A California Christmas :: Part II

(continued from "A California Christmas::Part I")

Christmas Day

We woke up on Christmas morning and started with the Rosenfeld's Christmas Morning Cheese Danish breakfast.

And mimosas

After breakfast Amelia & Andy wanted to see if Santa came.

Which he did!

He even left us one of his helpers...

SANDY Claus

Amelia wanted to help Mike open his stocking, hoping there would more doggie treats in it.

I got a Chick-Fil-A giftcard....

But the nearest Chick-Fil-A is 5 hours away!

Amelia sporting her Christmas bow. She was falling asleep sitting up!

Then it was time for our Christmas naps! 

The whole house took one.

Andy's favorite napping spot...

is under the couch!

So, our first Sunday at St. John's Chapel, we met Mrs. Glori Evert at the bake sale. About 30 seconds into meeting her, we found ourselves with plans for Christmas dinner. I was thrilled! Here was this sweet, little British woman so kindly opening her home to us on Christmas, and we were more than open to going. 

Glori also invited another family for Christmas dinner too: Kenny, Brenda, Virginia and Eli Enny. We had a lovely five-course meal, complete with fig pudding en flambe! I wish I could have taken pictures of it all, but I thought it would be rude to pull out my camera all through dinner. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Here's her Christmas table

She had Advent calendars and a little gift for each of the children. Can you see the cylinder-type things next to each plate? Those are called crackers. You pull them apart and out pops a present. I got a mini-screwdriver, and Mike got a manicure kit!

Glori is one of the most enthusiastic people I know. She truly loves her life and is grateful for all of her blessings. She loves her husband, "My Bill" more than anything, even still after he's been gone almost 5 years. How sweet! Her spirit is contagious! She has quickly become one of my best friends in Monterey. She has lived here for 46 years! She knows the area well and has been so kind to introduce it to me. I am thankful to God for bringing Glori into my life.

The O'Donnells and Glori

The Enny Family and Glori

 

What a spectacular first Christmas we had!!! I cannot wait for the many, many more to come! Though Mike will most likely be deployed for some of them, we'll always remember our first Christmas!

A California Christmas :: Part I

I've been so excited to write this post! Even though Mike and I dated for four years before we were married, we never spent one Christmas together. He was deployed for two of them, he went to his parent's for one (actually I did fly there the day after Christmas, but it's still not Christmas.) and last year our wedding was three weeks after Christmas, so again we each spent it with our families. Needless to say, it was about time we spent a Christmas together!

Although I was very excited about spending a Christmas with Mike, I was extremely nervous about it being my first one away from my parents, or not even spending it with his family for that matter. It was just us and the pups across the country in California, and I was nervous about whether I would actually be able to enjoy it as much as I have all the past Christmases. My mom always makes Christmas special, and I knew I would miss it.

I did miss my family, BUT I absolutely LOVED spending EVERY minute of the Christmas season with my husband and two pups!!! I passed some traditions along, as did he, and we made some new ones of our own. What more could a gal want???

We moved into our house on November 28, right at the beginning of the Christmas season! We unpacked the important things, but I was mostly concerned about decorating for Christmas! It's quite a task to unpack AND decorate for Christmas at the same time, but I did not care!

Here's how our Christmas went:

We got a tree! It wouldn't stand straight, so we bought a new stand and trimmed some branches.

I think white lights are gorgeous, but my mother grew up with big colored lights, I grew up with big colored lights, and my children will grow up with them too! I got butterflies when we plugged them in to check for any lights that were out! 

Mike prefers white lights because he grew up with them. Someday we'll have two trees, one with white and one with colored, but for now, we have colored. I love them!

My sweet mother, made our stockings!

One side has our names on them, and when the time comes, we'll hang them the other way where "Dad" and "Mom" will be showing. My mom's the best!!!

We don't have a fireplace, so Mike hung the stockings by the stairs with care!

We decorated the outside of our house. It wasn't my favorite look, but we had just moved in and did what we could at that point.

I made homemade eggnog, something I've always wanted to do. It was yummy!

Christmas Eve: 

We started the day ice skating by the bay!

Then we took the pups to Carmel Beach, where pups can run freely off the leash.

Needless to say, they LOVED it!

They even made some friends!

 

I made Christmas Eve dinner because we had plans for Christmas dinner. 

Which wouldn't be complete without layered salad, shoepeg corn casserole and wine!

 

We misjudged the time for the turkey to cook, so we had to scarf this down and rush to get ready for church.

We went to the 7:00 service at this wonderful little church we love, St. John's Chapel. It was dark so I couldn't get a great picture of it.

We were going to go to Carmel Beach and have a fire, but we got out of church later than expected, so we settled for the fire pits at The Intercontinental Hotel, The Clement Monterey, which is on the water.

I had a flight of champagne which included (in order from left to right):

Dom Perignon, Epernay, 2000, France

Piper-Heidsieck, Brut, NV, France

Vueve Clicqout, Champagne, Yellow Label, NV, France

Piper-Heidsieck, Rose Sauvage, NV, France

For the record, my favorite was the Vueve Clicqout, so of course I had to have a full glass too!

