Christmas Break

Whooo! My last post was number 100 for the blog. And that's pretty exciting right? Hmm... Well I recapped the wonderful year of 2011. And now I want to recap our wonderful Christmas too. So that's cause for celebration, right?

I had to work Christmas morning this year because I decided to take Thanksgiving off. I figured since we don't have any young kids at home it wouldn't be too bad working in the morning. Nate could sleep in and we could still spend the rest of the day together once I was done. But let me back track to Christmas eve. We decided to do our "traditional" Christmas Eve lunch of whatever you want to eat. I decided to make myself chicken parmigiana and Nate made himself red snapper with oysters.

This year we decided to get one a big gift to share with the help of some family money and only buy a couple other small presents for each other as well. We decided to get a camera since we both love taking pictures so much. And after looking around a bit and trying to decide which camera to get we decided on the Nikon d5100. We both love Nikon for DSLRs so it seemed like the way to go, especially cause we got a smashing deal from Costco. So we decided to open our present on Christmas Eve so that we could use it early (is that cheating). We went up to Salt Lake that night to see the lights at temple square and we knew the pictures of the night would look much better with the new camera so we went for it. Nate was also able to go Christmas morning to the canyon to take pictures with Aspen while I was working.

Christmas morning I worked from 8 to 12:30, which really wasn't that bad. The day was really schedule for us since we'd already opened our biggest present. But I was still excited to give Nate his gifts and see what he got me as well. Nate got me an awesome light box to take my food pictures in and he also bought me the domain lmld.org, which I love having for the cooking blog I have with my mom. It's still in the process of becoming my own, but I love it so much already. I just got Nate a few small things including a cook book (for the best burgers), a camping light, a sonicare toothbrush and a back and head scratcher. I think we were both very pleased with our presents for the day. And since the day was so casual we had a frozen pizza for dinner (talk about lazy, right?)

December 26th, we got up bright and early (more like 7:30) and packed up our car and headed to sunny southern California. Unfortunately we were stopped by a lot of traffic on the way (especially in Primm -- I guess everyone wanted to go to those after Christmas sales) and the ride took us a little longer than planned. But Aspen was an angel the whole car ride. We only stopped once for food and gas and Aspen only went #2 (he didn't even pee the whole time). He didn't whine or anything the whole time either. We didn't get to Fallbrook too late, because of the hour extra and so we were still able to see the Bean before she went to bed, and we were so happy to see the rest of the family too.

We were so lucky that we were both able to take a full week off work (and Nate even got paid for it - thank goodness for PTO). The weather was perfect the whole time we were there, with temperatures in the 70s. And we were happy to enjoy most of the week with a pretty relaxed schedule of fun.

Some of the activities we did do while we were there included (in random order):

• Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla. There were a lot of cool fish to see, and we both had fun experimenting around with our new camera. We also went down to see the seals at the cove, and got yelled at by an animal rights woman who didn't want us to get any closer to the seals ("don't cross the line")

• War Horse. We went to the theater to see the movie War Horse. It wasn't exactly awful, but I don't think its one I will need to see again. The movie was really long, but I didn't feel like very much happened in it. I think the book is probably good though.

• Breakfast with the Andersons. We went to my cousin's house for breakfast Saturday morning and enjoyed some waffles with some seriously good buttermilk syrup (that is a recipe I will definitely be needing). It was fun to catch up with some family that I don't see too often. We also played a game of horse. Of course, Nate won.

• Family Pictures. We all dressed up in navy and green and went to a local nursery to have Shelby take our pictures. I'm not going to lie, I love having my picture taken. I'm normally the one behind the camera at activities so I don't get to be in very many pictures. And I love dressing up and doing my hair nicely to have our picture taken. And I can't wait to get some prints of the pictures to decorate our home.

• Oceanside Beach. We sat on the beach with the whole family enjoying the sun and watching the surfers. Zoe absolutely loved going in the water and didn't care a bit that it was so cold, so a couple of us held her hand and helped her jump over the waves. Anthony and Nate picked me up by my hands and feet and dipped my back in the sandy water - so cold!

• Dog Beach. We found out the closest dog beach was in Del Mar and Nate and I and my parents took both Aspen and Natasha down to the beach. Aspen was quite a rascal chasing every single dog that ran by him. He was a little afraid of the waves at first, but once he realized he was free he loved it. Natasha was really timid at first, not wanting to wander anywhere, but near the end she was comfortable going a few yards away to sniff her fellow doggy friends and say hello.

• Helicopters. My dad got Nate a remote control helicopter for Christmas and he loved learning to fly it and trying to get it through different obstacles. He loved it so much they decided to order one for Anthony and the boys enjoyed crashing them into each other a lot.

• Boomers. There was a discount at boomers for miniature golf and go-karting with 10 tokens for 12 bucks or something. We all mini golfed, which was awesome, with Zoe stealing our balls from the ground every once in a while (we figured if she put our ball closer or in the hole it just helped us to get a better score). After mini golf my mom took Zoe on a ride inside while the rest of us went go-karting (even Grandma!). It was a blast, though I was a little scared to bump anyone, so anytime someone came near me I slowed down.

• Air and Space Museum. Every Tuesday Balboa Park has a different museum entrance for free, while we were there it was the Air & Space Museum. It was a pretty cool museum, and we got to see a lot of different planes that have existed throughout the years. Zoe especially liked getting into the helicopter and the miniature airplanes. Afterwards we wandered around Balboa Park for a bit. It was fun for me to see where Nate and I took our groomal pictures and relive that happy day.

• Hanging out with Friends. I was lucky enough to see some of my favorite friends from HS while we were home. I got to see Allison, Blythe, Carlie and Nattie and we had a blast catching up and playing games together. Hopefully Nate didn't mind being the only guy hanging out with us.

• Taking Pictures. It was amazing to get to California and see how green everything was, compared to the dull and dreary Utah. Nate and I enjoyed trying out new things on our camera, and Zoe even grabbed our small camera a couple times to be included too.