The few days before Christmas

On day 20 we headed up to Irvine to get together with our besties.  The Andersen's, the Jazayeri's, the Silveri's and the Aunties, Jane, Barbara and Grandma Judy. It's been quite a few years we've been getting together for merriment, to have the kids exchange gifts and possibly see some pretty Christmas lights.  This time, we also celebrated Jenny's birthday!

  

And after a delicious dinner, the kids enjoyed opening their presents!

Even the older kids!

I love these girls.  We've been together longer than we haven't been together and it wouldn't be life without them. 

And the boys that come with the girls. :)

The 21st day brought Nuts and Bolts!  We love making this delicious snack together and every year it comes together to taste different than the last.

  

And the best part is packaging it up and delivering it to our fabulous neighbors!

 

On day 22 we joined Tamara, Ellie, Tayna, Bella and Victoria, and Jen and Brian with Megan and Emily to go check out some lights.  The kids brought hot cocoa with marshmallows and the adults brought some wine, and we enjoyed seeing some pretty set ups.

 

Fun ladies!

Day 23 was meeting up with this amazing girl and her boys.  I LOVE that Erica is here in SD again!  And we had a wonderful day together with the kids in Balboa Park.

I love these little nutties.  We planned to ride the train but it was closed and so was the merry go round.  But we made the best of it and walked through Spanish Village, past the Botanical Gardens, grabbed a coffee at the Prado, and then headed to the park.

After snacks at the park, we headed back to the car and to our surprise, the merry go round was open!  So fun!

  

And day 24 brought some last minute shopping, getting ready and in the rush of everything, I needed to take one last picture of the tree.  It's crazy all that we do to get ready for this holiday and then before we know it, it's over.  All too soon in my book.

Since we were enjoying some beautiful warm weather on Christmas eve, I went out to admire my Poinsettias from last year.  Looking pretty good!

 

And this year all four of us were heading to church!  We tried to get the cook out of the kitchen but there was just too much cooking to be done.  We had to get there 45 minutes before church started and even then, we couldn't sit together.  Ty and I got lucky and sat next to Susan and her family which was fun and Grandma and Tatum were across the aisle.  Church was 20 minutes in and Ty had to go potty, and lucky for me, both one and two. :)  Which meant we were going to be awhile so I let Susan's dad know he could give up our seat.  We finished church out in the vestibule but I actually had a great view and finished off the mass.

 

After a delicious meal of steak and lobster, we all opened our one gift of jammies, tradition.  Nick joined us for dinner so we was our photographer.  Now for the fun to begin!