Christmas Eve Morning: Going to Church

My gal pal Gail flew out from Denver to be with her folks in San Diego too. The Colorado Christmas blizzard seems quite unbelievable when considered from this location.

It was such a joy to attend church with my folks, husband, and friend.

The service was wonderful, with children choir, instruments, a sermon on ornaments that decorate tree and how God gives us so many blessings that surpass even the most elegant ornaments, and how we should cherish the memories of blessing we receive as thoughtfully as the memories that we attribute to our Christmas tree ornaments.

I'll say "Amen!" to that!

And the recessional hymn was "Joy to the World", the song Bernie and I recessed to at our own wedding thirty years and six days earlier in the same church.

I wish I had thought to get a picture of all us in front of the church. I guess a web link will have to do.

Bernie and I walked around a bit.

The street behind my parent's home. I never cared much for palm trees growing up. They just didn't have much climb and lean up against and read a book appeal.

Palm trees look prettier to me now. If they will just learn how to change color in the fall....
The sky was an amazing blue, as it so often is in La Jolla in December.
My groom still looks great to me!
I like that tie...Christmasy, but not kitchy.

Christmas Eve: Laura creates a feast, and a daffodil blooms!

Bernie's mother Barbara cooks up a feast with her favorite granddaughter for Christmas Eve.

(Let the other granddaughters or my sister-in-law get their own blogs and dispute this. Go ahead. I'm waiting....)

Laura designed the menu, and created the recipes as well.



Cherry Chicken
Acorn Squash
Green bean and Carrots
Rice
Biscuits

With just five for dinner this year, Laura talked Barbara into getting out the fine china and crystal. If everyone in the family could have come, there would have been 23 of us. At one point in this family's life there were nine grandkids under the age of ten.

Way too crazy to use the good stuff for holiday meals.

Bernie said he didn't remember ever seeing the crystal before.

That is probably because if he and his brother HAD used the crystal, there would likely have been no crystal left to use today.

Bernie's dad Hal got the china and crystal in the orient on one of his navy cruises.

Pretty, huh?





Table for five. Come and get it!

This is the home Bernie was raised in since he was four.

My parent's home was the home I was raised in since I was four. Interesting.

Bernie and I lived here for a few years, actually son Jeff was born here, while Barbara and Hal lived in another area for a couple of years.

So it is both Laura's grandparents and her own childhood home until she was four.

Yum!
The kitchen is really what is known as a one-butt kitchen, and one and a half butt is a crowd, so I butted out, and went to photograph the garden.

The persimmon tree from whence my persimmons were shipped. Just a few stragglers now.
The orange tree has some lovely fruit.
Bird of Paradise in bloom.
Back to the red and green for Christmas in nature theme...
And a total shock...a daffodil in bloom on Christmas Eve!

It was in bud, and I breathed on it and it opened right up.
Geraniums doing the red and green thing.
The Christmas tree. Each family member has a flat golden ornament with our names and birth dates.

Behind are some of the folks that didn't make it to Christmas.
Count on Hal to be festively attired AND comfy.

Nothing like a good old red sweatshirt and green pants to show your Christmas spirit!

My Mom's Christmas Tree (She's quite sane otherwise)

Once Mom realized that she had a LOT of cat ornaments, she decided to just go ahead and have an all cat Christmas tree.

This ornament says it all.
Rufus digs his cat tree and his, um, cat tree.




Tree topper angel?

Of course!

Isn't that the cat from CATS who sang "Memories"?
More cat ornaments.
Cross stitched, painted, clothes pins, cats are reindeer.

There sure are a lot of 'em.
I like this little guy.

Poor fishy fishy.

Christmas Day

A beautiful brunch!
Green depression glass that we've always seem to have had, and milk glass plates that were a bequeathed treasure from Moness Waterbury.

Someday I will blog about her.
She was an original, and deserves her to be written about at length.

My mom made a delicious strata, southwestern style. Oh boy...I've got to get the recipe, as my mouth is watering just looking at this picture.
We wanted to wait present opening until Laura was off work.

So Bernie and I ambled the four short blocks to the beach.

The coast walk in the following blog ends at the tip of land seen in the middle of the picture.
The view the other way up the beach, the north view towards Scripps institute. (Hi Sherm!)
Ever wondered what Santa does after he finishes delivering gifts?

Well, now you know.

He slips into a jogging suit and heads for La Jolla Shores.

December 26th: Last day in San Diego: Coast Walk in La Jolla

My dear friend Gail had never taken the La Jolla Coast walk, as she grew up inland.

It was a pleasure to introduce her to a part of San Diego that she had missed seeing during the 30 some odd (some VERY odd...) years that she lived here.

