Christmas 2010

Christmas this year seemed to fly by - first it was school, work, finals and then suddenly Christmas was upon us and we had to get presents, wrap them and then pack for home so we could make it for Christmas Eve.  Lindy drove toward us on Thursday, the day before Christmas Eve, and I got off work at about 4:45pm, then we left for Modesto by about 6pm.  Lindy then informed us that because it has been raining so much in So Cal, her car had a puddle of water in the passenger side which had sloshed around and so now she had to put all these towels down to soak up the water.

As we were driving home we pulled over at a gas station for Lindy to get some food and to get some gas when we heard a sound coming out of the car - turns out we had run over a bolt [aka, I had] and luckily enough there was a place right there around the corner who was able to patch up the tire.  We ended up getting home around 1am and then had a great weekend at home, visiting my family for Christmas Eve and Kevin's family for Christmas Day.

Grades!

The semester came and went, papers were written, revised and turned in, tests were taken and now grades are up!  I got the same grades I got last semester - B+, B and A- and it was such a tough semester that I'm just so happy and glad that it's all over!  Only 2 more classes left :)

This is our Christmas tree this year [and a Cubs blanket as the tree skirt haha]  Too bad we can't take it home to Modesto with us - it's going to be so lonely here by itself for the whole weekend :(

Dec 12-20th

So, last week I had finals, papers, studying, etc to do so I was a little stressed (ok, lots of stress) so I didn't have time to post on here but I've been thinking about my little blog world.

Finals are over and now it's just time to wait for grades and finishing up this week of work and then heading home on Thursday night for Christmas Eve.  And today's picture is of Frost the Snowman!  Someone posted something about this the other day and I suddenly remembered how much we used to watch this cartoon :)  Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus!

Christmas Tree!

This isn't our actual tree but if we had one, it could look like this :)  Christmas Trees are definitely a Christmas memory and probably my biggest, or let's say most memorable Christmas Tree was our Almond Christmas Tree.  I tried to google it but couldn't find any pictures as great as how ours really was.

When I was in fourth grade or so Sherri caught the chicken pox and we weren't able to have Christmas with the family that year because we were contagious.  Therefore, mom and dad thought it would be a great idea to cut down an almond tree and decorate it.  Well, we definitely were able to fit all of our ornaments on it that year and it was probably the craziest tree we've ever had.  But great memories :)

Blast from the Past

So, mom brought up our nativity scene Christmas card from my last post so here's the real deal.  An oldie but a goodie haha.

This was another card we did - had to get Lindy in there . . . she's very sensitive about any pictures that are from before she was around - she doesn't like it at all haha.  

Hope everyone enjoys these Christmas cards :)

Nativity Scene

Gleeeeeee!

It's a Glee Christmas!

Day 5 [a day late]

Another favorite Christmas movie - The Santa Clause.  It was a hit in our house and we would watch it all the time  - can't believe they made a sequel.  Anywhoo . . . 

Day 4

Keeping with the movie theme, I decided to post one of our most watched and beloved Christmas films - Home Alone.  I think my sisters and I would just watch this year-round . . . but still, it began as a Christmas movie.  And this was probably the first film I watched that had John Candy in it and of course we all wanted to create all the fun tricks and traps that Macauly Culkin set up.

Rudolph!

Day 3 . . . this was my favorite movie [besides How the Grinch Stole Christmas] when I was little.  I still remember the clay animation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from when I was little and it seemed like I would watch it all the time.  

Snoopy Christmas

Day #2 of Christmas postings . . . is Snoopy Christmas :)  

Christmas Calendar

So, another blog I'm following is doing a December Calendar where they post a picture everyday until Christmas.  I was thinking that this is a cute idea so my theme will be what makes me think of Christmas.

These are sugar cookies and always remind me of when my mom and grandma would make them for Christmas.  I would LOVE these cookies and basically eat all of them before Christmas actually arrived. I would even try to sneak some of them when no one was looking.  I think it worked most of the time.

Anyway, here's Day 1 of Christmas images :)

Thanksgiving Fun

Thanksgiving this year went by REALLY quick because I had to work all day [10 hours], mom and dad arrived in Redondo and headed over to Sherri's while I was at work and they had dinner with Sherri and her friends/roommates.  Lindy wasn't going to be able to make it but last minute came into town and was able to have dinner with my parents and Sherri.  After I got off work I swung by Sherri's in time for a few family photos.

