Christmas 'Break' & New Years

Remember when we had Christmas 'break' and didn't have school and got to visit our parents for the holidays?  Well, apparently we still do that, regardless of no school, kids in tow.  Not sure how many more years we can do Christmas away from home, but at least now it's still possible and still so fun and refreshing.  Talk to me again in a year or two when our fam has grown to 5.  That might be the breaking point.

Anywayz... we went to southern CA for about 9 days and had such a blast catching up with Bart's family and our old college friends.  It's so nice to see people we haven't seen in year(s) and catch up.  It's always nice to fall back into easy conversation too, like you see them all the time and haven't missed a beat.  I thank instagram for that.  I know that sounds silly, but it's true.

Christmas Eve was at the Durham's new house where all the Durham extended family came to party.  It was not as boisterous as previous years, seeing as only 2 of the Durham brothers were in town, but it was super fun nonetheless.

Christmas day was split between the Durhams in the morning and the Frandsens at night.  Isla was soooo excited for Santa and presents and getting her long desired Rarity pony.  This was her opening it Christmas morning.  I love how a $5 toy is the thing she wanted most this year.  Fabulous.

Loie was loving opening all the presents and tearing the paper.  I can just see it all through her eyes, everyone super happy, clapping, shiney paper, fun new toys; it's got to be pretty awesome for a little kid to see all that for the first time.

The rest of the week was spent meeting up with friends (Derek and Brittney, Clark and Moranda, and a handful of others) and trying to hit all the favorite locations before we left.  Plus seeing Les Mis and Anna Karennina. (Les Mis was AMAZING!!! Totally conned Bart into watching it with me - he had no idea it was singing the whole time...)

Sunset at Salt Creek

Hanging out with the Fieldings.  Violet and Isla were so cute together.  Like mini Meems and mini Mo.

A little shopping and Ferris Wheel riding at Spectrum. 

San Clemente Pier with Kim, Scott, and Jake.

Of course we all got sick the day before we left so the drive home was super fun, (read: worst).  The one cool thing we did on the drive home was take a crazy off-roading 'short-cut' to avoid bumper to bumper traffic at the CA/NV state line.  I've always wanted to try it.

The traffic we avoided.

The next week, including New Years Eve and New Years day, and the remaining days Bart had off from work, were spent moving from couch to bed, leaving a trail of tissues everywhere we went, and in general wanting to die or sleep forever.  Isla and I are basically over it all, Bart is almost there with the help of antibiotics, and Loie is slowly recovering due to the double ear infection she got along the way. Yikes.  Happy New Year to us.  So if I haven't blogged in a while, it's because of all this 'fun' we've been having since we got home last monday.  Let's just hope we can make it through the winter with minimal sickness, at least compared to last year.