A Very California Christmas

I must confess, I have been really lazy with my blogging lately. Even so, I think my first California Christmas still deserves a blog post. So here goes...

On Christmas Eve, Roy and I walked down to Mandy and Paul's house to spend the evening there. We weren't there for long because we found out that Mandy and Paul got engaged earlier that evening. Apparently they went for a walk up Mt. Rubidoux and he popped the question with a huge, obviously fake diamond ring (that was actually big enough to be a bracelet if you have really skinny arms). Paul has been working on designing Mandy's ring for quite some time now, but it's still not ready (hence, the gigantic ring). Mandy had dropped plenty of hints that she was totally ready to get married and would have said "yes" to an onion ring (her words), so Paul bit the bullet and proposed.

Naturally, Mandy was all excited and ready to collect the bridal magazines and books that I'd been hanging onto just for her, so she and I walked back to our house and picked them up. (I am so glad to be rid of those things!) We then walked back to their house and spent the evening watching Home Alone, eating pizza and cookies, and talking about wedding stuff. Patty, Cherie, my brother-in-law Jake, and my niece and nephews were all there as well.

Here's a pic of the kids (from left to right - Merlin, Gwen, and Noah):

I captured this picture of Cerby early on in the evening. Obviously, he ranks high on the cuteness scale.

Roy and I went home and crashed. We woke up at 6 AM on Christmas morning and opened our gifts. Even Kerwin and Woogas got gifts! I was so happy that he got me the camera I'd been wanting! After we were all done, we left the living room floor covered in wrapping paper and walked over to my mother-in-law's house to witness our nephews and niece opening presents. They got so much stuff! I don't think I ever got that much stuff as a kid. They each got a new bike, clothes, and toys. Each of the boys got a new skateboard, and my niece got a new scooter.

Here they are, waiting anxiously for presents:

I just love this picture of Merlin. It's the epitome of childhood Christmas magic.

Later on, we went over to Roy's grandparents' house for lunch and afternoon family catching-up. One of Roy's cousins also got engaged (on Halloween), and another set of cousins are expecting their third child. So it looks like the family's going to be expanding in a big way in 2008! We did our Secret Santa gift exchange, and that's when I got my beloved Photoshop from Patty. I had drawn Jake's name, so I wrapped up some cash in a box, which was then placed in a larger box, which was placed in an even larger box, which was placed in a bag. Yeah, I'm a brat, but I've always wanted to do that!

I spent much of the day taking pictures with my new camera. It is so awesome. I can't believe the difference in quality from my point-and-shoot. Here are some of my favorite pics that I took. They're not all that special, but they would have been impossible to take with my other camera.






Anyway, we left a few hours later and went home. Mandy, Paul, and Patty ended up coming over that night and staying for several hours so Mandy could move her iTunes library from Roy's computer to her laptop. What started out as a relatively simple (but lengthy) procedure ended up being very complicated, and it took much longer than expected. Once they left, we called it a night, as we were both really tired by that point. And the next day, we got up and went to work. Boooooo.

I really enjoyed my first married Christmas here in the lovely state of California. It was such a relief not to have to travel in the Christmas chaos. I did miss my family, but I think it's important that Roy and I have our own traditions as well as try to spend this very important holiday with his family as well.

Happy Holidays!