The next day we packed up and left for the San Diego Zoo.  Lindy had to go back to Huntington Beach and work plus she had schoolwork to do.  

Sherri and I took lots of photos and the guys were a little wary of all the photos but obliged :)

We had a great day at the zoo and then headed to the Wild Animal Park the next day.  Mom found a really nice hotel for us to stay at in Del Mar and we even got to hit up the hot tub :)

The whole trip was lots of fun and it was so nice to spend time with the family [especially since I was gone all Thanksgiving Day] and it was also nice just to have some time off.  Thanks Mom and Dad for showing us such a great time in San Diego!

Disneyland!

Many, many things happened today so I'm going to try to get it all straight and explained.  First of all, our friend Kimmy and her boyfriend Eric were spending the next few days at Disneyland for Kimmy's birthday.  We have known Kimmy since she was like seven or eight, I think, and now she's turning 23.  Her parents opened the gymnastics center in Ceres that me, Lindy and Sherri all attended and that I coached at for a few years.  As we discovered tonight, no matter how much time goes by, having spent all that time together gave us millions of memories and it's like no time has passed.

So, Sherri's season pass will be expiring next week and she was thinking that she wasn't going to be able to hit up Disneyland one more time before it expired.  But lo and behold, Kimmy's trip/birthday saved the day that Sherri and I knew we had to go and visit her during her Disney trip.  Sherri and I both had to work today so we didn't leave Redondo until about 4:30, which is about the worst time to embark on a Disneyland trip, and arrived in Disneyland at 6pm.  Unfortunately the park closes at 8pm but as soon as we arrived the guy who we paid to park asked if we were there to see him or if we were part of some other group event.  Of course we said we were there to see him [though he was like 60, but so what] and he laughed and then said because of that we were getting free parking.  Score!

We headed straight to Space Mountain, then Indiana Jones and we actually found the perfect spot to watch fireworks - in Tarzan's treehouse :)  It was virtually deserted and then we headed over to Haunted Mansion and by then the park was closing.  Sherri and I had been dying to see the World of Color at California Adventure but had yet been able to catch it so we headed over to CA Adventure [they close at 8pm as well but the show starts at 8:15] and even though we were in the back and couldn't see too well, it was still really cool and of course the Disney songs were all fun to listen to.

After the show was over we headed to get something to eat at Downtown Disney and ended up at Tortilla Jo's where we had a great dinner and reminisced over the past and good times.  We were laughing so hard at one point that we were all crying.  Poor Eric was trying to keep up and was a great sport about it all :)

As we were leaving, about 10:30pm, we decided to do a bathroom break and then I realized that I need a picture for the day for my Project 365 app on my phone.  We stopped sort of halfway through the restaurant and had Eric take our photo and then heard a guy ask if he could take a picture with us too.  We were like, um . . . and then after some confusion, realized it was Uriel Padilla - a friend from Hughson at home and friend of my cousin's Matt and Heather.  His wife, Karen and their friend Deanna was also there with Karen and Uriel's son Raphael asleep in the stroller.  Now, the completely crazy and odd thing about this was that Uriel and Karen live in Arizona now and I probably haven't seen Uriel since about 2002 and can't even remember the last time I saw Karen.  We used to all hang out together because we went to St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Hughson and did the Youth Group together and spent a lot of time together.  It was honestly such a shock and seemed like divine intervention in a way that we actually saw each other since so many things could have happened for us not to have seen each other.  

This is Deanna, me, Sherri, Uriel and Karen.

So, overall, our year of having passes has been quite fun.  Sherri and I have gone multiple times, had two instances now where we didn't have to pay for parking [one was for Guest of the Day] and saw World of Color, plus saw all the Christmas decorations and have gone on all the rides.  So much fun!  Now we just have to decide whether to get a new pass for next year or not . . . something tells me we're leaning towards yes haha.

Home and Halloween!

