Beach Day in CA!

With Christmas over, and the Vegans gone back to college, we had some time with nothing to fill it with.  So we went to the beach.

Look at me!  Im at the beach!  It was around 70 degrees, but the wind made it pretty chilly.

These nutters wanted to build a giant sand castle.  We appropriated some shovels for the occasion and much delight was had.

Our friends, the Joshnsons came to the beach too, so we had more hands to help.

The shovels made the digging go quickly.

It was an extra fun day at the beach.  We went to Coronado (because I like the on-base beach with parking and bathroom facilities and a hose for rinsing off!) and we got to see some unlucky souls getting a workout.  This is my serriptitious photo, that you can't really see anything in.

Callie dug till she hit sea water.  I love her face here!  She cracks me up!

This was the finished product.  Smaller castles in front, giant hole behind!

So I made her pose for me.

She is a good sport!

And it was a lovely day.

Rylee and Marian did run into the water to do a little boogie-boarding, but it was chilly once you were wet and the wind got you.  Marian lamented that she got wet too early and then was too cold to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.  Rylee lamented that the water was too cold to stay in very long.  But much fun was had by all.

I don't know if you can see the little spec in the center.  That's Rylee!

One last silly picture of Callie.

And this was my treasure hunt success.  I strolled down the beach and found all these lovelies. Don't worry. I only brought a few of them home.  

It was a perfect afternoon at the beach!

 

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas!  I don't think I mentioned that the college kids came down for Christmas.  We lovingly refer to Samantha (formerly known as Josh) and McKenna as "The Vegans".  We had a great time with them and Christmas Day was wonderful. Even eating Vegan meals all week was fun.  We have some old favorites and we have been trying new things as well.

Just some girls, in front of a Christmas Tree, with their stockings.

McKenna and Samantha, rocking their sweet Christmas Sweaters!

Delaney was pleased with her loot.

Callie asked for autobiographies and she was not disappointed!

Samantha had the BEST socks.

Excited about some fun stuff.

Yes, I did wear my awesome Elf Shirt.  And I loved my new license plate for the front of my van.

A rare shot of Marian.

Me, wondering why on earth I am opening a kitchen sink faucet.

Callie is excited to have a new game to play.

Rylee is pleased with the next book in her series.

 

Christmas Eve

All the kids are in bed and the elves have come. 

Presents for everyone

some rather plum.

Okay, sorry.  No more rhyming!

With no chimney, the stockings are staged on the couch.

And oh, look!  Its a rare selfie of Santa!

Well, with the room lights off and the tree lights on, you can tell which sections of the tree are out.  Oops.  

It is fine.  It is still a glorious tree and there is plenty of loot for all.

Thus, I proclaim it perfect!

 

Twas the Week before Christmas

I made fudge.  It was delicious.  And we delivered less than intended.  Because, it was delicious.

What the Heck, San Diego?!!  This weather is unacceptable for Christmas!

We dyed Rylee's hair with Kool Aid agin.

Miranda wanted this pie recipe so I sent it to her.

I made a lot of masks, and this is one of my new favorites.

Some sneaky santa dropped this off at our house and I'm absolutely stumped as to who it could have been!  But it sure made us feel loved.

 

A Pre-Chirstmas Hike

We squeezed in a hike before Christmas.  It did not go quite as planned......

We chose the wrong direction to begin.  Instead of chasing the path to the left, which would have taken us into the valley on a nice switchback trail, we went to the right and went straight down on crumbly rocks.  It was a little harrowing and some people were very unhappy about it.  But we persevered and overcame!

The trail got better after that and we had a marvelous time exploring the area.  We knew we did not want to go back up the way we came down and had an idea of how to get back a different way.  But the trails did not do quite what we expected.

But we had a good time, and hiked a pretty good distance and found some golf balls by the golf course. I was certain that we would encounter a path that would take us near our backyard, but that did not happen.  We did eventually link up to a trail we had previously hiked, and we were able to get back to where we wanted to be and we took the switchback up the hill and it was delightful  But it was a lot longer and more exertion than planned!

 

Gingerbread Cookie Time

We did make gingerbread cookies.  Partly because it's tradition!  And partly because they are delicious.  Okay, and because the girls enjoy decorating them. Please enjoy their delight in the process, and enjoy the fabulous result of their meticulous decorating skills!  I LOVE these kids!

 

One Sad Girl

This poor kid got her wisdom teeth out.  I didn't think it would be so..... dramatic.  She went in just fine, but I think they may have released her a little soon.  They wheeled her out to the car and we manhandled her into the back seat.  Halfway home she suddenly realized she was in the car and had no clue how she got there.  Poor thing was so disoriented.  The last thing she remembered was sitting in the chair getting the iv and now she was in the car.  

I had expected to get her home and park her on the couch.  I expected her to lounge the day away watching movies.  But nooooo.  She insisted she could walk just fine.  She roamed drunkenly around the house.  She swayed dangerously, but kept upright.  She demanded to go outside to "see people".  She spent some time making hilarious drawings. She talked to the dog. Then she restlessly criticized everything I tried to get her to watch on tv.  She briefly rallied when we put on YouTube with Disney songs and I almost died laughing as she raucously sang along. And then she cried because she didn't know all the words.  And then she was just sad.  

It was a long and emotional afternoon. The meds finally wore off, and she finally slept a bit.  And then she was tired and cranky and sore for the next few days.  But she survived!  And now it is done. 

 

Decorating for Christmas!

Soon after we got back from AR, we busted out the Christmas stuff.  This is the totes adorbs Nativity my sweet sister made for me.  

We managed to find a place to put the tree up.

My cute girl.

Another of my cute girls.

We did wait a few days before decorating the tree.

But we had a grand time doing it.

We do love all our personal ornaments and enjoy reminiscing about them as we put them on the tree.

Delaney found the hats. 

So they had to be worn!

And look, I made a cute Christmassy face mask to match the season.