Her "Applying to Med School" son Scott and Middle School Science teacher daughter Elizabeth joined in on the fun.

Gail and I met after I sent her a baby present, two months before we actually met. That was 27 years ago!
PERFECT day for a hike.

Here's Sunny Jim Cave.
At La Jolla Cove.
The red roof buildings in the upper left hand corner of this picture is three blocks from my parent's home.
Gal pals at the beach. We've gone here to walk around tide pools during low tide in the past.

We try to co-ordinate our San Diego trips in order get to see each other without paying for an additional trip.

This was the first time we've managed to hit Christmas in San Diego at the same time in years.
The water was so pretty and the surf was kickin' too.

Pelicans at rest.

Growing up I don't remember so many stinky pelicans around.

Between the pelicans and the stinky sea lions that have taken over the part of the beach know as "The Children's Pool", I have a new lack of appreciation of aquatic life.

The sea lions regularly make the national press, as the lazy beasts lounge on the beach and the animal rights folks have deemed them more important than the humans.

We are still astonished and laughing out loud at the reporting of an incident when a swimmer swam around the coastal bend, and then swam into the "The Children's Pool" beach area, startling the sunbathing (read: loafing) sea lions.

The sea lions humped themselves into the surf and swam away in disgust.

The swimmer was rounded up and ticketed for "causing the seal lions to dive into the ocean, terrified."

Huh? I thought they liked going for a swim in the ocean...isn't that where they have to go to get food anyway?

After that we walked around downtown La Jolla (AKA: The Village) and peeked into the La Valencia Hotel. Scroll down from that link site, there are a lot of great pictures of the place.

Gail and I "pinkie swore" if either of us ever becomes a multi-gazillionare, we would spend a week at the hotel, loafing around its 1926 year old grandeur, hiding out with the rich and famous.

We also walked around looking in the windows of all the fabulous jewelry stores, and selected which jewelry pieces we would acquire for ourselves and our daughters if the gazillions were ours already. (Mom, if it ever happens, I'll let you pick first!)

You know something?

We have excellent taste.

And make believe is still a lot of fun.

After that my dad provided us with his version of limosine service, picking us up in his van where we started our hike, and giving us a guided tour of Mount Soledad and the Veterans Memorial on top.

Who needs gazillions when so much wonderfulness can be had for free?

December 26th con't: Visiting Laura in a place you hope you'll never need.

Daughter LauraRN had to work Christmas and the day after, two twelve hour shifts.

She works in a bone marrow transplant unit.

It is a beautiful hospital, part of The University of California San Diego, and her unit and staff is fabulous.

We got to meet her co-workers and I felt SO guilty (as I should) that we didn't get up to see her on Christmas.

A serious case of brain fade on all our parts.

You can read about her Christmas day at her blog. Then you can be VERY VERY glad that regardless of what kind of Christmas day you had, you had an EXCELLENT day compared to anyone who was dealing with such serious medical issues.

Of course those patients were VERY VERY fortunate to have Laura there with them on Christmas.
Here's a little quirk: The small building in the distance, almost center in the picture is the Scripps hospital where Laura was born.

It can be seen from the front of Thornton hospital, which didn't exist when she was born.

Probably most of the medical technology she uses didn't exist either when she was born 28 years ago.
Hard to say good bye to her.
We'll see each other again in February in Minnesota, so that helps a little.

Dec. 26th: Final Scene: The San Diego Airport

San Diego's Lindbergh Field Airport has such great art.

I've discovered most airports do have wonderful art. But Lindbergh Field's art manages to capture not only the look of San Diego, but the sound too.

This water feature has four green tarnished copper seaweed columns drifting towards the ceiling, with fish and other sea life, such as the seal in this view, swimming between the columns.

The water rushes out from the center fountain in intervals of varying intensity, resulting in a sound that mimics the sound of the ocean waves rushing to the shoreline.

A very neat trick.

Another water sculpture.

The airport has a very modern Southern California feeling.

The airport also has various yarn paintings, by Mexican artisans in a tradition folk style.
Each bathroom has themed tile work, and small displays of sea shells on sand in the middle.
(I think they are fudging a little. I'm pretty sure this particular shell isn't found in the waters off San Diego!)
Here's a close up of the yarn paintings. The red stripes are one fine yarn length pressed in to wax.

I've tried to do yarn art like this in school.

Let's just say "Don't try this at home, folks." Leave it to the professionals!

Having such interesting art to look at always helps to ease the sadness I always feel when I leave my family in San Diego behind to fly away home.

What a wonderful San Diego Christmas we had!