As usual, Matt and I did not spend much time at home for the holidays. In fact, this year I didn't even decorate for Christmas or buy a tree. Sad but the month flew by so quickly I didn't miss it too much.
The first week in December I was supposed to go to Dallas for work but gladly got out of it since I was in charge of planning our ward Relief Society Christmas Dinner. We chose the theme of "Christmas in France" and set up three tents in the room decorated with Christmas lights. Each tent was a different food station - the first being the cafe with savory crepes, the second being the patisserie with soup and salad and the last being the creperie with sweet crepes. We cut out black Eiffel towers for the table centerpieces and set battery-operated table lights around the towers. The high priests always serve the food so we had them each wear berets I found from Oriental Trading Company.
Around the room we printed out different French Christmas traditions which we also included in the program. As the ladies walked in the room, they were greeted by the missionaries dressed as different Parisian street vendors. One was set at a canvas acting as a street artist, another was wrapped in scarves and tried peddling off scarves to all who walked by and the last was supposed to be a mime but decided he made a better gargoyle. So instead he just posed as people walk by. The whole scene was hilarious and the missionaries and ladies loved it.
The Bishop did a reading of the Christmas story in France during World Ward II where the English, U.S., German, and French soldiers put down their weapons to celebrate Christmas together. Then we had a men's group of about 11 people sing three Christmas songs with one verse in French. Matt was supposed to sing with them but had a enderoscopy rescheduled for that day that did not allow him to sing for a couple days.
With all of the planning that we did, the best part of the night was when our Primary President, who served a mission in France, gave the closing prayer in French. Seriously, it was beautiful!
That weekend, I flew down to Ontario (California) to spend the weekend with Ryan and his family before a business conference in LA. We had fun catching up and playing games. Then in LA it was great seeing many of my AHA colleagues that I haven't seen in years, since I left the AHA in 2010.
When I returned home, I had just a week and a half left to wrap up things and finish Christmas shopping, wrapping, and packing.
Matt and I got to attend our first Google Holiday party, which are rumored to be pretty amazing, and it did not disappoint. We took a Google bus up to SF to the Legion of Honor, a beautiful art museum, for a masquerade ball. The venue was beautiful and the food was amazing. We loved dancing with Matt's work friends to a cool 90's band and listening to an operatic singer belt out songs from Phantom of the Opera when the band was not playing. Before the night was over, we got to join in on an impromptu art tour by one of Matt's co-workers.
The weekend before Christmas, Matt and I drove down to San Diego. We stayed with Matt's parents in Poway for the first half of the trip and then with Ryan and Paige in Murrieta the last half.
The weather was amazingly warm the whole time we were down there and I enjoyed running all over Poway, Murrieta, and even downtown La Jolla (my favorite place to run).
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| La Jolla Cove |
Matt's sister, Bekah, and her family were also in town visiting so we had fun playing with their kids and hanging out with all of them. We all went to the San Diego Temple together one night to see the lights with a stop at Mt. Soledad (where Matt proposed to me), spent a day at La Jolla Shores beach, played lots of games, and went to the Huish home (where Matt and I had our wedding reception) to see their Christmas display. Matt also got to have a dodgeball night with his SD buddies and ate way too many Petersen donuts (his fave).
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| Matt and I enjoying the view of the ocean from La Jolla Cliffs |
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| Ar the LDS San Diego Temple |
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| Our niece and nephew - McKay and Alicia |
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| Matt pondering life :) |
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| Petersen's Donuts |
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| Christmas Celebration at the Huish Home |
We also got to see other friends like Dave, Jackie & Maren Romney, and Jeff Russell.
One day I drove down to San Diego and got to visit with my AHA buddies, Sarah and Dawn. I haven't seen Sarah in a couple years and she had just had a baby 12 days before. It was great hanging out with them together again.
Then I headed over to Cheesecake Factory in Mission Valley and met up with my old roomie, Laura, and her family who had driven out from Brawley for the day. We also went to La Jolla Shores, the San Diego Temple, and then ended up at BJ's for dessert. I can't believe I hadn't ever seen her little boy yet!
While at Ryan and Paige's, Matt and I were treated like kings :). We enjoyed Paige's fabulous cooking, the kids and I enjoyed watching "The Sing Off" together, we all fought over the delicious chocolate milk fresh from a local dairy, we rode bikes, went to the skate park, and played Frisbee golf and soccer together, and we played board games and card games. We played Scene It Squabble, which Matt's parents had given us for Christmas (a battle-of-the-sexes-type Scene it game). Anytime we were sitting around, we would start playing Headbandz as well from some one's smart phone. Cody loved playing Apples to Apples, which he is pretty good at. Then we busted into the card game "Cover Your Assets" Tori had given their family for Christmas. That became the game of choice for most of the crew the rest of the trip. I got tired of it because of all the strategy involved but Matt loved it. He also was in heaven having someone to play Xbox with anytime he wanted (Dylan or Cody).
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| Matt and nephew Cody sleeping in the car |
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| Cover Your Assets |
We introduced Ryan's family to Google's Chromecast, which allows you to share things from your smart phones or laptop to the TV wirelessly. We couldn't sit around for long without someone casting some silly YouTube video on the TV. One night we spent about two hours battling over who could show the best video cutting each other's off to take control of what was being cast.
After two weeks in San Diego, Matt and I finally headed home ready to get back to our normal lives. We decided to try going home along the 101 instead the 5 which usually takes an hour longer, but is more scenic. Due to our poor timing during rush hour LA traffic, the trip home took much longer than that. But we did stop in Solvang (a little dutch town in the middle of California) for dinner. Since Matt had never been there, I was hoping to show him around but the town was pretty quiet by the time we arrived.
We've decided we'll have to do that drive again during the day so we can actually enjoy the view.
