Heading Back Home

We have had a very pleasant Christmas, especially the last two days.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to my brother-in-law's step-dad's house that he shares with his new wife. Craig's mother also came along. This was a situation fraught with potential akwardness. However, everything went very smoothly. Craig's dad and his wife were incredibly gracious, and the evening was nice. We ended it with driving down "Candy Cane Lane," one of those streets where everyone goes bananas with the lights and holiday decorating.

Christmas Day was very nice and relaxing. We started with breakfast. Haley and I knocked out sausages, eggs, fruit salad, and egg-nog french toast. (Very tasty by the way, but I recommend using low fat egg nog.) And of course, there were plenty of champagne drinks. :)

Emerson cracked me up because both Justin and I were up before her, but once she got up, she was very excited. She played with her stocking toys for a good hour. Got to love the one-dollar section of Target. Eventually, after breakfast, we got to the present opening. She was very excited for her Hello Kitty items. The Madeline book I got her...not so much.

Later that afternoon, we drove the hour to Palm Springs and had some appetizers and drinks at a restaurant that had booths that were big swings. Odd, but fun. And the appetizers--fried green beans and bbq pork flatbread--were delicious. The mango mojito was not too bad either.

We drove back to 29 and enjoyed a ham dinner. For the first time in my life I had the traditional green bean casserole and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. We ended the evening sitting outside by a fire drinking Mexican hot chocolate. If anyone wishes to try this, I recommend using Ybarra's and tequila and kaluha. Very tasty.

Today we are heading back. It will be a long drive (ugh), but I am happy to head home. Time to rescue my cats, get back to a reasonable diet, and do that wacky thing I haven't done in so long...exercise.