Holiday Activites

Much happened over the recent few weeks - Starting with a breadmaking class, followed a week later by a cookie exchange in the morning of LaQ folks then a lunch for a large group from our new neighbors the Buddhist Church - two doors down. A week later there was a Holiday Open House, then Christmas Day Potluck, and New Year's Day a Polar Bear Plunge into a 50 degree pool - followed fortunately by hot cocoa and a dunk in the hot tub. This Saturday there will be a Lance canales concert(tickets are still available) Steve and Cindy Concert (tickets on sale now) movie nights, more dinners and so many fun things you won't want to miss any of it!

See the photos on our flkr site & the plunge video on YouTube - plus of course the brief account of the events here - Enjoy! Don't forget to Stop By any Sunday between 1-3 to see the houses and the community and have a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Bread Making
I just got home a few minutes ago and got down to the CH for the Tasting
Section of the workshop. Wow--what bread! Pat

Holiday Open House
That truly is one of the best, most joyous holiday parties I've ever been to! Thanks to Don Gaede for this terrific idea. I hope this was the "First Annual," and that we'll continue with Second Annual, Third Annual, etc.

We're sitting in the Sacramento Train Station now (with free wi-fi--yaaay!), waiting for the Zephyr to Denver. Thank you, Bryan, for the early morning ride to the Fresno station. Everything has been on time so far.

Back to the party: our dog-walking friends that we see when we take the boys and girls out walking were totally impressed with our community last night. As they left, Jan said they had lived in Napa for almost 30 years and had never had a connection with their neighbors like we have.

So many thanks to all--Joe, our violinist, the accordion play from Don, all the people who set up, cooked, opened up their homes, greeted people, cleaned up--it was one of my most memorable and enjoyable times in cohousing!. This is what it's all about! Happy holidays to you all! Pat and George

More on Holiday Party
It takes a Village to raise a child and it takes lots of LaQ Villagers to put together a fantastic Holiday Open House!. Got some more people to thank:
Candy, and Barbara Cutright for helping with the Common House decorations. Mary, Candy, and Jenny for organizing the Cookie exchange. Barbara Cutright, Joe, Ana, Ruth, Lilly, Sean, and Emma for making the Paper Candy Canes and using them as CH decorations. Mary and Susan for taking on cleaning up and organizing the Children's room (looks wonderful. Christmas Elves who cleaned up after the party (these are only some of the names I could remember ) Bev, Bryan, Mary and Jared... It was so much fun, Thank you Don and Jenny for your wonderful ideas :) - Violet, for the social committee.

A big THANK YOU to all who helped out last night to make it a BIG success!
Kudos to Joe Syverson (the next Joshua Bell??), Violet and Mary and their helpers for decorations; Susan, Scott and their crew for preparing the common house; all those who opened up their homes; all those who brought snacks to the common house; and the Christmas elves (you know who you are) who cleaned up the common house after the party. Way to go, everyone!

Don Gaede

Polar Bear Swim
We had our first LaQ Polar Bear Swim (George's idea) around noon today, and you can see the brave souls that did it. Fortunately, we had our cheering section as well, and Violette brought out hot chocolate for all of us. The pool temperature was
50 degrees! The Syverson family went in twice, and Scott came running in at
the end, while we were all in the hot tub. Pat