Home for the Holidays

I went home to see my parents for Christmas and New Years. No one else in my family went so the three of us spent the time doing whatever we wanted to without having to worry about kids and other complications that come along with large groups.

We walked around in San Francisco and I melted with envy at the year round farmers market with produce and artisan cheese. My dad was nice and bought some.

We stopped at Golden Gate Park so dad could throw some frisbees and we found some geocaches there as well and then found some more over on Treasure Island.

(I miss the big trees)

We did the usual Christmas Eve dinner on the pier in Santa Cruz and I went down and put my feet in the water and watched the surfers and metal detectors out doing their daily routine.

There was also the usual(unusual) quirky stuff that makes Santa Cruz fun and I think I found my official dream house. The white one, not the one with the lights. It was mostly the porch and the location.

On Christmas Day I opened my requested presents of socks and underwear...Santa brought mom a bike. I think it's the third or fourth time I've seen her get a bike under the Christmas Tree. Then we ate some of our fancy cheese and went out for the best Chinese food dinner I've had since I moved out of California. Duck, lobster, soup, dessert, noodles....it was so good! Then, because we had nothing better to do and the idea sounded good, we took a road trip up to Oregon and puttered around in the rain on the coast up there for a few days. Then we drove back home just in time for me to finish up my last New Year's resolutions from 2010 by making some dutch oven food with my dad and finishing reading The Bible cover to cover. Then it was off to celebrate New Years with Steysi. My uncle Jim and Debbie paid a visit on their usual family visiting trek around the country. They came with us for a mini crab/cheese/chocolate feast in San Francisco before I flew back home to find the cats still alive, slightly feral and shedding like crazy.

All in all...a great trip home.

P.S. I just want to say how awesome cats are as pets. I left them both home alone for 12 days and no one checked on them the whole time. They just fend for themselves and it's great!