Cherries

Monday, December 16, 2013

It's the Busiest Time of the Year!

Happy Monday!

I know you are not getting this on Monday, but I wrote it on Monday...well, mostly. It's that time of year, we are all up to our eyeballs with long to-do lists, holiday parties, gift buying, wrapping, baking, addressing Christmas cards, and trying to keep up with all the other normal stuff we have to take care of, too. Yeah, to say we are busy would be a gross understatement!


Mason and I were up before the birds this morning because Mason was doing a segment on Good Day Sacramento called "Breakfast at Your Place." The premise of the show is that one of the popular morning anchors, along with a chef stand outside in a specific neighborhood and on live TV announce that the first person to come outside and say, "I want breakfast at my place!" wins. They get breakfast made by the chef in their house for them and their family. Mason was the chef along with Ty Rowe is the owner of one of Old Town Auburn's nicest restaurants, Bootleggers. They were billed as Mike and Sully as Mason is a kid and Ty is a really big man, it was quite comical! It was a really fun segment and as usual, Mason was winning fans left and right with his high energy and fun, upbeat attitude. I will get the video from the morning edited and up on Mason's you tube channel in the next few days. It was another really cool experience for Mason, one of many along this culinary journey he is on.


This is the last few days of school before Christmas vacation and Mason is making cookies for his class party. He has a first place award winning recipe for a mandarin chocolate chip oatmeal cookie. He and I went head to head last week in a cookie contest at the Newcastle tree lighting celebration and he won first place and a $50 gift card. I'm not sure it was totally fair as he stood by the entries and told everyone which was his and even offered hugs for votes! What? Seriously? Laughing! Okay, it may not have been completely fair, but he is only 10 and will not have the opportunity to work that angle forever. Heck, in the last year, entering and winning recipe contests is how Mason makes most of his spending money, not bad for a kid! Speaking of making money, our efforts at the Mandarin Festival netted the school kitchen project $5300 from the work we did selling tickets at the gate and another $1500 from the sales of mandarin marmalade. Some of the money from the sale of marmalade went to the booster club, but I am proud to say that with Mason's fundraising efforts over the summer, we are at nearly $7000 for the school kitchen! Isn't that awesome? But wait, there's more! If you recall last week I announced that Mason was awarded the Celebrity Chef Challenge grant that is a minimum of $5000 - they called to let us know that we will also have the opportunity to raise money with a silent auction and raffle! I'm thinking this event could push us to $15,000. If you have something to donate to our raffle or auction, please let me know and I can make arrangements to pick it up. Finally, we have another event on February 10th at the aforementioned Bootleggers Restaurant here in Auburn. Mason and Ty will be planning a menu and selling tickets for a pre-Valentines Day dinner with all of the proceeds going to the school kitchen. I tell Mason all the time, Magic can happen if people work together, and guess what, we are making magic!!


I hope you are having a lovely holiday season, I know we are! Drop me a line and let me know what is happening in your neck of the woods, I would love to hear from you!
Merry Christmas, Kathy

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