Yay! Winter is here! Northstar finally got enough snow to open, so we enjoyed a mellow pre-holiday ski weekend with no lift lines and lots of sunshine. We gave the Ritz Carlton's patio restaurant a try, and Lucie gave it full marks for having very good mac & cheese and the "fancy bathrooms" inside the hotel.
Of course, there was also hot cocoa.
We fit in a little shopping:
And had time for a relaxed lunch on the way home at our favorite spot in Auburn, the Little Belgium Deli & Bar, serving a typically Californian combination of obscure craft beers, deli sandwiches, and 4 different styles of stuffed avocado.
But it's holiday time, and we had important things to handle back home -
like putting up the Christmas decorations, and trying out the holiday photo filters that put snow in every picture-
our 4th annual Union Square holiday ice skating extravaganza-
admiring the big tree in Union Square, and debating whether a real tree could be both that big and that perfectly symmetrical-
We also had a birthday to celebrate! Lucie lucked out and the last day of fall semester was Thursday 12/21, which meant that she had her birthday off on Friday 12/22. She chose to celebrate with a matinee of Ferdinand the Bull in 3D, followed by presents and dinner at Zazie.
We had to skip the baked hot chocolate dessert at Zazie, because we had a even more special dessert waiting at home.
Brennan's piñata cake was such big hit, we had to have another one. And not only did it have candy inside and cookie horses on top, but the inside was someone's favorite color - BLUE!
We had just enough time to clean up one mess, and then it's time to make another: Christmas!
Everyone was very pleased with their gifts, especially Roux. Poor Roux hasn't had a new toy since the kids bought her a doggy Nerf ball during their trip to Michigan in July.
We continued to have a very classic Christmas celebration - after gifts and playing with new toys, we headed to the multiplex to spend some time in a Galaxy Far Far Away, and grabbed dinner at a Chinese restaurant. God bless us, every one!
