Re-Cap of Nov. & Dec.

Before I start the New Year, I need to re-cap on a few things we did at the end of this year.

#1- We went to Vegas in November. Ryan had an ortho conference, so I took the opportunity to go see one my best friends and old college roommate, Trisha, and her 3 kids. We had a great time. Ryan and I went to the strip for a couple hours one day and saw the new, HUGE, city center as well as the Belagio flower room. We also got to go 4 wheeling with Trisha and her husband, Josh. The one disappointment was not being able to see my other good friend and old roommate, Lindsay. (She was out of town) Hopefully next time we'll all be there for at least a lunch and pedicure or something.

#2- We went to Palm Desert. Ryan had another ortho conference. We stayed at the best Best Western ever. The room was spacious, really comfortable bed, nice pool, and a complimentary made to order breakfast that was actually quite tasty! One of Ry's friends from dental school was there also, and was staying at the Best Western, so I hung out with his wife, Ashley while the boys went to their meetings. It was perfect because Ashley has a little boy just a month younger than Justin. We spent most of our time out at the pool at the fancy hotel where the conference was.

#3- Thanksgiving. We went to my Aunt and Uncle's in Claremont, CA with my Dad's side of the family. Most of them had never met Justin, so it was fun to be able to introduce him to everyone. My parents and Max made the drive down, basically for the day, but it was still great to get to see them. Brownie points to Max for surviving a road trip alone with my parents!

#4- Trip to UT. The first part of December I went to UT with JR to spend a few days with my sister, Katie and also to surprise my in-laws. JR and I had a great time with Katie and cousin Ryan. Those of you that know me and Katie know that we can either be best friends or really drive each other crazy. This trip, we were best friends. We both wished there was more time. Ryan flew up midway through the week, and we literally showed up on his parent's doorstep at 10pm singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" with JR in his X-Mas jammies. They hadn't seen JR since he was 3 months old, and we weren't going to be seeing them at all during the holidays, so this was a BIG surprise for them. I LOVE surprises, and this was planned for a couple months, so you can only imagine my excitement for them to come to the door. Ryan's Mom started crying and neither of them could really believe we were there. Of course it felt too short, but a few days with their grandson was better than nothing!

#5- Christmas. We went to the Grove, here in LA, which has become a tradition for us for the past 3 years. They have a huge tree, Santa's workshop, fake snow...it's always very festive. For our holiday break, we went up to my parents in Walnut Creek. It was great because everyone was there for the first time in 3 years. It was nice to have Max back and having the 2 boys, Justin and cousin Ryan, was really fun and gave Christmas morning a re-birth. My parents moved to a smaller house just 2 weeks before Christmas, so it was definitely different to be home but not 'home.' But, it was an experience that proved that 'home' is wherever family is. Since their house now is quite a bit smaller, there wasn't room to do a big, formal Christmas Eve dinner like usual, so instead we ordered Chinese take-out and all ate on the floor by the Christmas tree in the living room. I guess my parents did that last year when it was just Carly and Luke at home with them, and it might be the new Christmas Eve dinner tradition. We'll see. It was kinda nice not to have a bunch of prep or clean up to do!

#6- New Years. Originally, Ryan's parents were going to come down and we were going to go to the Rose Parade on New Years Day. But, they ended up not being able to come, so we were here in LA, at home, with Justin in bed, playing cards. It was low-key and actually really nice to just be home and having a quiet evening to ourselves. We went to a nice italian dinner in North Beach in San Francisco that we counted as our New Years date night. For those of you who read and remember our anniversary dining experience....this time we were determined not to get swindled out of hundreds of dollars. Well, we didn't have to pay as much for our 'misunderstanding' of what we ordered this time, but the waiter did trick us into ordering 2 appetizers, and we didn't know it until we got the bill. Oh well.