Reflections

Christmas celebration this year was like the Energizer battery - it kept going and going and going . . .

Here are highlights of our trip . . .

- Presentation of the Christmas story by Mom and Melissa. Watching mom narrate while little Melissa scrambled to find large pictures depicting various scenes of the story. (Christy was absent for the first part of the story - I later found out that she was putting the finishing touches on a beautiful white scarf she’d knitted for me. That is SO Christy - my dear last-minute, live-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sister.)
- A "car fight" (remote control cars) between Christy, Kevin, and David. (This was actually very funny.)
- Driving along the coast to Santa Maria in the rain.
- Taking a walk with Melissa, wherein she found a naked little doll in a gutter and insisted she rescue it, give it a bath, and keep it.
- Presents under the tree, opened. (One of the coolest things we got are those little motorized toothbrushes.)
- Sneaking to the bathroom to get my hair straightened by Betsy.
- Seeing my newborn first cousin, once removed, for the first time. Meeting a cousin-in-law for the first time. (They drove from Houston - it took them eleven hours just to get out of Texas!)
- Bunny rabbit loose in the house.
- Grandma’s pecan brittle. There is simply no substitute. Yum.
- Watching Count of Monte Cristo until 4 AM.
- Going to mom’s favorite place in the world (all the kids roll their eyes) . . . Solvang!!
- Coffee date with friends.
- Driving with one of my best friends, Christy Williams, in her cute little red convertible, top down, sunshine, wind, hair in your face, heater on full blast . . . gotta love it.
- Experiencing "orange alert" conditions at LAX, missing our early flight home, waiting on standby, finally arriving in Sacramento safe, sound, and a little harried.