Christmas vacation, and a few pictures

Ok, so this is blog number 2. I dont know if I want to number them myself, or let the blogspot thing do it. I think the blogspot thing will do it, so that will be easier. BTW, I just realised I am just blogging to Em and Carol only, and they already know everything I do, so this is because I said I would do a blog a week. And just in case someone in the far off future wants to read something to fall asleep to, well here I am.

Anyway, this was my first week back at work after a very wonderful vacation. Every year John and myself takes a week off at Christmas. Maybe the kids will come home, maybe not, but we are still in need of time off. I get time to do any holiday baking I am doing, because I no longer go out and try to find some useless thing on a store shelf to buy for someone that may or may not like it. I know most people like having baked goods to snack on with coffee or just to nibble on. I spend 4 days making cinnamon rolls, cookies, pumpkin bread in little tins, marshmallows and brittle. then I put them in cute boxes I go and pick out at the local hobby store. Usually the boxes are something they can keep and use as storage later on or they can regift in them. I dont care what they do with them after, as long as they look good as the gift.

Then there is the local delivery of gifts, which usually takes at least half a day while I travel from house to house of the few people I give them to locally. I dont do this for everybody, just some, but I love the delivery part. It allows me some very special time to just visit for a short while, then dash back out.

This time, we spent Christmas and the following day in Petaluma. We got a hotel because we didtn want to drive home that night, and I am so glad we did. It poured rain all day. We didnt mind during the day, since we were inside, but by the time we had to drive from Bodega ( remember the Birds, this is where it was filmed) the roads were flooded and we had to use a detour to get back. There are no lights out there, so it was very dark, its all country roads. My sister in law was in front of me though in her huge SUV, so she kind of guided me back to town.

The big high light of our vacation wasnt really Christmas though. We had made reservations at one of our favorite places to get away. Its way up in Fort Bragg, about 4 and a half hours from here. Its a little town right on the coast that is a fishing, crabbing, harbor town. From our hotel balcony, we have a beautiful view of the ocean, and this visit we were able to watch the whales heading south to Mexico. Its really very cool, you cant really see the whale itself, but the spouts as the come up for air. At the end of February, they will be coming back with their calves. I think I want to go back up there then and this time go out on a boat and see them up close and personal.

The other reason we like it up there is because we get fresh crab at the local shop. There is a guy there that has them brought in and cooks them right there. They are never frozen, and OMG, so sweet and yummy. We never eat frozen crab, the taste is so different from fresh, its just not worth the price. We ended up paying wayy to much for it, since it also went on sale at home while we were gone, but thats ok. Its not about the price, but more about the experience. We have that for dinner in our room with melted butter and good bottle of wine, some fresh bread from the local market. That is the best! That is really what we want.

We also met some really nice people up there. I need to send them an email. They are not on face book or any social networks since they are in law enforcement. I hope I didnt loose their email address, I really liked them.
OH well, I better end this here, I could go on, but Im sure you have other things to do too. So until the next blog, see ya later.