A Coast to Coast Christmas. Literally.

The Atlantic To the Pacific, and Back Again

Wow what a long and fun 2 weeks. It felt like we had 3 Christmases. Wait, we did. The first was here with just us. Then in California. And another at the Lucky Leaf afterwards. Here are some highlights.
We kicked off the season with our annual white elephant party. Unfortunately no pictures were taken. But I will say to whoever left their lame present hidden in our pantry: I know who you are, watch out.
We went to sunny Santa Barbara for the week before Christmas. While there we spent 2 days at the most magical place on earth.
It really was magical and I'm not even kidding! Disney always does everything top notch.

And here is our 1 not-so-fun highlight of the trip: Picture yourself. On a plane from the west coast to the east coast (ie like 9 hours flying time). Barfing every hour in those little bags. And all the other uncomfortableness that comes with the stomach flu (I'll leave this up to your imagination). With a baby. Who also barfed and had to be naked afterwards. And sitting on the runway for about 45 minutes. Being hot then cold and somewhat feverish. Then they turn off the plane and so it is very hot. In the fetal position the whole flight so that tends to give one a backache as well. With the most annoying family sitting in front of you with super loud yelling kids.

I could go on and on but whatever. Counting my blessings would consist of: Jake being the awesome and helpful hubby that he always is, Amaryllis had her own seat...omg what would we have done otherwise?, we were seated near the restrooms, and Jake didn't start barfing until we were home.
We waited a couple days before going to the beach house so as not to infect everyone else.
That didn't work and it was actually pretty comical to have all 4 bathrooms running at once. This stomach bug is going around so maybe you know someone who had it--but it hits ya so instantly and is pretty miserable.
Moving on.
The beach was as always b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.
I met my little nephew Roman and he's adorable.
Of course, we dressed them up in coordinating outfits.
Amaryllis was smitten by little Rome-yo.
If you want to see more picts you can check Charlene's facebook.

Or Mel's blog (with a short clip titled "cooking with cal" where he demonstrates how to make gross cinnamon rolls).