Spring Cleaning

It's time to do some spring cleaning! Since I last posted there has been Thanksgiving in L.A., a weekend at our friend's family cabin in Cayucos, a trip back to Washington for the holidays--where we attended the Egge family Christmas party and made a trip up to snowy Winthrop for Christmas with the Nelsons--a scenic drive back to Santa Cruz and a trip down to L.A. to meet my new niece. There have been other adventures, too--big and small--but these have been the best documented events of my last several months. Photos and lots of words below:

Thanksgiving in L.A.:

Cabin weekend in Cayucos:

Egge Family Christmas Party:

Christmas in Winthrop:

Drive back to Santa Cruz:

 Trip to L.A. to meet my niece for the very first time:

 For Thanksgiving, we stayed in a rental house with my parents and middle sister. Our visit was: runs through neighborhoods of Tudor, Spanish style and storybook houses, a steakhouse dinner with Christian's uncle and parents (who were in La Jolla for the holiday), walks with Buckwheat under palm trees and past green yards with succulent gardens and walls of climbing flowers, wandering under strings of Christmas lights at the Grove, a day of cooking by my brother-in-law (with a little help from the rest of the family), football on the television, holiday crackers with colored paper crowns and bad jokes, sausage stuffing, bacon brussel sprouts, a delicious turkey, good conversation, banana cream pie, Hunger Games at the Arc Light and leftovers for lunch.

Just after Thanksgiving in L.A., Christian and drove up the coast to meet up with our friends at a cabin in Cayucos. Our evenings were filled with old mixed tapes, family style meals, a jar of our friend's home distilled moonshine, dips in the hot tub under a black sky and bright stars, games of cribbage, cards, Balderdash and Ticket to Ride, rounds of ping pong, balance board attempts and talks late into the night. During the day there were attempts at archery, matches of corn hole and badminton, tournaments of cribbage and ping pong and hours spent trying to solve a marble solitaire board starting with an empty center hole (which upon our return to civilization, I learned cannot be done). It was a good weekend, tucked away in the hills and woods.

At the Egge Family Christmas party there were new babies to meet, a visit from Santa bearing gifts for the little ones, prime rib, salmon, popovers and sides galore, toasts made in honor of my late grandfather, time spent catching up with cousins, conversations with aunts and uncles and sugary desserts created at an ice cream sundae bar.

Winthrop was filled with big breakfasts, leisurely mornings, early afternoon Nordic skis to Mazama, on Jack's trail, around Freestone and up Cougar Bait with Buckwheat, hours spent over jigsaw puzzles of cupcakes and maps, night sledding, hilarious rounds of Telestrations, exchanging of presents, overstuffed stockings, cookie decorating, swings made by little cousins at a homemade Santa pinata, time spent with Christian's parents, grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins, family dinners of pasta, huge salads, turkey, take and bake pizzas and enchiladas, rousing matches of ping pong and late night movies.

While we were in Winthrop for Christmas, my oldest sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in L.A.--my first (and only) niece. Once back in California, we got to drive down to L.A. to meet her. She was tiny with adorable little toes, soft skin and pouty lips. She mostly slept but in her sleep she smiled and snuggled and was perfectly sweet. And sometimes she opened her eyes wide and looked right at us and we were giddy; other times she waved her arms around as if performing an interpretative dance and we laughed. My sister and brother-in-law were head over heels in love with her. It was wonderful to see them so happy. And I loved meeting my niece.

There have been many other events that have filled these last several months for me but these are the ones that are most dear to me. And now that I've shared them, I feel ready to move forward: into spring, into what these next months and this next year will bring. And also to (finally) post more photos from our honeymoon back in September.

It's official--I'm back!