The start of the last week of winter break...

We've had a pretty non-eventful week. Got home on Sunday night and were exhausted enough for the entire house to sleep until 9:30 am! Everyone was O-U-T...Then the day was a groggy blur of laundry, a Costco/Sprouts/Walmart run for groceries, and cleaning up...

Mike's been working at the station since Tuesday morning. This has given the kids and I a chance to get through a bit of school lessons, run a bunch of errands (and get WAAYYY sidetracked with all the sales going on right now) and we even squeezed in a movie at the cheap theater at the mall tonight. We saw Astro Boy...It turned out kind of cute, although I was wondering there a couple times where it was going....Fun movie though. The kids also had fun scouring Borders book store for the perfect book. After much consideration, they made their choices and all three of them have their noses buried in them right now as they lay tucked into their beds...

Christmas Vacation-Next stop, Temecula

Saturday morning everyone headed their separate directions. A car load went up to Julian (FUN) some went home, some continued on up to visit other relatives...We would fall in the latter category. We headed out to Temecula to visit with Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Joe and great-Popo. We had some good laughs around the table with Popo. He had us rolling. After he headed home, we brought out the cards and played a great game of Hand and Foot. Bethany caught on right away and was able to play her own hands really well. The boys entertained themselves with puzzles and coloring and TV shows...After dinner and a full day, we headed back and got all packed up and ready to head back to AZ. We tucked the kids into bed, enjoyed some Julian Apple Pie, and attempted to watch Julie and Julia, but sleep won that battle...

Sunday we headed home with many wonderful memories and much love from family in all directions and from all sides....

'Griswold' Christmas Vacation-Xmas day

Christmas morning, we all laid on the bed and talked about God's love for us and how he sent Jesus to the earth as a baby to show that love for us. We sat there with the morning sun shining in our room and the sleep still in our eyes, thanking God for the gift he gave us....It was a brief but sweet time together...Then the kids were excited to get down the hall to see their stockings. They weren't "overflowing" as they normally are at home, but Santa knew we had to drive back to AZ, so he was a bit slimmer this year. But the kids were so excited to see the special treats that were to be had...

Why waste time with presents when there was breakfast to be had?? Ableskievers, yogurt, jam, sausage, bacon...Merry Christmas!! And what a better place to enjoy it than outside in the beautiful morning...But of course, grown up stockings were passed out as we were all finishing up breakfast and Santa brought everything to make us smell good and have warm feet and soft lips :) It was a gorgeous morning, Matthew played with Charlie, the boys all talked, the babies all laughed...

The five of us escaped away to the beach for a while for a Christmas day walk/swim. The kids really wanted to go in the water so they had their suits on ready to go. We took a walk down the beach, collected seashells, went sledding again, played in the sand, watched people flying kites...such a fun afternoon down there...

Dinner was just how I remember Christmas dinners being on that table-Ham, Turkey, lee's dressing, potatoes, red cabbage, carrots, yams, brussel sprouts, herring salad, peach cloud, Dad's jello...mmmmmmmmm.....

After dinner was cleaned up, we did our family gift exchange. Instead of getting everyone individual gifts, we did a gift exchange with the numbers, stealing, opening, etc...Very FUN, but why would you expect anything else from our clan, right!!...By the time the kids got into their gifts and all that fun, it was high time for bed for the little ones...such a fun Christmas for them and everybody...Us gown ups stayed up until Christmas was no more though. Why would we waste a minute of Christmas sleeping? There was more Whitman's to be had, more marzipan to be found, more massages in the Happy Chair...

"Griswold" Christmas Vacation-Xmas Eve Day

Thursday morning, bright and early (well, okay, 9:00 but still) we were instructed by Miss Amber and Mrs. Jenn to report to Lee's house ready for a fun morning. So we all showed up and first on the list was to divide into two equal teams with Dad and a team leader and Kristi as the other leader. They drew names out of a hat and our teams were formed...

