Saturday, December 16, 2023 - The weekend before Christmas we picked up Mom and took her to Cincinnati for Christmas with the Baumgardners. It was the weekend of Ann's Sweet Adelines Holiday Concert so we all got to go. It was at the Carnegie in Covington, Kentucky and quite festive. On Monday we took Mom to our house for a few days, so we could do some Indy things.
So proud of my sister!
The star of the show!
Mom and Kevin made some Pecan Tarts (Kev's favorite Christmas cookie)
We took a brisk walk to Fresh Thyme
And went to the Indy Art Museum
This was a cool digital scrapbook
Then we went to the Carmel Christkindlmarkt and had some hot chocolate while watching the skaters
Took a pic in front of the snow globe
The Gluwein Pyramid (which I guess is a symbol of Christkindlemarkts everywhere)
Saturday, December 23, 2023 - We had a 5:30 flight to Santa Ana so it was an early morning! It went pretty smoothly, except for the accident in front of the airport that held up our bus ride from the parking lot for an extra 10-15 minutes (that we didn't have to spare) and then Kev's airline ticket had the wrong birth year on it (I think I must have done that inadvertently while booking the flight...oops) and the TSA agent said he had to go back to ticketing to get it corrected. We made the flight but not with much time to spare.
We were happy to see Elaine at the airport!
And went to her house and enjoyed the sun on the back porch!
What a cute Christmas tree!
A walk down Pearl St for a walk on the beach
I'm always amazed by the flowers in Laguna (ALL year long)
Santa flew by
Elaine & Ian's friends opened a sandwich shop a few blocks down there street from them, so we stopped for a beer and a few games in the back garden
Then to the Greene's for dinner
Another pretty Christmas tree
The view of the canyon, from their back deck
Sunday, December 24, 2023 - We enjoyed another beautiful day with walks around town and a game of Pickleball (the Greene's beat the Anderson's all 4 games we played)
Cute little mushroom garden
Laguna has nice benches all over town
Pie makers
pretty fireplace
view of the ocean from the front porch
we tried making a gluten-free pie, which was quite good!
Laguna has 6 dedicated pickleball courts in Alto Laguna Park, that get A LOT of use
Monday, December 25, 2023 - Christmas morning Todd made homemade ham & cheese croissants. We opened presents, went for a beach walk and played some cornhole.
Todd is quite the baker
The Christmas Cactus is blooming on Christmas Day
These croissants were AMAZING!
Todd made Elaine & Ian two beautiful cutting boards
Christmas Day walk on the beach
Elaine's Santa is ready for the sunny day!
Cheers!
Greene's vs Anderson's in cornhole
More cheers!
Brisket dinner, yum!
Tuesday, December 26, 2023 - Today we drove to Dana Point for a walk through the harbor, then to one of Elaine & Ian's favorite taco stands for lunch. Elaine made me my favorite cake for a pre-birthday celebration and we played games in front of the fire.
Dana Point has a huge harbor, which made for a great place to walk
Santa was on the boat behind us
Candelabra aloe
fried chicken taco
Mrs Yoder's icing...mixed by hand
I'm happy to clean that spatula
Sunset over Pearl St
Looks like Santa made sure that Elaine & Ian got their stockings
Snowflake ornaments from Gram
Cozy fire
Game time
Soup and sandwiches
Thanks for the birthday cake!
Wednesday, December 27, 2023 - We had a 1:30 flight today, so we had time for another beach walk. We drove to the other side of Laguna so we could walk through Heisler Park, which has really beautiful views along the cliffs. We grabbed some bagels from Shirley's and headed to the airport. Our flight home ran into some trouble. We were ready to back away from the gate when they said there was a computer issue. After half an hour they said anyone with close connections should probably get off the plane, so we had to grab our stuff and quickly re-book. Luckily we only got home an hour and a half later than expected...we'll call it a win!
The clouds are coming in. We heard they are expecting 20-30 foot swells in the next couple days.
my beautiful bench model
birds of paradise
I love the sun streaks coming through the clouds
the candelabra aloe were in bloom everywhere!
there were benches everywhere
this bench had people holding it up so Kev & Elaine had to pose like the bench
the Heisler walkway dropped us off at Main Beach
I couldn't take enough pictures along this walk
Christmas wreaths on the lifeguard stand, so festive!
