LA Holiday

I have been having perfect days here in LA. I drove down on Saturday…it rained off and on for the first 3 1/2 hours, and then really solidly for the second 3 1/2 hours. I’m pretty shocked that I made it in that amount of time, with the horrible weather!! I’m also shocked that I only witnessed one accident, which was in LA and nothing major. As predicted, I did enjoy the ride and listened to all of my favorite music, ate some snacks, saw some scenery. Here is what I’ve been doing since my arrival…

-Saturday: Hung out with my mom and Logan, ate a home-cooked meal (chicken stuffed with brie, almonds, and apples–delicious!!!!), did some wedding talk with my mom–showed her some dresses and talked about venues.

-Sunday: Headed to Long Beach with my mom for a Greek lunch, and somehow managed to stuff ourselves again with a delicious seafood dinner at Rock n Fish in Manhattan Beach. Found that Mandi was nearby bar hopping in Hermosa Beach, so I joined her and her friends for that. Went to a couple of bars in the pouring rain on the pier! Had a pineapple mojito while they watched football… Then came home and we chatted with our mom for awhile.

-Monday: Had breakfast with Melissa!! She is my oldest friend, having been my friend since babyhood! I love her so much, and we always enjoy catching up. I relaxed in the afternoon, then went to dinner with Mandi, Annalise, Lisa, and Michael. They love this ramen place, and I’ve been curious, so they took me there. It was delicious!!!!! After dinner, Mandi and I did some last-minute shopping.

-Tuesday: DISNEYLAND. Not only Disneyland, but Disneyland with my sisters, and Disneyland with my sisters in the pouring rain! This is the most perfect day for me. Many of my favorite days have been rainy Disneyland days, and this day has been added to the list!! We had a blast. Justine has grown up and all of the sudden seems like an adult (she’s almost there!), and the three of us have a really good time together. We ate all of the good food and drank all of the good drinks (vanilla coffee, gingerbread Mickeys, bacon-wrapped asparagus, beef skewers, cream cheese pretzels, mint hot cocoa, clam chowder in a bread bowl…). The rain kept the people away and we literally walked on nearly every ride. We visited reindeer and Santa and took pictures by the snowy castle and Christmas tree. We had a blast. Here are some shots…

-Wednesday (today): Started the day off by getting my nails done. I’ve missed my nail people in LA and try to go there whenever I’m in town long enough to justify an hour spent there… Then I went to lunch with Mark–another one of my very favorite people. We got all caught up on work and life and love and his son, Noah. The poor waiter had to try to take our order so many times because we just couldn’t stop talking, and weren’t looking at the menu! After lunch we did a little shopping and some more catching up. As I left, it was raining so hard that I didn’t want to go home–I wanted to enjoy the rain!! I headed to the Manhattan Beach pier, bought a vanilla latte, and settled in by the ocean. I watched the rain and the waves for awhile, and sipped my drink. I was so happy–surrounded in the past few days by so many of my favorite things and people, and so excited for things to come.

I noticed that it was about the time Mandi was getting off work, so I met up with her and we did a little bit of shopping…then decided we were better off going to happy hour! We enjoyed some delicious appetizers and some drinks and then we much better prepared to brave the mall–prosecco makes everything better!!!!!

I am now relaxing in bed, all warm and cozy. Tomorrow is my Christmas with Mandi and our mom, which I am very excited about!! More later…