San Diego and Christmas

Well, Garrett and I just got back from a nice two week vacation in San Diego visiting his family and we had so much fun. Unfortunately, we got a lot of rain and some cold weather, but seeing as I was camped out on the couch most of the time anyway, it was still a lot of fun. We built fires in the fireplace, drank bittersweet hot cocoa (I just can't handle the sweet stuff right now), watched movies, played a lot of games, and played a lot of bowling on his parents' new Wii. It was just nice and relaxing for the both of us. Garrett's mother, Claire, spoiled me and got me plenty of preggie pops, sour candy, and Chex cereal--some of the few foods I can manage to keep down.

This was a typical day for me:

(though I was usually awake. Oh, and this is the beautiful quilt Adrienne made us for Christmas. I LOVE it! Thanks, Adee!)

I did have some good days, though, which we took advantage of and went to the temple grounds to hear a choir sing, visited the Wild Animal Park, went for a drive through the beautiful San Pasqual Valley, and went to Balboa Park.

Here's us at the Wild Animal Park with some very friendly little parrots...

...perhaps a little too friendly, seeing as one kept trying to eat Claire's earring!

And as soon as the sun went down, the park was freezing and I needed a blanket.

At the entrance of the park:

Me and Claire, complete with a sour sucker to help prevent me from puking.

And here is the beautiful Christmas tree we got to put our presents underneath. Sid and Claire had the house decorated so nicely.

CANDLE BURNING!
So this is a Christensen tradition that started when Garrett's dad was a kid. His dad was playing with matches once and almost burned down the barn, so his mother cit him a deal: he could play with matches one day a year--on Christmas Eve--but that was it. So their family began burning candles on Christmas Eve, and all the 110+ Christensens still carry on the tradition. It was my first candle burning party, and although we were all just a bunch of adults there burning the candles this year, it was a whole lot of fun! I can see any little boy being in heaven having limitless matches at his disposal just to annihilate a candle. And I guess this tradition has been pretty effective in keeping the Christensen boys from burning down buildings.



Our last day in San Diego was so nice and sunny; it was hard to have to come back to the snow. Thanks Sid and Claire for spoiling us rotten and giving us a fun, relaxing vacation. We can't wait to visit again!