Jolly Days

Earlier in the year we decided to stay in California for Christmas. When we heard Mike and Heather were doing the same, the Wiktor families decided it would only be appropriate to join forces in Santa Cruz. Kathy and Carolyn couldn’t be left out and made plans to join us as well. We were set for some holiday fun!

In addition to the holidays, one of the main reasons for our trip to Santa Cruz was to meet the newest addition to the Wiktor family, Thomas, aka Mr. T. Boy is he a cutie! It was crazy seeing he and Sophia together. It’s easy to forget that she was that small just a few months ago. Sophia and Thomas didn’t get to play too much, but we look forward to the cousins having many fun adventures in the future…probably with their super cool parents;-)

During our time in Santa Cruz the guys spent one day whipping up a batch of beer. It’s really a lengthy and tedious process, not to mention the weeks of waiting before you can drink any. I hope because I chipped in a bit of effort (I’m the resident bottle capper) Phil will share some of the fruits of their labor when the brew is finally ready. In addition to beer making, a fair amount our time was spent in the kitchen making all sorts of Christmas treats. We managed to sneak away most afternoons for a stroll on the beach. Rumor has it Minnesota was snowless so we didn’t feel too cheated spending Christmas in California where it was 65 and sunny.

We returned to Oceanside on the 26th but the holidays weren’t over yet. Bill and Elaine arrived for a quick visit – it was a great belated Christmas gift! Even though we already went through a huge round of gifts in Santa Cruz (I think Santa forgets how old we are getting and continues to spoil us) we had another huge pile of wrapping and ribbons waiting for us in Oceanside. Sophia didn’t get to participate in too much gift opening in Santa Cruz since it went on well past her bed time, so it was fun to watch her open her gifts back in Oceanside. She was mainly interested in the paper, not so much what was hiding inside. Probably par for the course on your first Christmas. Our visit with Bill and Elaine was quick but we squeezed in the usual good eats, games and a little site seeing. They even watched Sophia one afternoon so Mom and Dad could sneak away for a happy hour date which was much appreciated!

The holidays are done, our tree is sitting sadly at the curb and all of 2012 stands before us…or at least 362 days of it. Can’t wait to see what’s in store!

P.S. We didn’t forget to take Sophia to see Santa. Lucky for us she’s too young to realize what a bad imposter this one was.