We're back!

We had a lovely trip this holiday season, and we've arrived home safely. Here's a quick re-cap:

December 22nd: Left and drove to Bakersfield.

December 23rd: Drove to Fresno - played at Chuck E. Cheese's with Gma Ackerman and Aunt Sara...continued driving to Sacramento. Had a huge wonderful dinner with all the Hansen clan, and finished up with a visit from Santa!

December 24th: Went to church, Steve & Pat visited Artie's grave, had a Christmas Eve "hang out" party with the Riders in Elk Grove.

December 25th: Woke up to presents from Santa...had a lovely turkey & ham dinner with all the fixins with the Hansen clan. Steve played soccer with his family and Kenneth.

December 26th: We were supposed to go to the snow, but we were afraid of bad weather, so we hung out and did laundry, then went to the Davis family home for a beautiful roast dinner and watched the movie "The Da Vinci Code"

December 27th: Packed up the car and headed to Lafayette to the Clay home. Had a lovely dinner of ham and all the fixins.

December 28th: Went to SAN FRANCISCO! This was the highlight of the trip for me. Just 4 adults (no kids) Darin, Missy, Steve & me. We had a great lunch on pier 39 at Boudin Sourdough, shopped a bit, visited a few fantastic jewelry stores - learned a lot about jewelry, had a lovely dinner overlooking the wharf - DUNGENESS CRAB!!! It was a splendid day - thanks to Sami for watching all 11 children!

December 29th: I spent some time working with Darin & Missy on their taxes...then we went to the Miur Woods - and saw the Redwoods! We had a wonderful dinner of homemade Korean food, made by Missy.

December 30th: Steve got to visit with his Grandmother for a few hours. I did some laundry then went shopping with my sister, Missy. I got 7 pants, 2 skirts, and 3 pair of shoes!! I'm a happy woman! We had the BEST Chinese in the WORLD that evening with the Thompson family.

December 31st: We loaded the car and drove home. We opened our remaining presents and played with almost every one of them!

January 1st: My Grandma Noble came over for the day. We got crown molding for our Master Bedroom, Angela & Grandma and I went shopping while Steve & Darrel and the boys installed the tether ball stand that Kenneth & Daniel got from Santa. Steve made a wonderful meal of Beef Strogenoff for us to share and we ended by watching "Invincible" (A great movie).

We're very blessed. Most of us have colds, but now that we're home, I'm sure we'll get better quickly. We still owe the boys one present, but we've told them they'll get it when we can find it to buy...