Tis the season...

I thought I would touch a bit on the Christmas now that it’s come and gone for 2014.

I will admit, there have been some brutal years where I wanted to ignore Christmas and all the hustle and bustle of the holiday madness.  Or very anti commercialism and chose to not acknowledge the holiday.  Or depressed.  Or super happy and loving every Christmas themed whatever.  Or even years where it went by so fast I didn’t really notice it.

But no matter what my mood or where I was in life there is always a little bit of Christmas magic.  I don’t care how depressed or anti Christmas I was there would always be a moment where the magic would get to me.  You can’t help but feel it in the air.  The excitement.  The anticipation.  The cities look a bit more sparkly.  Neighborhoods light up with Christmas lights.  Kids get more and more excited.  The energy is in the air.  Everywhere and it’s magical. 

My sister in law and I were having a really nostalgic conversation on Christmas day.  She said she awoke that morning and walked out and realized how much she missed that excitement as a kid.  That anticipation of what Santa may have brought.  I still have that.  I’m 38 years old and whether I want to embrace the holidays or not – I get excited. At least once. 

I have a mixed bag of Christmas memories.  Almost every year mom makes her yummy coffee cake.  When my folks split my dad would still come over Christmas morning and make my brother and I wait in our rooms while he brought in gifts.  One year as kids we heard Santa’s sleighbells and footsteps on the roof.  (Thank GAWD my father didn’t fall off).  There were always bites out of the cookies we left.  I used to have a holiday open house where friends would come and go throughout the day.  One year, a particularly bitter year for everyone it seemed, I had a small party on Xmas eve.  People needed company that year and there was a lot of sadness but I knew we all needed it.  I’ve had a few friends bring up that rough year even now saying they don’t know what they would have done had they not had that gathering.   When I was married we would trek down to San Diego on Xmas eve and eat out.  The family would get knackered and eat and drink and laugh all through the night.  My very 1^st boyfriends gave me a kitten one Christmas.  Talk about a Jami freakout!  I remember this weird bell thing that had tinsel like stuff hanging off of it at my grandparents Flower Street house.  I used to love to stand under that and blow at the tinsel stuff.  My neighbors growing up would make tamales all night and bring us some the next day.  I looked forward to that every Christmas.  So many memories.  So many different ways of celebration.  I do have to admit – we don’t really have much “tradition” in our family.  I hear stories of people who do this certain thing every year because it’s tradition.  But I like the fact that mine is always different. 

Last year was a bit of a blur.  We lost my Papa just before Thanksgiving as you readers know, and the holidays were really rough and weirdly not remembered too well.  But this year we’re back on track.  As I get older I appreciate things more.  I want to remember more and I certainly want to document more so here we go.  Christmas 2014:

You saw the prior blog.  Mom and I did make it to one Christmas Event.  But unfortunately that’s all we got to this year.

One night I worked and event down in Costa Mesa and decided to stay down there and wander South Coast Plaza and enjoy their décor.  My friend David joined up with me later on and we wandered around, had some dinner and I did a bit of shopping.  I do wish I took a few more shots.  The place really goes all out!

This tree was just glorious

My dear friends Julie and Gabe always throw a great little Christmas Party.  They usually pick a theme each year, but this year just told everyone to dress festive.  We have a dirty Santa gift exchange that's always a hoot.  I got to see some old friends I haven't seen in ages and meet some new ones.  They also got a new kitten so I of course was spending lots of time visiting her.  So cute!!!

Crazy Cat Lady

Julie always does an adorable spread!

Court, D, Shane, Roger and Holly

Mrs. Claus

Loved the variety of ugly sweaters!

Santa with the singles!

Sibs

Chapman University always has a few things going on and one of them was our Cookie Exchange.  It used to be thrown by a couple of very spirted gals but they aren’t there anymore.  The gal who did it last year doesn't seem to into throwing work events so it was a very sad turn out and somewhat awkward.  So this year my friend Tianna and I asked to take it on and it was a huge success!  We made prizes for Most Creative, Most Unique, Best Tasting and Best Decorated.  We had a bit of décor, some cider, brought boxes for peeps to take home cookies and it ended up being a really fun event.  We got lot of positive feedback and are officially in charge of it from now on.  It was so cool to throw such a great event!

