Updates! Part 2. {Christmas(es) through New Year}

After the world didn't end on December 21st, we spent a few more days in town before heading to southern California for the holidays (and to pick up the rest of our stuff for our new place!). For the remainder of December, we basically decided we were going to have 12 Days of Christmas (or so it felt). Our schedule was as follows:

December 22: Christmas dinner with my immediate family, which consisted of prime rib and opening presents.

December 23: A loooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggggg drive down to southern California - this drive normally takes around 9 hours, but this time it took about 12. We (and by "we" I mean "Steve") had to drive really slow for the first half of the trip because it was windy and rainy and stormy. The grassy area between the north-bound and south-bound lanes of I-5 were flooded from all the rain and we passed several cars who had slid off the road and into the water. Then we stopped in Willows for a while so that we could have breakfast with my old friend Adrienne, who I hadn't seen in almost two years. She and her husband had been living in Spain for a year where she had a job teaching English, and she came back to the States right after Steve and I left for Europe for the summer. It was great catching up with her, and hopefully we'll see her again soon when we head out to the coast so she can take us on a brewery tour. :)

December 24: We have another reunion at lunchtime with Steve's friends from high school, who are spread all over the country (some here in California still, some in Colorado, some in Texas, some in New York...). Christmas is really the only time of year when everyone is in town, so it was nice for Steve to catch up with everyone, and it was nice for me to get to know everyone a little better since we don't get to spend a lot of time with some of these guys.

That evening we attended the Filipino Christmas Eve Extravaganza, better known as my mom's family's Christmas party. There was a lot of food, a lot of laughing, a lot of games (in which I won prizes!), and a lot of picture taking.

The ladies of the family.

December 25: Christmas dinner with Steve's mom, grandpa, and brother in Newport. It was almost surreal to have Christmas at the beach when it had been snowing lightly the week before back home. But I will never complain too much about sunshine. After a delicious Christmas dinner of (yet another) prime rib, potatoes, creamed corn (my favorite!), and salad, we headed down to visit and spend the night with a few of our college friends who lived nearby.

December 26: Christmas dinner + movie with Steve's dad and brother. We ate at a Thai food place (because we have had enough prime rib dinners for the holiday season :P ) then all saw Django: UNCHAINED together. Christoph Waltz, I applaud you for your amazing performance.



After our Four Christmases, we spent a lot of time driving around various parts of southern California, having reunion wine dinners, bowling with Joshua for his 29.2nd birthday, solving riddles, playing Sardines, and engaging in various shenanigans and knitting scarves. Here are some pictures to sum up:

By the time New Year's Eve rolled around, Steve and I were exhausted from all the driving we had been doing, so we opted to stay in and watch The Adventures of Tin-Tin on Netflix with Steve's mom. We celebrated with sparkling cider (of which Billy of course drank too much) and party poppers then promptly went to bed. :)