California Familying

We are so thankful to have seen all of our family in our visit to Orange County, California. During our two weeks + two days, we bounced back and forth between the two households. The weather was beautiful, we celebrated Christmas, the New Year, and our 6-year anniversary, and had a wonderful time reconnecting with our roots. Although Daisy got sick, antibiotics helped and we were all healthy by the time we needed to trans-Atlantic again.

Highlights with Chris' family:
4 Cousins = Heaven for Daisy. Katie, Jeremy, Bekah, Levi, Faith, and Claire made the trip down from Redding so that we could all spend Christmas together. I loved seeing Bekah teach Daisy how to ride a scooter, Claire (only 3 months age difference from D!) and Daisy playing and "communicating," and the whole gang work on some gingerbread houses. After they all went home (sniff), we spent {quieter!} time with Chris' parents reading Piglet books to Daisy and planning for our upcoming Italy vacation together. We also took a memorable trip to Balboa, complete with dinner on the pier during a blazing sunset.

Highlights with Holly's family:
Daisy kept asking for "more tea" at her first Ladies Tea, hosted by her Great-Grandmother (Gigi), and stepped into a piece of Holly's childhood when she played with Great-Granny and Grandpa in Palm Springs. She learned about basketball and guinea pigs from Opa and Uncle Joel, tea parties from Grandmommy, and Snow White from Aunt Rebecca. We all had fun at an inspirational family New Year's Eve party {salon} where our topic was Carpe Diem. The Galileo brothers (aka Joel and Chris) took a trip to LA's Griffith Observatory, talked physics, and spent cold (haha) nights outside with Joel's cool new telescope. It was hard for all of us to say goodbye!