My infamous Peanut Butter Balls

Our EVP always throws a party at her home the Friday before our break for our department.  She lives in a lovely home up in the fancy northern part of Orange.  She has it catered and a bartender serving beer and wine.  We always joke it’s a tad bit awkward because it’s work and you’re along side your co-workers and superiors but it’s a truly lovely event.  This year a few students were playing the piano and some folks sang along to Christmas songs.  They had a couple of games – a sticker on your back and you had to guess what it was by asking people yes or no questions.  The shot below my co-hort and I joked that we got the religious ones and we’re not religious.  There was also a cute little questionnaire you had to fill out with different people for different things such as “Who has never had a White Christmas” and “Who is already done Christmas Shopping”.  There was no prize but I of course had to run around and be the 1^st to get it all answered which I think I did!

Best ugly sweater!

Innkeeper?!  Really!?

The University always does a campus wide party on our last day.  It’s a breakfast followed by a large raffle.  I was a prize runner this year and they gave out gift cards, a couple of TV’s, some Apple contraptions, gift baskets and 4 Disneyland Hopper Passes.  I would say there’s about 750-1000 people that go every year and the way they do it now is your name gets put in a big basket and you can only win once and whatever they give out at that time.  One of the top prizes was the Disneyland tix.  And guess who won?!  That’s right!  This lucky girl right here!!!  I was told I looked like I had just one Miss America.  The president called me up and said “Where are you going?”  I squealed and shot my hands up into the air “I’m going to Disneyland!!!”  What made me even more happy was how happy so many people were that I won!  I certainly felt the love!  Now, the main reason I was freaking out with happiness was not because I love Disneyland ( I mean it’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not obsessed) but my mother does.  This woman is a total Disnoid and turns into a 5 year old child when we go.  She had such a rough past year with Papa passing, cleaning out my grandparents house, gramma moving in, selling the house, etc etc etc that this could not have landed in my hands at a more perfect time.  That woman deserves the world.  Since I can’t give her that I can at least give her a few days of fun next year!  Check out the adorable video of her below.  I gave her the tix Xmas eve morning because I could not wait until Christmas.

The Sunday before Christmas I performed in the one night A-Dolts Only Xmas Pageant again and recycled the hoochie Mrs. Clause.  Super fun and Super inappropriate as always!  Place was sold out and a lot of folks said it was their favorite yet.  A couple of rehearsal shot below.

Monday night Cesar came over and de-flowered my kitchen making us yummy shrimp tacos.  We shared a bottle of one of my Napa wines and polished off almost the rest of my cookie exchange cookies.

Tuesday night Libby and her Hubs came over and we walked to the Circle and had a really lovely dinner at Filling Station.  I don’t get to see Glen as often and they were thrilled to have an “adult dinner” as they called it.  Such a perfect night with perfect company.  We exchanged gifts and she sent me a picture the next morning of the darling little Hailey with the gift I gave her.

Christmas Eve I had dinner with Ber and Coyan.  We hit up this really great sushi place Tab-Ji Sushi that I forget is here.  It’s a nice little sit down and the sushi is yummy.  I forgot to take a picture but we had a great night of catching up and celebrating the holiday. 

Christmas Day was just perfect.  We went to moms in the morning and she made her coffee cake of course.  We opened presies and just snacked throughout the afternoon.  I made these cute little Grinch head fruit kabobs and my peanut butter balls that mom refused to share! Ha ha!  Danelle and I split a bottle of champagne and drank mimosas.  Then we headed over to dads house about 4:30ish and he made us a yummy steak dinner with steak he got from the butcher!  I had a New York.  It was huge!!!!  In fact I couldn’t finish it so I brought half home and had a yummy steak sandwich the next day!  I believe I may have also polished off an entire bottle of wine.  I actually made a Chocolate Pound Cake from Tastefully Simple and made trifles.  Carmel, Cool Whip and rasberries on the cake.  I mean YUM!!!!  I was so glad it turned out good! 

Lori showing off her new coat

I gave Shane a potato pellet gun - told him that's the only gun he'd get from me :)

Mmmmmmisoas!

Danelle painted over an old painting of my gramma's that she was going to toss!

My contribution

I headed home fat and happy.

The day after Christmas I got to see my boys in town from New York.  We had lunch and got to catch up.  That night sushi with Alex and lots of laughs and fun.

Saturday after Christmas I took Lib for a morning pedi then we had a girls dinner at Conco de Oro for Libby’s birthday and I over ate yummy pasta.

This morning a lovely Sunday Brunch with Tianna at Orange Mining Company.  I forgot how much I love that place and the view was just spectacular.

So – needless to say I’m totally eating my way through my holiday break and I don’t plan to stop!  Ha!

