Catching Up: December 26th on the North Shore

After a good night's sleep, it was great to wake up to a beautiful winter scene; we got a White Christmas after all!



It was wonderful to see Sam again. He came to our hotel room with his cat bundled up in his coat (Kief thinks he's a dog and doesn't mind riding along in the car.) NOW we were ready to open presents!

Catching Up: Christmas Day

Continuing our holiday traveling tradition, we started the day in Ventura. Since it was Sunday, and most people had been to church Christmas Eve (we made it back in time for the 11pm service), there was just one blended service at 10am. We sang with the choir and went home and packed for our trip up to Lake Tahoe and Christmas with Sam. After dropping off gifts at the Francises and Erbecks (and having a glass of champagne with Jack and Carolyn) we finally left town. We managed to encounter snowy/sleety/rainy weather at each end of this trip. Not only did we encounter holiday traffic on the 25th, but we lost three hours due to chains-required traffic after leaving Sacramento and reaching the higher elevation near Blue Canyon. We arrived at our hotel in time to unpack and sleep - and look forward to celebrating Christmas with Sam on the morning of the 26th!

Catching Up: Christmas Eve in the O.C.

As usual, we traveled around for Christmas. We started out at April and Lindsay's house in Costa Mesa and had a wonderful time with the two of them, Dad, and Ron and Jane. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and it was nice to see where April is living and get to spend more time with Lindsay. It was good company (of the human AND the animal kind), good food, and comfortable surroundings - both inside and out!