Sunday, December 28, 2014

Cozy California Christmas

Some may prefer a White Christmas or one of the Tender Tennessee variety (all due respect to Irving Berlin, Gary Chapman, and Amy Grant), but give us the beach, newly emerald hills, and short sleeves. Give us the ability to send the kids outside to play with their yuletide bounty. May your days be far from routine, and may all your Christmases be green!

On Monday, the secret admirer struck again. 

We went to the beach as the sun set on Tuesday. The rest of the day was filled with last minute errands getting ready for Christmas.




Tuesday was also Aunt Hillary’s 28th birthday, and we celebrated with a cream cheese pie. 



Wednesday was spent doing more preparing the house for visitors. While we wrapped some gifts, we chatted a bit with Grandma and Grandpa D., four hours ahead of us in Nova Scotia.

Hallie even found time to paint Aunt Hillary’s nails. Landon found time to unleash his inner cowboy. 

On Christmas Eve Santa flew by overhead

Then he (or his elves) left the kids and Diamond presents at the front door: a hair coloring set, a soccer ball, and a new bike. 

Emily and her husband Mike came for an overnight visit. Grandmas and Grandpas M. and B. and Hillary came by for treats. Then the stockings were filled and we wished everyone good night. Happy Birthday, Jesus! 


On Christmas morning, the kids actually stayed in bed long enough for the grown-ups to start breakfast. Upon seeing her stocking, Eliza exclaimed, “There’s no rocks in my sock!” Yup, she was good enough to not get coal. Barely. Then we had breakfast and gift’s with the missionaries, Grandma and Grandpa O., Marali, Emily and Mike, with a visit from our neighbors.







Later in the day, we had a meal over at Grandma and Grandpa M’s with Cru and Sawyer and their parents.

On Friday, Mike and Landon started putting the house back in order while the girls went shopping.


Mike’s aunt’s condition had improved a little while he and his mom were in Utah last week, but it worsened over the last few days. She passed away on Friday afternoon. Mike has many strongly impressed childhood and young adult memories associated with his aunt and the extended Andrus family. Many ideals he has about what family can be were gleaned from those interactions. We’ll miss her.

In the evening, Diamond babysat the kids for pizza and a movie night while Mike and Hallie went out. We need to do that more often. We went to Money Pancho and had yummy combo plates. The mole was spicy! The pico de gallo just right. We didn’t make it a late night, though, and were in home in time to finish tucking in the kids.

On Saturday morning, Mike and the kids played out front with some of the kids new gifts.



Later in the day, we sorted through the food storage. Landon worked out with his punching bag, barefisted. He punches hard enough that it hurts his little fists. Looks like we’ll need to get him some gloves.


As this is our last entry for 2014, we’ll include our year in photos. As always, we keep moving forward. Best wishes to you and yours for the coming year! 

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