The Blah...g: Christmas

Yes.....I'm posting about Christmas. I'm aware. I'm also aware that the year is far more than half over and that this coming Christmas is closer than last. I'm doing it for the sake of documentation and remembering. If I call it a "FLASHBACK" post, does that make it more legit? :)

We got a stretched out Christmas celebration since we decided to stop and see family in Utah on the way to California. We wanted to get there and get settled before Van started work with the new year, so we decided to have Christmas on our own and make sure we saw family beforehand. We managed to get in a lot of festive fun on the way!

Daphne feeding fish at a neighbors house in Midway

Sittin pretty with the Homestead frog

Looking into the crater at the Homestead

At her second cousins choir program at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Blurry, but cute. Daphne LOVES Elke

At the creche exhibit in Midway. Good thing the robe hides my belly, or this would be a pretty confusing scenario

After our fun in Utah, we journeyed to Cali, stopping in Vegas along the way to see Jennie and Jer. We moved in like 2 weeks before Christmas, but since I was in MEGA nesting mode, I managed to get unpacked AND decorated for Christmas in time to celebrate! Where has *that* energy gone. I would like it back now that she's out of my belly. It was our first Christmas celebrating at home and we really enjoyed it, however strange it felt to have it sunny and warmish. While it's very mild here, it still gets into the 40's at night. Our old apartment is really horribly insulated and has paper thin, rattly old windows, so it doesn't keep that cold out. The only heating we have is electric heat in the ceiling, which works great in the bedrooms, but only serves to heat the floor of the upstairs rooms on the main floor and drive up our bill with out touching the chill. So honestly, we froze during winter here. It was super chilly every morning when we'd get up and go downstairs, even with my own personal internal heater! Our sweatshirts, slippers and warm jammies were well used, and I didn't even have to give up my hot chocolate like I thought I would!

Pete and his kids joined us for Christmas day and we had a really lovely time. We also got to explore a little bit of our new home and went to the La Brea tar pits with Pete, Molly and Ethan. In the middle of LA, there are active tar pits that they are still extracting prehistoric fossils from. It's pretty cool. There's a museum and lots of space around it, with cones up warning you where not to step unless you want to put your foot in tar. Kind of strange to see hot tar bubbling up in pools in the middle of a big city! Here are a few pics of our Christmas!

The Huntington Beach Christmas boat parade. I thought it would be the perfect holiday event for our first Christmas on the coast. We ended up driving a couple of hours to see a few lit up boats float past. Unbeknownst to us, many of the boat owners were protesting a new tax and didn't participate in what NY Times had once called one of the top 10 holiday events in the nation. Boooo.....