Christmas' galore and #100..

Christmas has come and gone. All four Christmas' to be exact. Our first celebration was with Jeff's extended family on the Sunday before Christmas. Lots of people and good food, and for an added bonus...the Chargers won! We had a sleepover with the Mitas family, and went out to breakfast at The Original Pancake House. I strongly recommend you go there if you ever get the chance. It was amazing! Be sure to bring your appetite though...the portions are definitely not on the skimpy side.

Then on Tuesday we headed down to Melissa & Derek's for an early Christmas celebration with them. Yay presents!



Then we went to the San Diego Zoo for Jungle Bells, where they light up the zoo with Christmas lights. It was freezing! Even the animals shivered under their heat lamps for warmth!


But it was still fun to see some of the animals and the pretty lights even though we were there for just a few hours.




Then we headed back to T.O. for even more Christmas celebrations! We even snuck in a visit with Jeff's grandparents and Uncle Larry! We spent Christmas Eve at my Oma's house for a yummy dinner of tamales and yet more presents. (No pictures on my camera of this one!)

Christmas day was spent at my parents' house, and the rest of the relatives came to us. We got to talk to my sister in the morning and hear about their celebrations. Good to hear from you Tori...we miss and love you! Then we opened stockings, ate yummy Kringle (we would have loved some of those Kolaches to go with it Melissa!), opened more presents (including my new camera which I still haven't used yet...oops!), stuffed ourselves with turkey, and opened the nativity that my Gam painted many many years ago. And guess who got the Baby Jesus?! Congrats Jeff! No pictures of this day on my camera either...get them from my mom!

Then Sunday Jeff and I parted ways again. He headed back up to SLO to attempt to meet his deadlines for the end of the year, and I am currently in Tustin and have started my 3rd rotation. The clinic I am working at is in Cypress by Knott's Berry Farm and is about a 15-20 minute drive from where I'm living. I'm about 5-10 minutes from Disneyland, and you can hear the fireworks every night! I am only 2 days into this rotation, but I can tell it's going to be very different from my other ones. On Mondays we do home visits or individual sessions, so yesterday we were at a park and only had 1 appointment...meaning I only had to work for 1 hour on my first day! Today we were at the actual center, and did group sessions since both our individual sessions cancelled for today...meaning I was done before noon! Woohoo! I know it won't be like this every day, but my CI doesn't work past 3:30 now that she has a daughter. Not a bad way to end my rotations! :)

And believe it or not, this is my 100th post! I can't believe I've written that many times! Thanks everyone for reading this and making it worth my while. I hope I've made it worth your effort to read it. You know I love all your comments! Here's to 100 more!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and have a fun, but safe, New Year! See you in 2010!

10 days 'til X-Mas...

This past weekend was Jeff's company x-mas party at the Madonna Inn. I'm sad to say this is the first time I've actually been inside the pink landmark despite living in SLO for so long. They did a wonderful job creating a winter wonderland, with shades of frosty blue and silver everywhere. They even took pictures like at prom which were ready for us by the end of the night, and had a musician/comedian. Here's our non-professional version...


And I also won our table's centerpiece. Meet Frosty!


Tomorrow I'll be heading back down to T.O. You'd think I'd have things packed up by now, but no. I've been running errands, wrapping presents, and being in complete denial that my time here in SLO is already over. I hope everything will fit!

Well, I guess I should get to packing. But I will leave you with this jewel of a video. For your holiday entertainment...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Catching up...

...and getting into the holiday spirit. So I know I kind of disappeared off the face of the earth for a little bit there so I'll try to catch everything back up.

Thanksgiving was spent with Jeff's family. 32 people and 3 turkeys with all the side dishes and lots of dessert. Coming from a small-ish family, these get togethers are often hard for me to wrap my head around simply because of the large head count. They always end up being a lot of fun and never seem to stress anyone out...or at least they hide it well. :) I must say Susie pulled off an amazing schindig and everything went off without a hitch, in spite of the 90º weather! Way to go Susie!


The rest of the holiday weekend was spent at Jeff's parents' house in Murrieta with Melissa, Derek and Grady. We even took Grady out to experience his first Black Friday, even though none of us scored any awesome deals. We tried to keep Jeff's dad company as he was recovering from his recent eye surgery. Hope you're feeling better Mike! And of course a lot of time was spent crawling around on the floor with that cutie of a nephew of ours.


Jeff and I also helped set up the (fake) christmas tree. Pre-lit trees sound like a good idea, but finding all the little cords to attach together again is not so easy! Nevertheless, it was a good way to jump start the holiday season.

Since I last posted, I have finished my second rotation. I can't believe how quickly these past 8 weeks flew by! I learned a lot and know that my manual techniques have vastly improved. I also got invited to the company xmas party, which was this past weekend. Of course I brought my camera and didn't take any pictures...story of my life. Being the 2nd student ever to be invited, I took this as a huge honor. I got a bunch of really sweet cards and presents from my patients too. All in all, I would consider this rotation a success, no matter which way you look at it!

My next rotation will be at a pediatrics clinic in Cypress near Knott's Berry Farm. I'll be staying with an alumni from our program who also helps teach some of the labs at school. He and his wife have generously offered to let me stay in their guest bedroom. They live about 20 minutes from the clinic, and I am so grateful for not having to find a place to live.

So this week I've been a lazy bum, and have been loving it! I could get used to not working! And it's been a good thing that I haven't had to go anywhere with the crazy downpours we've been having! I'll be heading back to T.O. sometime next week, schlepping all my stuff back down. Jeff's company xmas party is this weekend, so maybe I'll actually take pictures this time! :) So sad we're missing Bake Day again this year! I'll just have to bake on my own to make up for it.

Hope everyone is getting into the holiday spirit and getting all their shopping done...only 2 more weekends left! Since I don't get a tree up here in SLO (because I "won't be here to take it down"), I guess decorating the blog in holiday cheer will have to suffice. Happy December everyone!