Diamonds For Women

[forloveofthegame]

First I just want to say Happy New Year. I started a thread like this last year so thought I would do it again. I know it is kind of after the fact, but I thought I would do it again since I am still off work this week.

For the first time in I don't know how long I had 2 weeks off around the holidays which was kind of bittersweet for me. Triste since we had losses in the family that are still fresh after just a couple of months. Also, my husband took the same 2 weeks off which is not always possible so this worked out very well.

My thoughts were about how we all celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. I believe Jpochard was going out of town for awhile. Last year when I posted about holiday plans I wondered what kind of traditions are enjoyed or observed and whether there are any special events you look forward to. I guess since Jpochard is the only other one here who was not here a year ago, I would ask her.

We always go to church for Christmas Eve and enjoy a Sunday brunch in Old Town sometime around Christmas. This year (I mean, the year that just passed, Lol) it happened to be December 23 being the closest Sunday to the actual holiday. The year before Christmas was on a Sunday so that's what we did after opening gifts.

My weeks leading up to Christmas are busy preparing tamales, and we always enjoy them late in the day/early evening of Christmas, along with El Jimador. Since my sons have wives and girlfriends they do have to split time with other families too, but almost always everyone is here for Christmas night when we listen to Christmas CDs and enjoy the merry spirits and food. We have a tree, of course, most years we get one from a pick-and-cut farm east of the city, and we always have a succulent wreath and Christmas cactus, and of course with us living in the Poinsettia capital of the world, we have poinsettias too! One of my sons has a girlfriend who works with succulents and as you may remember me posting this year, we had xeriscape put in our yard. And of course we do place luminarias out all along our walkway around the middle of December.

Other things we enjoy doing around the holiday season are looking at the lights of the Navy ships on the harbor as well as the other smaller boats. Linda and I met a few days before Christmas to assemble fruit gift baskets of produce off her and my trees. It's something I used to do with my niece who just passed away and before that, with mi abuela. The Christmas before this one, all 3 of us (meaning Linda, Denise and me) had assembled baskets together and that was a fun memory for me. Thanks for joining me for that Linda, as I decided to keep her memory alive and I know how much she loved putting them together every year.

What else we have done over the last week: going to Disneyland - I always tell people they just must see it at Christmastime! - nothing like it anywhere. I already posted how we went to the baseball games at UYA a few days ago, and we also took advantage of Sea World's holidays celebration too. Last, we had a day ski trip to Snow Summit as it had just snowed and we wanted to take advantage of that while I was still off work.

Yesterday I enjoyed meeting you (Linda) for the New Year's Eve baseball game, and we spent New Year's Eve evening with some friends of ours in Mission Viejo. This morning we were up at 4 a.m. to drive to Pasadena for the Rose Parade. Beautiful day and what a nice time we had. My daughter in law is making pozole and bringing it over in a short while.

This coming weekend we will go to the Tres Reyes celebration at San Diego Mission. We'll make more tamales and then it will be taking our tree and decorations down next Sunday once Dia de Tres Reyes is over - and then back to work for me! My first trip of 2012 will be to Portland, Oregon.

Here are some pictures of my son's girlfriend's arrangements. They are just stock photos but at least you can see. Linda is also going to post a picture I have not yet linked of their house. It is interesting we have a photographer here on this board since I am so not a photographer. My husband usually takes pictures of most things involved with our family, but I often do not see them taken off the camera until weeks or months later. Lol I am completely clueless about the camera software. Anyway here they are.






_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

Sorry I didn't see this one until now! Thank you for sharing all that you did. Would love to hear what traditions Jpochard may have either at home or at her daughter's that she was visiting.

As you know, I didn't get to the Rose Parade this year. This was perhaps the most difficult Advent/month of December I have ever worked. There is usually so much more work than usual that I'm prepared, but a sudden death and memorial service which took place three days before Christmas, as well as the senior minister's retirement on December 30, required me to be in the office a lot more than most Christmas seasons. Also, I was cat-sitting for not one but two different households with families who left town. One friend went to visit family in her hometown near Chicago, and ended up staying longer than expected because they were snowed in and couldn't get a flight back right away. The other was just up the coast in Ventura, but they were gone nine days and came home on New Year's Day. So I did a lot of running around for breakfast and evening feeds. I could have stayed over at either house, but I had so much to do at my own home, as well as at the office, neither of which were near those homes! Anyway, I put a lot of mileage on my car over the last couple of weeks even though I was in town the whole time.

After the Christmas Eve service at church, we all gathered at my sister's in Mira Mesa for gift-giving, but I was too exhausted to stay very late. Christmas Day was actually very quiet for me! It gave me some time to reflect and just enjoy what the holiday really is.

Back to photos. By your request, here's the picture of the front entry, gracefully decorated for Christmas:




I haven't been to Disneyland around Christmas in a few years! I'd love to again. Maybe this year...

We have always loved the Parade of Lights on San Diego Harbor. Here's a link to the U-T of pics of the Navy vessels lit up.

[forloveofthegame]

No mention of Las Posadas? - I know you love that!

We are looking at a trip to Tahoe but it will probably be combined with work - I have to be in Reno later in January for a few days.

Thank you for linking and posting that picture.

It got me to wondering thinking back on our Holidays thread from last year but - have you heard anything from Gil Hodges Fan? She has never contacted me since saying she was taking a short break and explaining what was going on that was keeping her away.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[jpochard]

I love that wreath! So different (at least for around here!)

Christmas was WAY different for us this year - our first year as empty-nesters.

My youngest daughter Kimberly (a Freshman at Anderson University in Indiana) came home for Christmas break and then the three of us drove to New York to spend Christmas with Katrina, Billy and Matthew (daughter #1, her hubby and little boy.) Billy is pastor at a small Weslyan church there, so there is no way he will be getting away over Christmas or Easter holidays Matthew just turned 1 in November, so it was a no-brainer to make the trip up there. It just would not have seemed like Christmas without them.

Our trip was extended by two days due to snow. Here's a link to a few photos to give you an idea of the scope of the snowfall we were dealing with:

http://www.pbase.com/jpochard/christmas_2012

Because our kitchen is being redone and is totally torn out, I also didn't put up many of my decorations because of construction dust. Our tree, which is usually in the family room, was in the front living room as were most of the other decorations. It was just quite different not baking, scaled down decor, and traveling over Christmas. We attended Christmas Eve service at Billy's church and I did miss going to my home church here.


Hubby and I celebrated our 32nd anniversary on Dec. 27...snowed in

As much as I really love my family....I'm ready for some down time and for hubby to get back to work and daughter #2 to school. I like my alone time lol. I am preparing for a few art shows coming up and just trying to get things in order around here.

I don't do New Years resolutions, but I expect this year will bring some changes. I feel like I'm entering a new phase of things - and I'm not sure what direction things will go. Been praying a lot about opportunities, ministries, and personal improvements. Sort of feel like I've been treading water for several years doing all the things I had to do but now have some freedom to make active choices. We'll see where the good Lord takes me...

Hoping you all have a healthy, blessed, and wonderful 2013!!

[dodgerblue6]

Thanks for the pics, Jpochard! --and for explaining how your Christmas was a little different in many ways.

[forloveofthegame]

Thank you Linda.

JPochard - happy belated anniversary! And thank you for the link, your grandson is a little doll. I rarely have ever traveled for Christmas so I do understand how different it is, since I did experience it a couple of times over the years. For me personally I would much rather stay home, but I understand why you went! Hope things will go well for us all in this year of 2013!
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg