In the beginning of the month, I had the pleasure of accompanying Ted to the Christening of the CALIFORNIA (SSN 781). If you have never seen a submarine that wasn't submerged, well, let's just say it was mind blowing. And, so far, this ship is 10 mos. ahead of schedule. I think Ted is so looking forward to taking this baby out on sea trials next summer. Although this Virginia Class fast attack submarine has "California" for its namesake, Mr. Schwarzenegger had better plans than to attend the ceremony. So, instead of sending another politician from the Golden State, we had Miss California represent the state. She sang the National Anthem and God Bless America. I think the sailors would all agree that she was better to look at than any politician from CA. We had the pleasure of meeting a WWII veteran who served on the BATTLESHIP CALIFORNIA. His stories were interesting. I also met the young skipper and his family. Although Ted's office is hardly recognized in such an event, the skipper knew Ted really well. After all, that boat wouldn't have any power if it wasn't for nuclear engineers.
For Thanksgiving I hosted again this year and we had 21 people all together. Ted's dad made the trip down from Rhode Island and stayed for 4 days. My whole family came over and then we had two other military families who joined us. We had a plethera of food which made for excellent leftovers.
The 22 lb. turkey turned out quite moist and yummy too!
The kids are doing well. There has been a never ending series of book reports and projects that has kept both child and parent busy. One of the more interesting book projects the 2nd graders did this month was to read a book about a person or family from a different country and make a "culture kit" which contained items or pictures from that country. The kids were also encouraged to either dress up or have food from that country. It could not be Egypt or China (since the kids have or will be studying those in school) nor your own ethnic culture. So, out of all the countries, Matthew picked Norway. Well, we managed to find a book about Leif Ericksson, famous Norwegian Viking/explorer. As far as the food part goes, let's just say we did not opt to serve lutefisk, a main traditional fish dish (white fish soaked in lye). Thank goodness I found out that Jarlsberg cheese comes from Norway and that was fairly easy to find and much more palatable.
We hope that you and your families are doing well. As always enjoy hearing from each and everyone of you.
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