Christmas 2010

I'm hoping to soon get to more current posts that contain more than a crazy amount of pictures, but I also want to have these pictures saved somewhere in the internet universe to keep them safe in the event of a computer malfunction, so here they are, in all their glory. 

First, a shot of out beautiful holiday home, which feels like it was so very long ago. Ed promised that this was the last year of having a little tree, as I've been feeling eager to graduate up to an "adult" sized tree. Still, as Ed pointed out, it makes the pile of presents look that much bigger, and it really is a very cute tree. 

Ed hoped this picture might trick onlookers into thinking the tree was bigger than it actually was (and that we apparently have huge presents!)

 
Since, of course, we celebrate the holidays in Cambria and Orange County, all the presents around the tree have to get packed up.

Once we arrived in Cambria, we were greeted with stormy, but beautiful weather. After getting settled, we headed down to the coast to say hi to the churning water.

Luckily, the rain fizzled out and it turned into a nice, cool walk.

After the walk, we headed down to visit the always fun Elephant Seals.

At late December, the very first of the baby seals were starting to be born.

The two pictures below somehow fit together :).

The next day, Ed's mom, Ed and I took a hike in the beautiful hills by San Luis Obispo. It was great to be outside, once the storm broke and treated us with beautiful lush hills and a bright blue sky.

The fog hung out on the hills in the distance, sending a brisk breeze our way, but keeping the skies clear.

Finally, we reached out destination - Eagle Peak! We rested at a bench for a few minutes, and then down we went.

 That evening, we were treated to an amazing meal cooked by Sabine - her delicious crab Cioppino

 After dinner, we opened stockings - Ed holds up the traditional marzipan, as well as some other goodies.

And I got some lovely things as well (if it's any indication, most of those things have since been consumed)

Ed showing off our new sleeping back - Thanks Tom!

The brothers showing off their new tops.

Argyle became the theme with presents.

Finally, Christmas was finished up at my parent's home. We started with stockings here, too.

Breakfast we delicious. I joked with my mom that our Christmas mornings taught me delayed gratification. Ever since I was little, we always did stockings and then had a long leisurely breakfast. We couldn't start on the real presents until breakfast was finished and the dishes were cleared. It was so hard to wait when I was younger, but now I sort of like that it takes until 2pm to finish opening presents.

All in all, a great holiday!