I put the last lingering Christmas decoration, our dancing snowman, away today. I really miss the way my mantle looked this Christmas. Steve's Grandma Z knitted his and my stockings and Steve's sister, Sarah, knitted all of my children's stockings. They are great treasures to us. I added that mitten garland to my collection just this year and I am in love with it. I haven't really blogged about any of our Christmas vacation, but I am sort of overwhelmed by how much there is to blog about.
California weather was amazing. It was in the 70s every single day we were there. It did make me wonder why we don't just live there, but I do really love the seasons in Virginia. Even winter has its virtues.
Several of us ran around the Rose Bowl the morning after Christmas. It was wonderful. Even after taking a break from running after the half marathon, Steve and I were able to run the three miles comfortably, which felt good.
Steve and I attended my 10-year high school reunion. We had a really great time. I felt so much love for everyone there and I was so happy to hear of everyone's successes.
I loved catching up with the school librarians and our old French teacher, who feel more like my favorite girlfriends than anything else. Marc, my half-Chinese "brother" and fifth grade boyfriend was there. Marc and I didn't really talk to each other much in fifth grade, we just held hands during the "couple's skate" on our elementary school's many field trips to Fiesta roller rink. We were better friends in high school.
Vincent, my cheerful friend with the most infectious laugh, was there with his wonderful and completely-worthy-of-him girlfriend. Steve enjoyed catching up with old coaches, teachers, and teammates. None of my close girlfriends attended the reunion, which made me sad, but it is interesting and wonderful how ten years sort of removes old barriers between people.
We attended the all-school reunion afterwards, where I saw a few of my beloved fellow cheerleaders, Alex, Natalie, and Brooke. I love those girls so much.
Brad and Ie Mei, Jeremy and Michiko, and Steve and I took our families to Santa Monica Pier just to walk around, and then we settled down on the sand to let the cousins play. I really love this picture of my beautiful sister, Ie Mei:
It was a very dreamy day and it sufficiently tired out all the little ones.
My little sister got married on New Year's Eve and my sweet baby nephew, William, was blessed the day after in San Diego. We were so happy to be able to participate in both events, but I am kicking myself for not having one single picture of that beautiful child on my iPod Touch.
We spent a couple of days with Zack and Ana in San Diego and made a morning trip to the beach, which turned out to be quite chilly. Jack, Mei Li and Stephen played so well together. What a blessing to have so many cousins to love and be loved by.
While in LA, the W cousins played at Lacey park several times. It's such a pretty park. We went once more on our last day in California. Sadly, all the cousins were gone by then.
I'm pretty sure we'll never live in California again, but I'm just grateful it's a place we get to visit at least once a year. Now I just have to blog about Christmas Day before I can move on to present life. I have this great sense of loss for the days I've neglected to write about. I hate that.
5 comments:
Love it, Ie Li! It is never too late to write about your Christmas holiday, either. I get stuck in those traps of thinking that I cant write about not until I catch up on then or other elements of perfectionism, but the only perfect is just getting it down, in whatever order you need. Anyway, enough lecturing. I wish I could move to southern California, and this post only heightened that desire. I also wish our kids were cousins, but I guess then they could not marry, which I also desire. You have the most gorgeous photos. Were some of them instamatic ones?
Alexandra, many of the pictures were instagram pictures. It's such a fun little app.
P.S. I'm going to come see you soon.
This reminds me. Next Christmas we should plan a meet-up at the mall, or Paseo or wherever it was. Hannah told me she ran into you while shopping over the break! Too funny!!
It was so fun to see Hannah at Nordstrom Rack. We were carrying around the same Seychelles turquoise shoes. I was supposed to be looking for gray pumps for the wedding, which I found too. As soon as I saw her, I was hoping you were somewhere in the store too. :)
It was fun to see you and Steve at your reunion, too! And such a wonderful surprise. I love reading your blog.
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