Christmas 2012 - San Diego

Having arrived at our daughter's home three days before Christmas, we had some time to help her with the holiday preparations and hang out with our grandsons. The boys are into chess just now and they played together, with Craig, and with their mother.  I don't play!

Over the weekend I took several walks along the cliffs that are two blocks from their home. I had a great walking partner, Sandy, their Golden Retriever.  My daughter has a sore foot and was unable to come along.

My daughter and I went grocery shopping together, and I prepared Eggplant stacks for the Christmas Eve meal.  It was also fun to work side-by-side with her to make a wonderful beef Wellington dinner on Christmas Day. My son-in-law made a delicious Pavlova for dessert and the men  did the cleanup and the dishes!  

Christmas morning was dedicated to gift giving and present opening.  The boys were happy with all of their gifts and did not seem to be disappointed with anything. 

Our younger grandson loved his camo-Snuggie, and wore it all morning.  He had also made or collected small gifts for his stuffed animals and unwrapped them for each of the critters.

On Christmas we Skyped with our son in Seattle and with our son-in-law's parents in New Zealand.  Far flung family!

My daughter set up a very complex jigsaw puzzle that we all worked on.  Eventually everyone but Craig drifted away.

Games with complex rules seemed par for the day.  Our older grandson explains the rules to his mother!  (Notice he has the periodic table of Minecraft on his tee shirt!)

The days went by way too fast.  Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be leaving for Desert Hot Springs in the Alfa.


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