I haven't spent too much time in front of the computer, of late, but it's very quiet and rainy here, at the moment, so the next, oh, three entries will be a quick pictorial catch-up of our Christmas fun...Weekend before Christmas found us driving southbound on I-5 Friday afternoon. Our first destination was San Marcos (north San Diego County) to visit with Dad and Jean, which meant getting through LA on the Friday afternoon prior to Christmas week. We knew it wouldn't be pretty. It wasn't. Having left a bit after 8am, we slogged through traffic, rarely moving faster than 20mph from Burbank to Santa Ana.
Was it 6 or 7pm when we rolled up, looking like pretzels? I can't remember, but after greeting Dad, Jean, Abby (cute fluffy small doggy) and Shu-shu (cute unfluffy even smaller doggy), we were whisked off to Encinitas/Leucadia/Or-Somewhere-Near-There, for a fabulous meal at the the amazing museum (masquerading as a home) of Fran and Don Diehl--long-time dear friends of Jean and Dad whom we have had the pleasure of knowing for quite some time, as well. Don and Fran travel a lot. Everywhere. They buy such interesting art and keepsakes of all those travels and Don takes the gorgeous photos. We're not talking t-shirts and casual snapshots, here.
Their lovely home is arranged and lit to display all these wonderful things. In addition, somehow they managed to add a thick layer of Christmas over the top--enough to challenge the entire inventory of most Christmas shops--that would leave Santa light-headed (of course, I forgot the camera!). How much time to set up (and take down)? No one was willing to say, exactly...Of course, our tree wasn't even decorated, yet.
After a fun visit and too much excellent food (first overkill of the season), we stayed the night at Dad's and hung around in the morning to chat and cuddle animals (oh, and eat some more). Near Jean's feet in the photo, you can see a tote that I made for her (check out the cooking theme). I made some others(different themes), that I'll probably post later. Other photos are: Dad, Tom and Shu-shu, Shu-shu and Tom.
So, glad to have brought stretchy clothing, we departed with a fa-la-la, Dad and Jean planning to drive up our way in the near future. Next stop was La Verne...