Then we dreamt of sugar plum fairies and waited for Santa...

To be continued in "A California Christmas::Part II"...

Welcome to Monterey, California!!!

After we left the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, we spent the rest of Thanksgiving driving. Now, Mike drove almost the entire trip, but don't let him fool you, I drove some too!

 Proof

I think Mike would have rather written this particular post. Events occurred that I could choose to leave out, or "forget," but that would be doing my journalism degree no justice. So, here we go.

Mike drove from Fayetteville, N.C. to Asheville, N.C. to Columbus, Ga. to Tuscaloosa, Ala. to Memphis, Tenn. to Oklahoma City, Okla. to Albuquerque, N.M. through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest across most of Arizona. 

Mike's Drive

I started driving about 30 minutes outside of California. The sun had set, and we were in the middle of nowhere.

My Drive

As soon as we entered California, we had to stop for an inspection. My heart was pounding. I didn't know what the inspection was for, Mike was asleep, and I was nervous. I get nervous whenever I see a cop car behind me, even if I'm going the speed limit, wearing my seat belt and properly using my blinkers. I don't know why I do this, but I do. I pulled into the inspection station, Mike was sleeping, the inspector informed me that it was an agricultural inspection. Whew! I certainly was not worried. He used his flashlight to search our jam-packed Yukon and camry towed behind it. He spent extra time at the camry and then asked if I was bringing any fruit. Nooo. And if I was, it would be up here in the car we're in, not stuffed in the back of the car we're towing. We'd be eating it. I, with my nice southern manners, offered to open the cars and let him search. He did not take me up on it, but boy, oh boy, did my husband jump up as soon as we pulled off and told me to NEVER OFFER TO OPEN THE CAR. NEVER!!! Okay. Lesson 1.

When I started driving, my instructions were to wake up Mike when we got to Barstow (about 2 hours into my leg of the drive). However, he was sleeping so soundly that I chose to let him continue to sleep. The gas gauge was getting low, so I was aware and looking for gas exit signs. The next thing I know, I found us on the other side of Barstow, not having gotten gas, and continued to drive. This is when I pulled out my trusty iPhone and searched for gas. Aha! There was a gas station about 4 miles away (already 10 miles outside of Barstow, gas light has been on for all 10 of those miles). So I followed the map, and pulled into the gas station. CLOSED. Of course it was! It was, afterall, Thanksgiving Day night and this was a mom-and-pop gas station. This is where I began to sweat, my heart pounding. I didn't want to wake up Mike. Now I really didn't want to wake up Mike. I REALLLLYYY DID NOT WANT to wake up Mike and have to tell him that I did not do what he asked. I did not wake him up in Barstow. Now we're in the middle of the Mojave Desert and iPhone says the nearest gas station is 30 MILES AWAY! I did not want to wake him up. 

Then it happened. As I'm praying to God, about to head back to Barstow, exactly what I did not want to happen, happened. He woke up. Needless to say I got an earful of everything I knew I would get an earful of, should he wake. 

"There's a reason I told you to wake me up in Barstow." 

"We're in the middle of the Mojave Desert, there ARE NO gas stations." 

"Why didn't you wake me up?" 

"Rebekah!" 

and so on. 

(Let me stop here and say that my husband is a great man! His patience with me is astounding. When most people would fly off their rocker, Mike keeps his cool, but still lets me know that I messed up. He's a very good man.)

So, I moved over, he drove back to Barstow, on fumes, and we found a gas station. For the record, if you're ever driving through Barstow, Calif., THERE ARE NO GAS EXIT SIGNS. Don't even bother looking for one. THERE ARE NONE! The one exit with gas stations creeps up on you quickly. You're going to pass it. When you do, TURN AROUND. Lesson 2 learned.

So we survived Barstow. Mike even let me get back in the car and didn't leave me at the gas station, which I'm sure he wanted. He drove for about 30 minutes, and then I started driving again. Driving through the Mojave Desert is miserable. I'm sure it's gorgeous during the day, but at night, late at night, it's quite boring and miserable. The rest of the trip was quite uneventful, thankfully. I gave us enough excitement during my first two hours. I continued to drive until about 30 minutes outside of Monterey. 

We pulled into Monterey, just as the sun was coming up. We did it! We drove through the night, no stopping except for gas and potty breaks.

Our first stop? 

The Dog Park!!! Our puppies were so good all the way from North Carolina to Monterey, they needed to stretch their legs and use the facilities. 

It was between 7 and 8 a.m., we couldn't get into our temporary housing until 3 p.m.! I was exhausted! ALL I wanted to do was sleep. I've never felt so homeless as I did at that very moment. Nowhere to go, and I wanted out of the car. We went to the lodge, took the car of the dolly, returned the dolly, and then walked around. Here are a few pics of our first hours in Monterey. 

We finally got into our temporary housing (which I forgot to take a picture of). The next day we went to lunch where I ate sardines for the first time! They were delish!

Finally, after the weekend, we were able to get the keys to our home for the next year and a half!

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