California for Christmas

Hey.  Remember me?  It's been a long time.

So much has happened in the the almost three weeks since I last posted that I'm going to split up our adventures into two separate posts: California for Christmas and Woodstock for New Year's.

Our trip to California was fantastic - lots of family time, friends, playing tourist in San Francisco, and just relaxing in the hot tub in Millbrae.  As usual, there were so many people we wish we could have seen.  There's never enough time.

The first full weekend was spent with Kevin's sister Maxine's family in Millbrae.  Lots of good cousin time and Christmas #1.

We made it into the city for our first visit to the new location of The Exploratorium.

Kevin and I took the kids on a field trip to see the old Mission Dolores, the oldest intact California Mission and the oldest building in San Francisco.  Also, the only cemetary within the city limits.  I hadn't been there since the fourth grade.

The house where Kevin, Maxine, Sean, and I were living when we married and when Rowan and Ella were born.

After the cousins were off to Minnesota we spent time running around the Bay Area visiting friends, spent good, quality time with Kevin's parents, and had another Christmas.  While the kids were engrossed in their new toys on Christmas Day, Kevin and I snuck out on our own for a romantic beach walk with our dog.

Alyssa's kids, Shauna and Grant

Tilden Park Carousel

Christmas Eve PJs from Santa

Mavericks Beach

Girl's Best Friend

Erika and Alex at Laurelwood Park

Liza and Molly

Leo and Dexter

Since we had just seen my mom in New York the week before, we didn't make it up to Twain Harte this year.  That left us a few extra days to head up to Santa Rosa to see my sisters.  Linda lives on a mini farm with sheep, goats, dogs, cats, chickens, and even a flock of peacocks and peahens.  Needless to say, visiting her is always a highlight of our California visits.

Bronwen, Linda, Teresa, and me

Even though this was one of our most relaxing trips to California since moving to New York, we left feeling a little sad to have missed seeing several good friends.  I try to alternate who we see between the summer and Christmas visits, but since most of our combined histories is in the Bay Area, it's just impossible to cover it all.  I guess the better way to look at it is, how lucky are we to have so many amazing people in our lives, so many whom we love and who love us, that even ten days isn't enough time?

Hope you people all had very happy Christmases (whether or not you celebrate).

xoxo