Christmas, New Years and a New Job!

I have been really terrible about blogging. Raymond and I had a great time in California over Christmas here is a re-cap of our trip!

I got to California on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at 9:00 pm. I was supposed to be there at 5:30 pm, however my flight was delayed. Here is how it started. I checked in online like I always do and right before Raymond came to pick me up to take me to the airport I checked my flight to make sure that it was "on time". According to alaskaair.com it was, so we proceeded to the airport. Right as I pass through security the status of my flight changed to "delayed" and hour. Okay, I can deal with an hour, but then at 3:00 my new boarding time, the flight kept being pushed back and back. We finally ended up leaving at 6:30. Needless to say, I was very frustrated.

When I arrived in California my parents were there to greet me and we went out to have a drink at the Historic Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside. My brother is a bartender there so we went to go bug him. The Mission Inn is also where Raymond and I got married. If you have never been there you should check it out or at least the website www.missioninn.com . We sat at the bar for about two hours had some wine and decided to call it a night.

On Wednesday, I ran some errands and did some last minute Christmas shopping. I thought I was done, but there is always that last minute gift to buy.

On Thursday, my parents and I went out to breakfast and then went to our office to "load the sleigh"! Our annual Christmas party for my parents business was on Thursday so we had to load all of the gifts into my parents car so that we could take them to the country club that the party was going to be held at. The party started at 5:30 in the evening, however we got there at 3:30 to un-load all of the gifts. The Christmas party was a lot of fun, we had a magician, comedian and a DJ for our staff and kids. The boys even did some skits that were excellent and really showed the true meaning of Christmas. After the party, when everyone left my parents, my cousins and I were sitting around and my cousin Joe and his wife Cecelia told us that they were expecting another baby. I was so happy for them. They are great parents and have three beautiful girls that I absolutely adore. They are truly blessed to have another baby on the way.

Friday was a LONG day for me, I woke up early and had breakfast with my friend Tori, and then went home to wait for my cousin Ashlee and Darren to arrive from Stockton. Ashlee and I were planning to do to Disneyland when they got here. Stockton is about 8 hours north of Riverside. Once Ashlee and Darren arrived they had to make a pit stop at Bakers and my grandparents house before she headed over to my parents house so we could go to Disneyland. We finally left at 2:00 in the afternoon and were at Disneyland until 9:00 pm. We had a lot of fun. Raymond also flew in that day from the airport, my parents picked him up since I was at Disneyland.

Saturday was also busy. My mom, Ashlee and I got up early to get pedicures and my dad and Raymond went golfing. Once we were done getting our feet done, we went home to cook or should I say bake. I baked around 400 chocolate chip cookies. I am not trying to brag, but I have been told that I make great chocolate chip cookies. The nice thing about making then at my mom's house it that she has a Viking Stove, which is a industrial size stove, so I was able to bake 5 batches at a time. This helped to make the process go a lot faster.

Once I was done with all the cookies, I had to rush to get ready because Raymond and I went to San Diego to visit his friend from the Navy, Javier and his wife Karla and their cute daughter Clarisa. We went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was really neat, I haven't been there since I was a kid, but at night during Christmas they keep the Wild Animal Park open late and have light displays and arts and crafts for the kids to do. It was so much fun, and it was great to see Javier, Karla and Clarisa!

Sunday was Christmas Eve, and we went to Raymond's aunts house in the late afternoon and then went to my grandparents house at night. We always have Christmas Eve at my grandparents house. My grandma made tamales and they were so yummy! We then opened all the gifts. I love Christmas, it makes me feel like such a kid.

Then we went home to my parents house. We always open our Christmas presents when we get home from my grandparents house, we never wait until Christmas morning. Well, I guess it is technically Christmas morning. So when we got home we put on our pajamas and gathered around the tree and opened our gifts. I have to say that Santa was good to me again this year!

We woke up early on Christmas Day and went to Raymond's parents house where we exchanged gifts and watched out nieces open gifts. We then went back to my parents house and spent the whole day there. My parents always have Christmas Day at their house, and believe me there is always a full house, usually no less than 25 people. The last guests stayed until around midnight and then we went to sleep. We were exhausted!

We left California the next day and spent New Years in Seattle. We went to Jazz Alley and it was a lot of fun. Then we decided to head to Pioneer Square, which was totally crowded with crazy people. So we decided to leave, however we could not find a cab, so we ended up walking up hill home.

It is now 2007 and I have been looking for a job actively for about 2 weeks and I have finally got a job. I start on Monday. I am going to be the assistant of student affairs at a local community college. I am really excited to be working. I have actually been really bored not working, there is only so many things that I can buy at the mall :)

It looks like 2007 is going to be a great year, I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and has a great New Year!