This year will be our first Christmas in the new house in California. It was an eventful holiday season for us. We moved into the house in October, and then traveled for a week at Thanksgiving to visit family on the east coast. A week after returning, I left for Italy for a few days on a business trip. Jay and Meow held down the fort while I was away. We had put up the tree before I left, but Jay hung the outside lights to surprise me when I got back.
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| Jay wore his new antlers and made egg nog to enjoy while decorating the tree. |
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| The finished tree! We listen to Christmas carols and drink egg nog while we decorate. Each ornament is from a trip we've taken together. |
We ran the Santa Monica-Venice Beach Christmas 5K, and that was an adventure - if you saw the pictures on Facebook, you know that we were drenched. It only rains in the winter in Southern California, and that day was the lucky day. Not so lucky for us.
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| My nutcracker collection continues to grow. |
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| My Christmas carousel from Germany. |
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| Even the entryway got a little snazzy! |
We really enjoyed being in our cozy little home for the holidays. The nice thing has been the two week stay-cation I got this year. We have taken advantage of this time to put in a new wall on the driveway, clean out the garage and organize it, work on the lawn, and begin planning and prepping for the hallway bathroom renovation. I am very grateful our house has two bathrooms, so we don't have to rush with this bathroom remodel.