We all packed into cars and headed to VGs donuts in Cardiff-an old time family, and local, favorite...We parked and could smell the fresh donuts baking inside. Oooh, our tummies were excited...(insert record screeching noise to a halt...**rreeaarrtt**) There's a twist...we overtook three of the tables and divided into our teams. The three boxes of fresh donuts in the middle...No tearing into the boxes though. It was a standoff between one person from each team to eat a donut the fastest. then the winning team would answer questions from one of three categories-Nativity, Xmas Commercial, or Hawaii '08. We would then earn our donuts by answering correctly...FUN...After we had our fill of questioning, stuffing, and yummy donuts, we headed to Moonlight Beach down the road

Next challenge...Build a snowman in the sand. It must have three spheres, two eyes, a carrot nose, a scarf, and a Santa hat to be complete. We have 20 minutes to finish. At the end of 20 minutes, random beach-walkers will be persuaded to judge the two snowmen...After much creativity spewed into the beach sands of moonlight Beach, the fearless judges from all over the country kindly gave their opinions and the winner was....da-da-da-daaaa....Dad's team, the Snowman to the North...Woohoo

Next challenge, a relay. Here's the catch though, the Snowman Team to the South, the underdogs, had to run the relay with half their team NOT using their legs...And just so that Team Dad didn't feel left out on the fun, they had to have 2 of it's players legless. And so after considering a wheel barrel action, everyone hoped on backs and piggybacked it and down the beach we ran, then back up...Whooo-Fun....

Then out came the 'Biddle Family Christmas 2009" T-shirts and it was a big blur of red encompassing the beach. Sporting our new t-shirts, complete with very creative family tree on back, we took a long walk down the beach and enjoyed the beautiful morning. Bethany and Niko even got some sledding in...

From the beach, would you believe that everyone worked up an appetite again. It was off to Raul's Shack for some good tasty fish and carne asada burritos, quesadillas, taquitos...Yum...After it all some little one had the right idea fooo shooo...

Then it was back to the house for some visiting with the girls and the rest of the family too...and Bethany and Grandma made a special blanket-an early Christmas present. Then there was more cooking and preparing for Christmas eve dinner...

And the 'Griswold' Family Christmas would not be complete without an ugly sweater contest. How fun for all those that participated!!! Definitely love the winner's get-up. Way to go Bradley!!

Dinner was lovely-sausage, cheeses, beans, veggies, salads...Ad then Aunt Lee brought out this gigantic box of Whitman's, a gift from her friends. Imagine this, Matthew goes up to Lee sitting here and says, "do you have any chocolates?" HA!

And how would Christmas Eve be complete without reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas..." Mike read it to the kids, including Ginger, as Christmas Eve was coming to a close for them and the excitement of Christmas morning was building...Ahh, got to love the traditions...

'Griswold' Christmas Vacation- Next Stop-Encinitas

The Clesceri Family Christmas

After a relatively smooth, 5 hour, no traffic drive from Vegas, we arrived at Aunt Lee's in Encinitas, CA. It had been a pretty full day, but we visited for a while with Cousin Tammy, Aunt Lee, and Larry. We got the scoop on everybody's schedule, kind of...Cousin Jeff was net to come in on Tuesday afternoon, then Greg, Jenn and the girls shortly after him on Tuesday...Then everyone else on Wednesday...Fun week ahead

Monday morning we all made waffles and eggs, and the full spread for Hunter, Logan, Tanner, and our three kiddos. What the six cousins didn't eat, us grown ups finished up. After the production of breakfast, we headed out to lake San Marcos to meet Nana and check out the progress on her house out there.

The boys went fishing-Niko caught the tiniest fish we ever saw...We had lunch by the lake and we tried to set up her lights, but the electricity wasn't working down by the dock. Instead we cleaned up the yard a bit and made a mental list of future 'weekend projects' that we will be doing to get her into this house and enjoying it...Nana came back to the house with us and we had Angelo's for dinner. Best fish tacos ever and the burgers the kids got looked awesome! Fun night visiting, going through clothes Nana had brought over, laughing, and talking some more...

Tuesday the five of us ran a few errands, took naps, and then headed to the beach for a nice walk and playing at the park there. By the time we got back, Jeff had arrived. Again, we settled into the family room/kitchen area and visited the night away. Greg checked in about 8 letting us know they had made it in but the end of the drive was not easy on the girls and they were settling them down to bed...By the time we headed to bed, The girls had just gotten down, so we missed seeing then that night...

But with everyone well rested after a good night sleep, Wednesday morning Greg, Jenn and the girls came and we got to love and cuddle and play with them all morning. The kids love their cousins soo much. Jen and Bethany made some sugar cookie dough. Then it was time for naps and runs to the airport. Nana came by later after everyone had gone and got to spend several hours with us. It was nice to have some quiet time with her too...

After the girls got a good nap in, they got back just in time to greet Dad, Kristi, and Brad. So suddenly, it was a whirlwind of laughing and talking and hugs and kisses...And if that wasn't enough, just as the sun was setting, Sarah, Dave, Amber, and Jesse walked up the driveway...and then there were 24...twenty-four!!! of us all together, all eating, visiting, laughing, talking...crazy. It was so odd to think that the last time we were all together in this house for Christmas we were all so little, we sure didn't take up as much space :)...but we were Tanner, Logan, Hunter, Bethany, Niko, and Matthew's ages...Now we are all kind of adults(or at least trying to be) and all..well, big people now...Fun, fun...

So the night went on and on and we made preparations for Christmas in the kitchen, baking the sugar cookies and decorating them...Making herring salad.

Nana was so funny as she supervised. She is the queen of the herring salad and would look over our shoulders, "potatoes need to be sliced thin; you don't want a bit with a big chunk of potato" or "You've got to peel the skin off the herring, each one"...Soon after that, the herring production was distracted by none other than Michael, getting a bit under the weather...He really wasn't doing to well and had to go to bed (read as much as you want between the letters and lines right there; it's only there that you will find the rest of THAT story) Fun first night with the whole gang.

'Griswold' Christmas Vacaation-First Stop-Las Vegas

The Clesceri Family Christmas

On Saturday morning we arrived in Las Vegas. We visited with Scott, Shara, Paige, Jake, and Grandpa Divalerio for a while at the house. We got settled and then headed out to Red Rock to do some hiking and climbing around. It is so beautiful out there. We almost lost Matthew off some ledges a few times, but Paige helped him and guided him-bless her for her patience with him :) The two of them hit it off, mostly it was Matthew who attached himself to her and proclaimed that they were "best friends forever and ever". So funny...We stopped off at icebox canyon and took a walk up to the snow. we had a fun little snowball fight, build snowmen, and made snow angles until all the Clesceri kiddos were whining about frozen hands and sore feet...

We came home, warmed up, picked up Grandpa and then headed out to dinner at Islands. After our bellies were beyond full, we headed to Cosmic Bowling at Red Rock. Fun glow in the dark bowling balls, music, black lights, and of course Uncle Scott's freakish skull bowling ball-funny! And as if that wasn't enough fun, we got home and had birthday cake with Niko-a cake that one of Paige's friends had baked her and Bethany, Paige, and Jake decorated for Niko.

Sunday we woke up, cooked up breakfast, then relaxed in the hot tub for a while as we conspired what trouble we could cause the rest of the day...We concluded that the gals should go get mani's and pedicures and the guys would stay at home and watch football, including the Chargers game, and have pizza...and do some snoozing also. Bethany, Shara and I went to get pampered. I can't believe that Shara talked me into a pedicure, even though I swore I wouldn't take my boots off for nothing. But I am sooo glad she twisted my arm. It was so worth it. So with all our 60 nails cleaned up and polished, we headed to PF Chang's for lunch. Yum. So fun to sit and visit together feeling all civilized. :)

By the time us girls got home, we loaded up the car just as Uncle Bruce was coming in. So we got to say a quick hi to him and then it was good-byes as we headed out the door towards San Diego...