Christmas in Cali!

It was a great Christmas.

The kids and I made Build A Bears for their cousins.

(Plus one for Grama and I made a special one for Dave)

A video of the messages they did:

JD says “Hi Reagan, give me hug.”

Marie makes the animal noise and then says “I love you.”

Reagan helped me wrap the bears and saw the kitty. She fell in love with it. She was so excited when she opened it and saw that it was hers. She didn’t let go of it the rest of the time I was there.

What made the cousins laugh for the pic?

It felt like he was 16 again.

Every photographer’s dream… watch the birdie!

Family Tradition… Gingerbread Houses!

Logan watches the Master.

The finished products!

Another tradition…

The chocolate dipped, candy cane sprinkled, Dreyer’s peppermint ice cream filled cones.

I got this idea from one Christmas time visit to Disneyland. They made these at the Gibson girl ice cream parlor on Main Street.

I’m so excited that Denae added it to her family’s traditions.

I took a nice 2 hour bike ride from Spreckels to Sand City. Seeing the ocean is always a pilgrimage when I go back to Cali.

Mom picked me up and we made the pilgrimage to Monterey.

We got Clam Chowder at Fisherman’s wharf, then went on a quest to find an Ice Cream Shoppe with sugar free ice cream.

Not only did this place have sugar free, organic ice cream, it had a “free” Beatles museum tour with any purchase!

We took a little walk from the ice cream shop down to Lover’s point. It was a gorgeous day!

Adam had fun running around in the rain.

Reagan was so excited about this little dog.

We started a new family tradition. Riding horses!

I also got a day in San Francisco with my good friend Kat Adams.

Taking pics of each other with our iPhones. I fell over backwards on the escalator after this one.

The alarms went off at the mall and everyone was directed to leave. I think there was some kind of protest in another part of the mall, but they told us it was a fire.

Instead of leaving, Kat took the opportunity to shop without competition.

After we got kicked out of the store, we amused ourselves by acting like mannequins.

Kat didn’t want to leave.

We entertained ourselves with dinner at the Thirsty Bear.

We ended our evening with the worst movie I’ve seen in a while. Seven Pounds. I dragged her into the last 20 minutes of Twilight to make up for it.

Adam and I had a double date with dad and Sue at Bonfante Gardens.

I think the funnest part may have been taking pictures of each other.

It definitely wasn’t the motion sickness. I guess we aren’t teenagers anymore.

Good times.

Our last activity was a trip to Santa Cruz to see the Monarch butterflies and Natural Bridges.

Collecting sand and sea to take back to Denver.

A long day for 2 little girls.

Not a long enough trip for one big girl.