So, last minute, we decided to head home and see our families and my cousin Matt [his wife Jill and son Pete] who were visiting from Minnesota.  We hadn't seen them since our wedding over a year and a half ago so it was a nice chance to catch up and also to see their family before the addition of their next baby in February.  We also were able to have dinner with Kevin's parents the first night we got in and had sushi and his sister Jenny's restaurant where she is working as a chef.

After going to a pumpkin patch with them we were able to go visit our friends Martin and Ashlie to see their new house in Hughson, as well as our friends Amy and Fredy who bought a house a few houses down from Martin and Ash.  Their new houses are really nice and it was nice to finally see them.

The next morning we headed back, slowly, to Redondo Beach, but going through Paso Robles and Santa Barbara to get there.  We stopped at a few wineries and took our time, eventually ending up in Buellton and having dinner with our friend Brooks.

We ate at A.J. Spurs and then spent the night at Brooks' grandma's house in Lompoc, where he lives.  

Sunday we went to a Clippers game with our friend Bert and Sung, though they didn't end up winning, then came home to hang out with some of the Kincaid's crew and their kids trick-or-treating in the Riviera Village.  

Kiara is the bumble bee and Lili is the fairy.  Both super adorable little girls.

Ayden is the little frog and that's Jessie, his mom, posing with him for his first Halloween.

The bumble bee and her mom, Kristie and dad, Marcello, who was dressed as a taxi driver.

And of course the beautiful moms, Jessie and Amanda with their little ones, Ayden and Lili.

We had never had a chance to spend Hallowen in the village because we usually work, but it was nice not having to this year.  

Happy Halloween!

Jim's Pancakes

While wandering around some random websites I found this guy's blog - he makes really fun and crazy pancakes for his 3 year old daughter.  Some of them are so amazing - everyone should check it out!


jimspancakes.com

The Tetris, smores and golfing pancakes are some of my favorite, for sure.

Future

The last few weeks I've been stressing out that even though I would be almost done with my graduate program, I wouldn't have enough experience or things to put on my resume to actually help me get a job.  This has been a particularly stressful thing that I've been worried about and finally decided to do something about it.  After just a few e-mails and inquiries, I applied to a tutoring program at my school and should be finding out if I got it pretty soon.  I also might be able to tutor at the local community college, will also be hearing about that soon.  Then I learned about a certificate in community college teaching that is available through my school and should better prepare me for teaching, once the day actually happens.

I also spoke with the girl who initially told me about my current program and she gave me some good tips and advice on applying for jobs and how much she enjoyed where she is teaching [Santa Monica City College].

Just hoping that everything works out and that there are lots of nice openings at junior colleges in my area once I have my degree :)

Grilled Cheese Truck!

A few months ago my friend and co-worker, Janna, told me about an event she had been to in Long Beach which was like a food festival of food trucks.  Apparently food trucks are the up-and-coming thing to happen - especially since a lot of chefs and restaurant owners can't afford a whole restaurant, but can put their talents into a smaller operation and drive their trucks to a destination and have people line up for their food.  Well, the grilled cheese truck was apparently the biggest draw at this event Janna attended and told me some people waited up to 2 hours in line for a grilled cheese sandwich.

So of course I had to find out more about this and began following the truck on twitter, which sends daily updates of the grilled cheese truck's locations and where they would be that day.  I've been waiting and waiting and finally they came to the South Bay!  On Thursday Kevin and I went to El Segundo and in the middle of their "industry" area - where they have lots of businesses and there was the grilled cheese truck :)

I think it definitely lived up to its reputation and their specialty is a grilled cheese sandwich with macaroni and cheese inside, as well as pulled pork and caramelized onions.  Kevin got that sandwich, I got the regular grilled cheese w/mac 'n cheese inside.  We also shared some sweet potato tater tots :)

Mmmm mmmm mmmm.

Brooks showed up later that night - he had been visiting friends in San Diego and stopped by to visit on his way back to Santa Barbara.  Of course he had to try out the beer from the brewery Kevin is working at:

And after hearing all about the grilled cheese truck, he decided to try a sandwich that is very similar and also delicious from a new restaurant in the Riviera Village called Sophie's.  His sandwich is called a Ma[p] and Cheese - basically just like the grilled cheese with mac 'n cheese and pulled pork and onions from the truck.

As always, it was great to see Brooks and catch up :)