Candy Cane Lane

There is a cute little neighborhood in Pacific Grove where each house decorates for Christmas and the big park in the middle is all decked out. Our friends Cheryl and Micah with us, and we walked through Candy Cane Lane. (By the way, I thought that was the real street name, and was really confused when trying to look it up on Googlemaps.)

Most of the houses had themes, like "Hawaiin Christmas," or "Disney Princess Christmas." This was "Where the Wild Things Are," and I thought it was an appropriate background for Jaden and Addison!

Jaden, Beckam, and Addison as cute little gingerbread men.
This was in the park in the middle of the neighborhood. The kids played here for a long time.

Cute baby Asher chasing all of the crazy big boys around.
Beckam, Asher, Addison, Jaden, and Cheryl.

Addison found somebody's abandoned glasses on the ground and put them on (I know, gross) for an authentic Santa picture.

He's So Wise...

Addison was a wise man in a Christmas play this year. He has loved doing these little plays so much. I hope he keeps it up. This play was put on by a woman in my ward who works as the youth activities leader in the church (multi-denominational) on the military base. Her son is Addison's age. Addison sang "We Three Kings" in a trio and did such a great job. He's always a little nervous before these things, but does awesome when he gets on stage.

Addison actually played 2 parts. He was a villager at first and then a wise man. This is before the play in his villager costume with his friend Seth (the chicken), and his sisters, the angels (they really are).

Shepherds and villagers.These pictures didn't turn out very well. This is before he changes into his wise man role.

Talking to King Herod.

More with the king.

Our friends Meridth and Edward came to support the star, and get in on the action.

Let it Snow!

This is why I live in the coolest place in the world...

Within one hour I can be either here...


Or here...
Tom called today and said that it was snowing at his house. It rained really hard at my house last night and I guess it turned into to snow in the higher elevations. Jaden was coming home with us today, so when I picked him and Addison up at school, I brought hats, gloves, coats, and boots for a trip to see some snow. When I told them where we were going, they were so excited! I thought we would find a skiff of snow that they could make some snowballs with. I had no idea what to expect of snow in Monterey. We drove up past Tom's about 8 miles (about 45 minutes from my house) and found this! I never liked snow when I was in Utah, but I will admit... I miss it!!!

Christmas Decorating Au Naturale

I haven't really felt all that Christmasy for the last few years. Last year, I finally decided that Christmas music was still fun, but I didn't put up any decorations. I told Addison that since we were only going to be here for a couple weeks before going to Utah, it wouldn't really be worth it. Plus, I still have boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations in Utah, and nothing here.
This year, even though, again, we will only be here for a few weeks before going to Utah, I really wanted to get a Christmas tree and I wanted to decorate it only with things that we made at home. I also wanted to get a real tree as I, ever since having my own tree in my own house, have only had fake trees (much easier with lights that are already attached!). We started at about 4:30 on Friday night and finished at about 10:00, working nonstop. We turned the tv to the Christmas music station and had so much fun.

Here's our ornament list:

• Dried oranges. I have an orange tree in my backyard that grows green oranges which will never ripen. Addison picked a bunch of them and I sliced them and dried them (almost) in the oven. Then we added red yarn to hang them with.
• Cranberries and popcorn. I bought some cranberries and Orville Redenbacher Tender White popcorn and we strung them together for our garland.
• Candy canes. Ok. I didn't make these, but Addison wanted to buy them at Safeway.
• Pine cones.
• Dried pomegranates from our tree.
• Paper snowflakes. These didn't end up on the tree, but we hung them from the window.

We haven't done the pine cones or pomegranates yet (those pomegranates take forever to dry), but I really like the tree, and hope to keep this as a tradition for the future. If lights weren't such a pain, I would add them, but this really was done with no frustration or irritation, and I want to keep it that way.

Santa Cruz Turkey Trot

My friend Laurie started running recently, and my new friend Sheila is a super-runner, and I haven't done a race in a long time, so I asked these 2 girlies to run the Turkey Trot in Santa Cruz with me on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This was Laurie's first race and she was awesome! The course was so beautiful. We ran right along the coast and the weather was perfect. Laurie was such a trooper and ran the whole way. Her family came up to cheer us (ok, really just her) on and I stole these pictures from her blog.

That is a crazy face I'm making. This was at the beginning of the race, so I can't blame it on fatigue. Weird.

The home stretch.

Crossing the finish line.

Again, another crazy face. Yikes.

Cute girls! Thanks for running!!

Jumping on the Private Bandwagon

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Bonfire on the Beach

Since we have been here, I have been wanting to build a fire on the beach at night. There aren't a lot of beaches where you can have fires here, but just past the Carmel beach there are a few. Those beaches (which I didn't even know existed until about a month ago), have become some of my favorites. We went with our friends Cheryl and Micah and Sheila and Jayce. It was so warm out there that night (which never happens. It seems like it is always cold and windy at the beach). The kids had so much fun climbing on rocks, playing with kelp, and watching the huge waves. Of course, everything was much more exciting because it was dark. We'll have to do it again.

Climbing on the rocks. Super safe with pointy sticks in their hands, right?

Smoke in your eyes stinks.

Getting the perfect marshmallow.

What is it with boys and digging holes?

Micha and baby Asher.
Sheila and Tom roasting... something.

I think it's cute that he sticks his tongue out when he is thinking. I think it's even cuter that he's thinking so hard about getting that hot dog just right.

Hot dogs are good.