The Adventure begins....December 19-January 3:HOUSTON- SLC-SAN DIEGO-SLC-HOUSTON

We got home last night from one of the best vacations I have ever had in my life.

It was just sweet from beginning to end.

A Christmas to remember.

It was difficult not having photo download available during the sixteen days we were gone.

So I have gone ahead and posted today, January 4th, beginning with pictures from the first day of the trip and ending with the last day of the trip.

Sometimes my bookish orientation shows through.

The first page shown should be the first page of a story.

But with blogs, the first page shown is always the last page in the story of one's life as blogged.

Not this time.

This post covers day one of the vacation and you will need to keep reading down, down, down, to get to the last page, the part when we finally come home.

I hope you will enjoy.

It truly was a beautiful time.

Bernie and I left Houston early on Tuesday, December 19th.

I had about five hours of sleep, as I just can not leave for a vacation until everything is clean.

Add wrapping gifts and packing clothes for beach/snow/holiday dress/three homes, and of course I couldn't sleep!

We had a layover in Salt Lake City, time enough to hand off gifts to son Jeff.

It was hard to just see him for an hour, knowing we wouldn't see him until after Christmas. Plus all that tantalizing snow! So Christmasy!

The area had had a pretty serious snow fall, and Denver was paralyzed with snow.

It sure looked pretty from the air.

Good skiing ahead in a week!

A few hours later we left Salt Lake, and flew to San Diego, where it was colder than usual, but still glittering Southern California pretty.

I had to take another red and green in nature shot for my continuing holiday series on the blog.

This flower was blooming on the fence at the San Diego air port.

It was wonderful to see my folks, whom I had not seen since August.

More, MUCH more red and green awaited me at their home...

THIRTY red roses, one for each year of our marriage.

Bernie is an amazing husband, and he showered me with this bouquet as a surprise.

I wanted to shrink down to about rose size and LIVE in the middle of all these velvety red roses!

It was hard to take them all in.

Three were taken with us to his parent's home, where we spent the first three nights.

I was able to enjoy watching the three unfold probably better than I could all thirty.

Macro and micro...both perspectives in life.
I flew wearing my Christmas chapeau, not wanting to risk crushing the delicate glass berries.

Even my father-in-law Hal looks good in that hat!
(The hat help distract from the fact that he was actually a "dolly with a hole in his stocking.")

Just plain home, Christmas cookies, and Laura stayed over too.

My heart was home in Houston, then Salt Lake, then La Jolla, and then La Mesa.

I saw my family, everyone, all in one day.

Bliss!