End of 2013

With Mark around these days, things are much busier! I feel like there is so little time to sit and ponder and blog.  Here's a re-cap from Nov until now.

The holidays were great.  We spent Thanksgiving with my brother and parents in San Jose.  It was interesting to drive from brown, barren desert-scape to lush green hills (a 5.5hr drive).  There were lots of vineyards and fruit tree groves and other crops along the way.  And the interstates are crazy-fast!  It is no big deal for cars to be driving 80+mph.  The police don't seem to care.  Chris and Taylor played Skylanders Swap Force for a good part of the visit, while the rest of us were either relaxing, cooking, or strategizing our Black Friday purchases.

And then Chris and Carol and my parents came down to Palmdale for Christmas, with a fun getaway to Disneyland in the middle.  We had the girls sleep on an air mattress on our bedroom floor, which freed up their room and the "library" for our guests.  It didn't seem too cramped and it was great to have our first visitors.

We spent 4 days at Disney, staying at the Disneyland Hotel.  What a treat!  Not only is it a fun and clean hotel with a light-up castle and firework headboard, but we were just steps away from Downtown Disney and the parks (Disneyland and California Adventure).  Chris and Carol were gung-ho about Magic Mornings (an extra hour that hotel guests get in the park in the morning) so each day the goal was to get to the gate around 7am and grab up Fast Passes for the best and busiest rides like Space Mountain, Indian Jones, and the Radiator Springs Raceway.  The Fast Passes were worth the extra effort as we saved hours of waiting in lines throughout the day.  Chris and Carol and our little family got the annual passport for the parks, so we can go as much as we'd like in the next year.

As a fun addition to our family vacation, my parents and Chris and I were competing for most steps taken each day, as measured by our Fitbits (fancy little pedometer/fitness-tracking gadgets that Chris got us hooked on over Thanksgiving).  While waiting in line for rides we'd be jogging in place and any time we passed some steps we might go up and down a few extra times to build up our ranking.  My dad was always solidly in the lead, while my mom, Chris, and I were vying for the number 2 spot.  My parents have made a New Year's resolution to meet all their daily Fitbit fitness goals, one of which is 10,000 steps/day, so now the gap between 1st and 4th place is widening (my daily average is around 6,000).

Everyone left before New Year's Eve, so Mark and the kids and I had a quiet evening at home with lots of bubbly drink in fancy goblets from Party City and a spread of party foods like "chicken lollipops" from Trader Joe's and cheese and crackers.  We were in bed before 10pm, but I can't say I was sad not to see the clock change from 11:59 to 12:00.  At this stage in life, I'm thrilled with a full-night's sleep.

Another post about the start of 2014 to come soon.