And boom, December

It seems like it was just Thanksgiving Day ... but now it's almost Christmas?!
We've been going non-stop since turkey day .... The boy had his 19th birthday ... pretty low key this year. Welcome to being an adult, where birthdays aren't always a big deal.

 We also had some fun company at our house. The niece and her new husband came for the weekend with their dad in tow. We really enjoyed getting to know the newest member of the family .... He fits in perfectly with this crazy bunch.
We also had what we hope is a new tradition -- gingerbread house making. We recruited an honorary family member to be on our team too. Such a fun event at church!

Swim has begun in earnest. The Girl Who Swims has had her first meet, and to me, she looks fast! She will have a couple of meets a week until February. I'm sure glad we have stadium chairs to ease our sitting and watching times.

This past weekend we got our tree at the same tree farm we've been visiting for years and years. Amazingly it only took us a few minutes to decide on The Tree. We decided to put it in our front room with the raised ceiling - usually it's in a different room with a shorter height distance. So we were able to pick out one that was taller than we have had in the past.

But before all that fun and games, the Mr. and I had a vacation of sorts in San Francisco. We left on Wednesday morning and came back late Friday night, leaving the older 3 kids at home to fend for themselves. (The younger two got spoiled by an aunt and uncle.)

San Francisco was amazing. I had a wonderful and relaxing three days ... which I think I really needed. I haven't talked so much with my husband in a long long time. We spent our first day there walking the waterfront, from Pier 1 all the way up to Pier 45. We saw some neat sites, gorgeous scenery, and even went to the arcade "museum" that the kids know from the movie Princes Diaries.

I think my girls were more impressed by that than by all the miles and hills and other things we saw and did! On Thursday the Mr had his company meetings to attend so I had the day to myself. I contacted a friend of mine from my high school years and we got together. It was the first time I had seen her in probably 25 years or so .... And it seemed to me like we were back in those days again. Conversation flowed, fast and freely; we had so much to talk about and many things in agreement. It was a really great time, I shouldn't have been nervous beforehand.  That evening the Mr and I walked to the dinner party. Actually I/we walked just about everywhere. This city is one of the most walkable and easy to get around. I'm such a non-city girl (ie. hick town girl!) but even I could figure it out after a little bit. And there were runners everywhere!! We both wished we had packed our running shoes, but we didn't realize how nice and sunny it would be there in December.

 The architecture around the city was so beautiful too. I enjoyed seeing all kinds of different buildings as we walked. Even our hotel was pretty amazing.

On Friday we had some time before our flight so we walked up to Coit Tower, and then back down and over and up Lombard Street. And then back down Lombard. I think I probably walked 4 to 5 miles each day. By checkout time we were ready to sit on the local transit (BART) and let it take us to the airport. Of course, it has been years since I've been in this corner of the world, and I wasn't really confident on using transit. We picked a train car that we thought would take us where we wanted to go, and got on. As I was looking around trying to see where we were going, looking at people on the BART, I noticed someone interesting. Out of the millions of people in this city - those who live there and those who visit - I saw a person on this train car with a Christmassy hat on. I smiled to myself, then looked closer. She looked kind of familiar. Upon looking even closer I realized with some awe that it was my high school friend who I had been with the day before! Some might call that pretty random, but, I think God was smiling down on me, giving me just another blessing to a great vacation. I was so happy to get home and see my babies, but I have some great memories to sustain me when I need them.
December has already been packed with fun and activity - and we're only 12 days in ... I'm looking forward to all the other fun stuff to come!