But back to Christmas.  I did watch some of my favorite Christmas movies over the holiday.  I decorated with my pink tree and light in my little shack giving it a warm romantic glow. 

I had 4 different Xmas shirts that got some good wear.  I made and ate so much.  Drank even more.   I visited the lights on Pine Street many times.  I took Amber for a light drive after dinner Xmas eve and Alex for one after dinner on Friday so I did get my Xmas light time in.  I would make detours and drive down other streets randomly on random nights if I saw some good ones.  Here’s a few:

I saw the décor all over place and took in every Christmas sight I could.  It’s been a truly lovely holiday and as fast as it came and went I feel I treasured every moment!  Hope you all enjoyed yours as well!

Happy Holidays my dear readers!

Christmas Lights at Mission Inn...

I had seen an article in Westways magainze about this place called Mission Inn in Downtown Riverside that was supposed to be a pretty awesome place to see at Christmas.  They had something called Festival of Lights.

Mom and I decided to head down around 2pm on a Sunday.  The place was packed.  I had also brought my brand spankin new fancy camera that I'm trying to learn out how to use as you'll see in the pictures below.

My very 1st picture on the new camera:

We hit an adorable little shop first where we made quite a few purchases and discussed definitely coming back when it's not the holidays to check out the local shops.  It seems like a fun little area!

We wandered into the Inn and around the area getting excited as to what it was going to look like with all the lights!

We then tried to find a place to eat.  This is where we learned our 1st hard lesson.  We either should have made reservations somewhere or eaten earlier.  Everything was over an hour wait.   After trying multiple places that were hard to find in the 1st place due to not knowing the area, and myself getting to be quite hangry, a lovely hostess suggested ProAbition.  A little bar/restaurant across the way.  It was perfect!  We sat out on the patio and were able to see all the hub bub around us.  I promptly ordered an Irony Pinot Noir because the title was perfect for what we had gone through so far.  As we waited for our food and the sun started to set the carriages started to appear!

I had read about the horse drawn carriages and there were so many different kinds!  So very cool!  Mom and I both ordered burgers - they came on preztel buns!  Yummy!  I started trying to futz with my low light on my camera and shot my beautiful mom!

We inhaled our dinner, split a giant chocolate tower dessert and I downed a 2nd glass of wine and the lights sprung on around us.

I had our waiter take a picture with my phone for Instagram.

The bummer portion of the evening happened when we walked back over to the Inn and realized there was a huge line to get in.  Um.  Ok.  We were literally just in there an hour ago but I guess with the lights it changes things.  So we got in line.

While we were waiting the trio in front of us ended up being a gal who knew my dad.  Her ex hubs was a fireman.  Go figure!  She gave mom and I each a gingerbread cookie and we all chatted.  While we were still waiting I ran off and took a few shots.

45 minutes later our turn arrived to walk into the Inn.  These were the 1st pictures I took:

We then were led away from the really cool light display that we were all there to see and told we couldn't go that way.  What?!  People were furious!  I approached a gal and asked WTF and she basically told me due to the Fire Marshall.  Well they should tell the people out there in line that are now probably waiting a lot longer than we did that they only get to walk through and look at the pics above and the Xmas tree in the lobby.  I mean it was pretty but not worth waiting 45 minutes to see!  Although look how cute mom and I are in front of it.

So out the door we were led.  Mom and I were super disappointed and now the place was uber packed so still determined to see what we could we darted across the street to get a larger view.  So pretty!

Then one of my favorite pictures of the night because I sort of learned how to use the Panoramic feature:

We then darted back across the street when we realized you could walk sort of in front of the lights we wanted to see.  So here's a couple shots I took from afar.

Pretty cool right?  Too bad we couldn't go into see them!  Grumble.

We then headed over to another part that had some fun vendors I wanted mom to check out.  That's where I found a Skeleanimals Santa Hat!!  Color me thrilled!

They also had a nifty looking tree.

We made a few purchases and headed out.

Mom and I of course had a wonderful time but we did learn a few lessons.  Eat early and make reservations.  In fact - make reservations inside where the lights are and then you'll at least already be in there.  Get there early.  Even earlier than we did.  It's an adorable place so you can walk around and shop before the madness happens.  Come with patience.  You'll need it.

It is a fun little adventure though.  They have the carriages, lights, Santa, Reindeer, an Ice Skating Rink, a band an lots of vendors!

The place was really pretty and I'd love to go again with our learned lessons!