Christmas seemed to stretch out long in either direction, we had an early celebration with one side of the family right after Thanksgiving. Decorations were up, I finished shopping early, carols were being played on the daily. The season crescendoed into a week long visit down to San Diego, and a flight out of that most southern city on Christmas day. We were pumped: THE SUN, palm trees, other people cooking for us, & I was going to take a quick jaunt to Long Beach to go to my old home group.
I let some people know I was maybe coming, we went back & forth trying to decide which meeting to go to. Someone mentioned a women’s meeting. A lightning bolt thought crossed my mind: that’s the first meeting you ever went to! So I was doubly pumped. The parents had agreed, our flight was getting in with plenty of time.
& then it got delayed. I held onto the hope of making it all the way until we took off, 2 & a half hours after schedule.
We arrived to rain. We had been checking our silly phones for weeks gloating over the tiny suns we saw there. Now? Four days of predicted rain.
We arrived at our turn key exhausted. We rallied only because we needed food. Silly smart phones deposited us at a most hipster grocery store, we wandered around like zombies picking up packages of food. I capitalized on my parents drugged out states & sneakily slipped in some unhealthier types of items. My son even managed to stick a full bag of onions in our cart even while being safely sanctioned in the cart seat! Luckily my mom saw at check out & we were able to fish them out.
I don’t really remember the rest of that day, we were all really tired. Silly how hanging at airports, delays, & only a 2 hour flight can exhaust you?!
Hands down the next day was my favorite. I missed my son, his other grandma took him for the whole day since she lives close to SD. But holy wow, was it so great to drive around with my cousin all day. Do you want coffee? She asked. What do you want for lunch? Do you want to go anywhere? My brain had a hard time computing all of these questions. We ran her errands too. She had me at coffee really, I was happy to just go along for the ride. We went back to her & her girlfriend’s new place & watched t.v. Perfect day. She brought me back & H was dropped off later. I ran outside to get him. His face lit up when he saw me.
It rained again the day after that. The rest of the trip was a blur. Car rides, scheduled (slightly unscheduled) dinners & lunches. Wrapping paper. More rain, even hail. It was rushed & stressful at times. It was still good to be with & see family. Loud voices, dance offs on the Wii, food, so much food. Hot tubs, strong coffee, so many dogs, & of course millions of palm trees.
Our turn key was on a hill overlooking the airport. The planes landing whooshing next to us seemingly every five minutes but stopped around 10pm. They started landing again around 6:30 but when you have a toddler that doesn’t bother you.
My other favorite was H’s face Christmas morning. Me: I think Santa has been here, should we go look if left anything? His face lights up again. This is new of course, last year he still didn’t really get it. This year he does.
At home:
SNOW:
San Diego:
More on yoga news next post. I’m grateful to get back to routine & dig into my new classes.
Wishing/hoping/dreaming the best last day of the old year to you all!
~Namaste.
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