Bits & Pieces of Christmas Cheer

Merry belated Christmas and a Happy New Year! My first New Years resolution is to post this before 2013, which I guess would be a pre-new years goal. Let's see if I can make it happen. 

So our Christmas adventures started out in Chico this year. In the midst of all the craziness we managed to throw up some decorations--meaning we quickly arranged them, we didn't barf them up. 

We also got poured on this year, which is always "good" for NorCal, but not for the clogged drain in our parking lot or for the 4th grade teacher who has to do inside recess. 

As our plate began to pile up with to-do's, we decided we had to cut back on some of our holiday traditions. This meant our tree-cutting date was transformed into picking a tree at Foodmax 4 minutes away. Not as scenic yes, but we were still lugging home a tree... and we managed to keep the tradition of having eyes that were bigger than our living room corner. 

We measured the height, but it was impossible to measure the width since it was all girdled up. 

We had to rearrange our whole living room to make it fit, but we still loved it in all its largeness. 

A week before break, a friendly face arrived from Turlock! We got to share breakfast and catch up on life. 

One tradition I couldn't let go of was our cookie plates. Despite the schedule crunch, we managed to bust out two different types of cookies this year and even deliver most of them. I'm convinced part of the tradition is being stressed since my roomies and I used to do this during finals week. 

Once school ended, we packed up and headed down to Oakland to spend a evening with some old friends from Thailand. 

The next morning we headed down to L.A. and spent an evening with my brother and sister-in-law. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture while we were there. 

Before we knew it we were driving into San Diego. My gramps took us straight to an pipe organ concert in Balboa Park~ which was pretty amazing. 

We spent a few days with Grampa (aka gung gung) cooking meals, traveling the coast, attending the Christmas eve service, watching movies and catching up. 

There was even a live manger scene at church. 

Christmas afternoon we took a hike in attempt to walk off all the yumminess we had devoured in the last few days. Gung gung took us on the sissy hike since I was out of shape. (don't worry it's already on my new years resolution list~ get out of "out of shape") 

We drove through UCSD~ here's the construction building: 

On Thursday we packed up our belongings and headed north to see Ry's aunt and cousins. We got to see some great galleries, and she made sure we got some gorgeous views of on the coast. We do miss the beach--that's one downfall to Chico. 

On our way up we stopped by my aunt and cousin's place in Cerritos, but again I failed at taking any pictures. 

And last, but certainly not least, we drove up to Turlock and stopped by to see Alyssa and her fambam. They took us weary travelers in and fed us pizza. We sipped on warm tea and munched on christmas cookies as we shared some of our recent adventures and shared in some good laughs. 

It feels good to be home in our somewhat scattered home, but we are so thankful to have gotten to see so many people that we love this Christmas. 

We are so blessed by our family and friends. We recognize how you represent God's love, perseverance, joy and hope. We pray we can do the same as we enter back into the craziness of this year. 

Much love, 

Naomi