A big event for December was Arthur's graduation from the Culinary Institute of America north of San Francisco in Saint Helena. We considered boarding the dogs while we attended the ceremony, but decided that would be about the same expense as flying Claire down from Bozeman to take care of them. So Claire got a short vacation from the snow in Montana and the dogs were pleased to see a familiar face while we were away.

On 18 December we flew to San Francisco to meet Kendal, Brandon and Paula, then drove to Napa to meet Paul, Xue and Alixandra for dinner. Arthur could not join us because he was getting things ready for his graduation the following day.

The following day the graduation went smoothly and the food served at the reception was first rate! And we got to meet many of the people Arthur had worked and studied with for the past two years.

The next day Alixandra arranged a special tour of Pride Mountain Vinyards. Then we headed back to the Bay Area to check out Kendal and Brandon's progress on their house and catch a flight back to San Diego.