December Was

Hey, Kids.

At some point during the month I realized December is always too full of holiday activity for me to contemplate the ending of another year. I rush around from Thanksgiving till December 31st and before I know it, it’s 2009.

We drove down to California for Christmas. We were thinking about leaving Saturday the 13th, but were a bit anxious about the weather, so we hadn’t really broadcast the plan to family. But we did end up leaving that day, right as snow was beginning to fall in Eugene. I felt a sense of foreboding as we drove around town doing a few last minute errands, but the drive was actually mostly OK. (Because BN was behind the wheel; if I’d been driving it would have been scary.) The semi trucks had to pull off to put on chains, but evidently we scooted right under the threshold of the storm and made very good time down to San Jose. We decided to crash HN’s birthday party, and everybody in my immediate family (that’s 11 people, including Grandma) was very surprised to see us.

We stayed with BN’s dad and stepmom first, and they took us to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit at the Tech Museum. It was very cool, but pretty overwhelming. One layer of Leonardo’s genius was the sheer breadth of all his interests. There was so much material about Renaissance architecture and engineering that by the time we got to the “science of art” segment I was already footsore and on information-overload. Very impressive, and I felt fortunate to have seen it. Thanks, G and A!

Next we spent a few days hanging out with BN’s mom. That was quite relaxing and she fed us royally, as usual. The highlight was dinner with C & R and BN’s brother and sister-in-law. We stayed with J & M one night, and enjoyed tagging along to take Ginger the beagle to the doggie park. Dogs are so amusing to me – I can’t look at most dogs without laughing. Watching a whole variety of under-40lb puppers was extra funny.

Then we set up camp at my parents. There’s always lots of excitement going on there. Before Christmas we decorated cookies and hunted for mistletoe.

On Christmas Eve, we were all together at J & S. After our nativity pageant, dinner, and gift exchange, we played an uproarious game of “Fax Machine,” also known as “Telephone Pictionary,” where each person writes an evocative phrase and passes it to the next person to be interpreted into a drawing and then passed again to be interpreted into a phrase and so on. Good times!

On Christmas day we enjoyed hanging out with relatives from my mom’s side of the family in the afternoon and my dad’s side in the evening.

A few days after Christmas BN’s mom had a family brunch at her house and it was nice to catch up with some of the siblings and “niblings.” (nephews and nieces, that is.)

On the following Monday, BN, GC, HN and I went to the beach, north of Santa Cruz. It was the most amazing, beautiful day. It was clear, sunny, not too windy, and almost warm. The winter light gave everything a magical glow and our pictures came out awesome.

BN and I drove home on New Year’s day, with really nice weather until we got well into Oregon and then just some heavy rain. I was glad to be home but sad to say goodbye. Click here to see more pictures of our visit.