual event? :)