This Christmas season was different than the past in a few ways.  I completely dropped the ball on creating and remembering the reason for the season. And sadly we didn’t make it to the Nutcracker this year.  I was finishing up the semester with a lot of paper writing, studying for finals and yada yada yada…the holidays crept up on me.

This is what we did do:

Dec 11

As soon as I was done with all my classes, mi amigas and I headed to the perfect weather of So Cal for our annual Christmas shopping trip.  This time I used Air Bnb, I’ve heard stories about strange Air Bnb’s but now we actually have our own story. A guy actually lives here ..I didn’t clue in beforehand that’s how most of them are…so It was quite um…entertaining?! It made for a lot of laughs for us

Chocolate for our pillows..  (Disclaimer: we did not open this chocolate and none was consumed)

Drums for playing our own music with the cow skull for inspiration.Fantastic artwork..

I have a few more inappropriate photos but won’t include them on my G-rated blog..but let me just say there were enough female “sculptures” for Cherie to take photos of and make into a collage representing each one of us.

It’d be funny to look and see how many photos I have in nine years in front of Titos tacos and then try to calculate how many calories of deliciousness have been consumed by family and friends there?  

And this is NOT the reason for eating there every time, but it does go right along with our Air bnb welcomeI’m so glad that my friends did not disown me for ignoring them the last 4 months, looking forward to this trip is one of the most effective ways to help me push through difficult classes. I look forward to things like going to two disturbing and depressing movies: Nocturnal Animals (I am the only one who actually liked this one; disclaimer – NOT for the disgusting opening scene!) & Manchester By the Sea, the second one I slept through the most important parts again (it’s the lack of sleep from staying up too late and laughing too much – I slept through parts of Brooklyn last year and The Hobbit the year before – I believe that makes it a tradition). Plus I love all of the magical Christmas decor at The Grove and especially the humor material for Cherie
The chai did not disappoint and look at how cute this one was.And even though I do not have a photo of it – we survived the homeless base camp parking lot on the beach to make it to this Italian restaurant in Venice – and lived to tell about it!

Down in the garment district Kelly and I got our cheer mom swag on for our girls…just long enough to take a photo

Christina’s gift to us at the end of our trip.  An inside joke that wouldn’t be funny to anyone else if I tried to explain it – I wanted to remember it anyhow

While I was out of town, I found out later that the twins pretty much let the dogs hang out in the house with them as much as possible – including letting them sleep in their rooms. When the mom’s away…. the dogs become humans

After I got back, Master D, Lelu and TT headed out to San Francisco for a quick visit with Chase.  I really should get one of them to type up a nice narrative about their adventure but then I would take too long to get this thing written.  Ari couldn’t go due to cheer and she was quite upset about it all so we hung out and got our nails done and went to lunch, watched Christmas movies and had some mommy and me time.

Here’s some photos that tell part of their story:

They picked him up at his house in Menlo park and went up to stay overnight in San Fran and explore the city and eat Cronuts (the first day they woke up too late and when they got there all they had left was rhubarb, so they had to make sure and get up early the next day to get the good stuff),  This is a re-creation of Lelu’s previous visit to San Fran with her Art History Class her senior year.  It makes for a very cool photo – don’t you think? TT has a dilemma every time we go on vacation whether to bring his skateboard or not – I think just this photo made it worth it this time for sure.  When they took Chase home, his dad took them on a private tour of Stanford:

We all love food photos

I’ve made a new rule when out to dinner…no phones allowed unless taking a photo of food
This one was for B – as he loves to explain to everyone he sold his beloved Bronco to buy ME……………………………………………………………………………………a wedding ring. 

Meanwhile back in UT – B, Ari and I went over to Gma and Gpa’s to celebrate for Christmas and Gpa’s 80th birthday.  I thought it was a lot of fun to hang out and catch up with my extended family. I didn’t pull out my camera but Ari was busy keeping herself entertained and because her photos automatically load onto my computer from her phone I have evidence of what keeps a 15 year old girl entertained at “adult family events”.  

And finally the only relevance to my family and friends and the Christmas season for this last photo is our difference of opinion in music – I feel I must post this perfect punishment notice for a sort of validation of my extreme mental, creative and physiological dislike of this band..