Good-Bye To The Old Year...

    Today I'm on my way home from the West Coast (See posts from 12/30/2014-1/2/2015) and so it  finally feels like the holidays are officially over, though I do have one more plane trip to look forward to today.  I love plane trips.  I love layovers.  I love airports. I guess I enjoy the feeling of being neither here nor there.  It's liberating.  (See post from 12/27/2013).
    And yet sitting in an airport at the end of a visit is always bittersweet.

I'll be leaving behind Maria, Justin, and my grandbabies in Los Angeles,

...and my sister Romaine in Portland.

      It's bitter to be leaving them, sweet to remember how good it was to be with them for a while.
       Tom and I arrived in Los Angeles last Sunday.  We arrived on different flights, as I flew on the same flight as  Maria, Justin and the kids, who were returning home from their holiday visit to Columbus, and Tom found a less expensive fight the same day that arrived in Los Angeles earlier than ours. I stayed in Los Angeles until Friday then left for Portland to  spend the weekend with Romaine and Tom stayed in LA until Saturday, when he left for Columbus.
    Anyway, Tom and I spent most of our Los Angeles visit babysitting for our grand daughters,

...who were very helpful around the house,

...with the shopping,

...and with the chores.

   
     Tom and I  helped with the meals and one night I made my super-easy, super-delicious white chili:   

    Here's the recipe:
    Super-easy, Super-delicious White Chili
    5 cans of Navy beans
    4 cups of chicken broth
    1 onion, chopped
    2 cups of white or brown rice
    2 teaspoons salt
    4 cups of water
    Sour cream, shredded cheddar or taco cheese, and salsa for topping
    Taco chips
    Drain the beans and put them into a large pot.  Add the chopped onions and the chicken broth.  Simmer on the stove for about an hour or in a crock pot on low 4-5 hours.
    Put the rice, water, and salt into a pot.  Bring the water to a boil, cover the pot, and cook the rice according to the directions on the package. (About 13-15 minutes for white rice, 45-60 minutes for brown).
    When the chili and rice are ready, serve the chili in a bowl over a scoop of rice.  Top with sour cream, salsa, and cheese.  Eat with a spoon or my preferred method, using the taco chips to scoop up the chili.  Muy bueno!
    On New Year's Eve Maria, Justin, and the children went to a party at a friend's house so Tom and I were free to choose our New Year's Eve entertainment.
    We opted to walk to a Manhattan Beach movie theater:

...where we saw "The Imitation Game".  Good World War II story, but the film was a little on the slow side, plus it had to deal with the problem of the audience basically knowing  how the story ends:  the Allies rebound and defeat the Nazis.  When you make a movie about a historical event the outcome of which everyone is already aware, you'd better make it such an engaging journey that everyone forgets that they already know where it ends.  I felt like "The Imitation Game" didn't quite pull it off.  I bet it gets and Academy Award nomination anyway.
    After the movie we walked to the nearby Union Pizza Company:

...where we had a superlative New York-style half-pepperoni, half-cheese pizza topped with peppers, onions, and mushrooms,  with that thin, soft crust  that you pick up by the slice and  fold in  your hand .

        After dinner we walked around Manhattan Beach for a while.

    While we were walking around in the balmy Los Angeles night air I remembered that pizza and a movie used to be our family's perennial New Year's Eve celebration back when our children were youngsters.  It occurred to me that a good  pizza and a good movie still add up to a great way to see out the old year..
To be continued...