Hanging around in California + Christmas

I'm getting behind on these vacation posts. This is a catch all for everything else we did in California.

First of all, on the way to California we left right before sunrise. I've seen a sunset from a plane before and it was gorgeous so I sat on the left side of the plane and waited patiently.... and I was blessed with this.

 One of the most excited parts of this trip was seeing all the kids again and meeting baby Charlie for the first time.

 (Ella has gotten so big and is walking now)

 (JR feeding Charlie his bottle)

It's so hard to get little kids to take a good photo so here's a few of the best ones.

(JR, Charlie, Adelyn, and Ella)

Especially when you have a little angel like Ella who absolutely loves to give her baby brother kisses... 

We spent a lot of time hanging around the house while Keith and Cindy worked. One beautiful day we took the kids to go play at the park. We walked a new trail that went from Brengle Terrace Park to Wildwood Park. Chad and Keith played with the kids and Cindy and I sat on the bench and chatted. It's still surreal to me that we hung out, outside, in December without freezing.

Chad and I spent a lot of time at the beach, mostly because it was so beautiful and sunny. Don't get me wrong, I love Oregon beaches in the winter time with the storms... but to spend an evening on the beach with jeans and a t-shirt is pretty cool. Plus, we were blessed with some awesome sunsets. They took my breath away with the vibrant colors.

After one sunset we went for a date at Ruby's, the restaurant at the end of the Oceanside Pier. I could have eaten their BBQ sauce by the bucket-full, it was sooo yummy! I also found out that night that onion rings are not my friend this pregnancy... heartburn!!

And last but not least, my favorite time of year, Christmas!! On Christmas Eve we had a special visitor to the Griffiths household. Santa brought each of us a new set of pajamas to wear that night. Santa sat down in a chair and called each person to sit on his lap. The kids were very excited to see Santa and sat patiently to get their turn. Poor JR, the littlest one there, was the very last one to get called. He'd get so excited when a present got pulled from the bag and then he wouldn't here his name. A few times he'd look back at all the adults with a look on his face that clearly said "what the heck!!"

 This Christmas was quite different for me this year because it landed on a Sunday and we went to church. Church started at 9am that morning. We all woke up super early so the kids could open their gifts from Santa. Adelyn asked for a doll, not a baby doll but a big girl doll. JR wanted a Thomas train set. They both were so good all year long that they got what they wanted! After Santa gifts, we all got ready for church.

After we got home it was back to jammie time! We all got comfy again and then opened the rest of our gifts. Then we hung around, napped, ate a delicious Christmas dinner and enjoyed the day together.

 (JR played with his trains for the rest of the day)