Let's Here it for Christmas Spirit!

Okay, before we celebrate the true reason for the season, let's go ahead and get some pagan rituals over with....

gross






We snuck a quick meeting with Santa right before he entered the holiday parade downtown. Finn was kinda scared.



Finn's been "helping" soooooo much in the kitchen lately, making his own oatmeal in the morning and lately, helping me make Christmas cookies and fudge. These may look gross, but they were so delicious.

Beach Day in December!

Sure, if it weren't for all the lights on State Street, it would be hard to tell it's almost Christmas here in Santa Barbara. Saturday was a beautiful day, and if it's not quite cold enough for scarves and beanies yet, then we might as well wear our wet-suits and hit the beach. It's been over a year since Nate and I have surfed, so we called up our good friends Jared and Jos and went to one of our favorite spots. Finn, who has a love-hate relationship with water, found two new friends in Jared's nieces, Evie and Georgia. Did I already mention that it was a beautiful day?

It's funny how just getting a couple of good rides can make waiting out there for an hour totally worth it!





Finn, keeping a safe distance from the waves.



Evie and Finn had so much fun playing in her little dome tent. Hmmm....I know what Finn would like for Christmas.....


And guess who can sit up all by herself now.....

with a little help every 12 seconds or so.....






This is Nate saying, "You're supposed to put your wet wet-suit to dry on the rocks, NOT on my dry clothes!" (oops.)


It was so good to get out there in the peacefulness of the water with Jos. We used to go all the time. The colors of the sky and the mountains against the ocean were amazing, so peaceful.



Happy girl after a blissful nap at the beach.



crack kills.

Giving Thanks

I have so much to be thankful for right now: A loving husband, two adorable little rug-rats, a tight group of devoted friends, a great extended family and another year in beautiful santa barbara. Our Thanksgiving holiday was sweet. We saw both sides of the family. We love having our families close together....but it does make for lots of bouncing around. :-)

We spent Thanksgiving day in Yuba City, save for a 10k turkey trot in Sacramento with Aunt Jo Jo. 26,000 people participated in the Run to Feed The Hungry. The crowd was insane. I loved running through my old stomping ground though.
Thanksgiving in YC

Aunt Jo Jo


My mom did so much work to make our Thanksgiving great. A special touch this year was little individual turkeys at each place setting, made of oreos, jelly bellys, candy corns and frosting. It kind of makes my stomach turn to think about eating that combo, but they were really cute.



Great grandma "nana"



Papa Summy lookin good, ready to attack the turkey.



There's finally enough kids to have a legitimate "kids table". For years it was just my siblings and cousins....in our twenties and thirties.


We had a babysitter this year....it's called a bounce house. Kinda awesome.

Weekend in Woodland

Papa Tom and Granny Peg


We celebrated Great Grandma Alice's 90th birthday!!! I really enjoy Grandma Alice. She is so sweet and fun to talk to. It was fun to see her meet Selah for the first time, though Selah wasn't in the mood, as you can see. I like this picture anyway.


Four generations!


Reading with Uncle Dominic.


Despite the look on Finn's face, we had a great field trip to the train museum in Old Sacramento. The look on his face has more to do with the scene of a zillion kids in the toy train area...

Madness.


Uh oh......another hair cut from Papa Tom!


Daddy got one too! Twinsies!