Episode CI: California There We Came

As per tradition, I traveled back home to California over the Christmas/New Year holidays. This year I brought along my wife as well- indeed, thanks to the recent marriages in the family, our household was 33% larger than it usually is at this time of year.

This was the first Christmas that Meg and I spent Christmas or New Year's together, and let me say that it was a lovely, lovely thing to do. I recommend it.
 

 

At Grandma Shearer's Christmas Celebration we introduced a brand new tradition of a walk around the block (with frisbees in tow, of course.) A pretty nice tradition for a locale where Christmas Day was a refreshing sunny-with-a-high-of-seventy-five.

For Brian's birthday the family adventured on over to a giant complex full of trampoline-based excitement. Jumping on trampolines for an hour straight the day after playing a few hours of basketball makes for an interesting feeling in the legs, let me tell you.

Some of the family also took a trip up to Simi Valley to take in Ronald Reagan's Presidential Library and Museum. It was a very nice museum set in a lovely area. I recommend it. Here are Meg and I posing in front of Air Force One (a previous iteration.)

The Norrises rung in the New Year in high style this year, watching a DVRed Lakers game and then giving Megan a New Year's kiss (at least that's what I was doing.) We also had the good fortune of being able to hang out with a bunch of family and friends at a two-day New Year's church meeting up in LaVerne, which was nice.

Finally, I wrapped up my vacation with a traditional Norris family Christmastime trip, this time to Arrowhead Lake (and yes, it included Costco hotdogs.)

The cabin we stayed in was posh- we could have spent all day indoors playing billiards, foosball, ping pong, Xbox, etc...

 

 

But it was also extremely nice weather, so we went outside as well. We played some multi-story frisbee:

And went on a hike around Big Bear Lake:

The only negative (that I know of) was that the water heater broke shortly after we arrived. However, this turned out to be a positive (in my books) when the property manager arranged for us to have free access to the Arrowhead Resort hotel, complete with a day spa (including my favorite gratuitous comfort experience, a steam room.)

 

After a last-minute trip to In-N-Out on the way back, it was time for Meg and I (and Alicia and Chris) to pack our bags, and return to our own abodes. And so it was, a seemingly action-packed (but highly enjoyable) Christmas vacation.