Way out West.

We spent the weekend of my birthday in the San Francisco Bay area, where Steven's mom and aunt live. I had never been to that part of California before this trip and I foolishly was so busy gawking at the awesomeness of San Francisco during our excursion on our birthday that I took practically no photos. Sigh... next time.

 Steven's mom's birthday is the day before mine, and we got to be at her surprise party!

A foggy start on our drive to San Francisco  

 Haribo Cherries provided nourishment on our drive

Nearly there!

I was obsessed with that Victorian brownstone on the right, driving to Haight-Ashbury. 

Hurray for sun and cute boys! 

 The hilly streets don't look that bad from here...

 The last pic from the city before I got overwhelmed in Union Square.

 A rocky outcropping on our drive up Mount Diablo.

The view was just silly... and this wasn't even halfway up. 

 Now that's a view.

 Bat signal.

What a fun trip... I can't wait to go back! 

Looking back at Christmas.

I can't believe we're already entering the last stretch of January. I had 12 straight days of vacation from work, and it still flew by in a blink. Here's a few blips from Christmas:

My mom's Christmas decorating leaves not one branch of their huge tree unadorned.

I'm trying to think of a Karate Kid reference to make here. 

Success! 

 This was the best that Nala could do.

Chomp. 

 The Christmas Eve spread - all this for five people. 

The halls are decked. 

 Merry Christmas!

A New Year.

 This New Year's Eve, we hid out at home and let a serious party animal entertain us:

(Pip is modeling the past three years of New Year's chapeaus from St-Germain... they're the best)

 We made a stop to our favorite cheese shop, goat. sheep. cow., and got a bevy of treats to snack on till midnight.

 (Maya brought a lot of hope into 2013... hope that we'd step away from the table and not miss a slice or three of soppressata.)

(Our few guests looked great for the occasion but didn't add much to the conversation.)

We downed our champagne, lit off a few fireworks and called it a night. Besides the fireworks, it wasn't much different than many other nights we've spent at home, but over breakfast, we talked about our resolutions and they've geared us up for taking on 2013, head first.

 

(New Year's Day calls for a port-infused French toast brunch with Bloody Marys and lots of bacon.)

One of my resolutions was to writewritewrite just for myself and also a little more in this blog, and so I am haltingly, falteringly starting again.

And tomorrow (or, in about four hours, rather), Steven and I will be taking on another of my resolutions!

Happy 2013!