Christmas in San Diego

This year we spent Christmas in San Diego with my parents. We arrived on Christmas Eve, and that evening hosted dinner at my parents' house for my dad's side of the family.

Here's Gabby hanging out on the steps (with all of her favorite treasures...Molly, her lip gloss, and my mom's tap dancing Santa) waiting for the family to arrive:


I LOVE this picture of Gabby and my dad:


Gabby and her second cousin Garrett...budding musicians (or second cousin once removed...I never know these things)

The Geffner ladies:

Chef Teri with two of my cousins in the kitchen...Teri planned and cooked pretty much the entire meal since we didn't fly in until a few hours before dinner. We had honey-baked ham, smoked turkey, scallopped sweet potatoes, corn casserole, roasted brussels sprouts, winter salad, and rolls, along with some YUMMY cheeses, smoked salmon, and crackers for appetizers.

Present time! We pretty much only did gifts for the little ones, so Gabby and Garrett were the stars of the show for a bit. My cousin Alena looks way more excited than Gabby about this particular gift!

On Christmas morning, we exchanged gifts with Teri and my parents. Here's Mrs. Claus (my mother) helping Gabby with her stocking. I totally thought she was trying to dress up like Mrs. Claus...turns out she just HAPPENS to wear a big red hooded robe in the mornings, and she put on the Santa hat after trying to put it on Gabby who rejected it.

Exciting!

Gabby got an 8-pack of Hello Kitty lip balm from Santa...she still totes them around everywhere like little treasures. In this picture she is handing them out to each of us...we realized after she got done passing them out that she gave them according to color...each of the lip balms we ended up with coordinated with the clothes we were wearing. This kid is just too much!

A Hello Kitty rolling backpack! A great gift from my parents.

Another great gift from my parents...Disney princess pajamas. She never wants to take them off.

More excitement!

Gabby not only loved to open gifts, she loved to pass them out to the rest of us. Except she TOTALLY cannot keep a secret and if she knew what was inside, she gave it away everytime. "Here Teri, 'dis one fo' you! It's a knife!!"

Gabby got to spend an afternoon with my parents at her favorite park...can you tell she is happy here??

Racing Molly down the slide:

Gabby was completely obsessed with all the 'junk" in the sand. My mom referred to all the odds and ends in the sand as junk, and Gabby has been finding ways to work the word "JUNK" into conversation anywhere she can.

Awwww, snuggles!

Chinese take-out night.

My mom played what turned out to be THE FUNNIEST GAME EVER with Gabby. She cut a hole into the lid of a giant coffee can, and put random household items inside. Gabby had to stick her hand into the hole, feel the item, and guess what it was. The game itself is not inherently funny, but Gabby was just so darn hilarious throughout the whole thing that we were cracking up nonstop. She pretty much guessed EVERY item (unless it was something she had never seen before). Some of them she didn't know what they were called, but she totally knew what they were. One item was a clothespin...Gabby didn't know what the name was, but when she felt it, she recognized it. She described it as "the thing that opens on the top and it closes on the bottom." And she didn't know what my eyelash curler was called, but she was able to pantomime what she sees me doing with my eyelash curler...she held her hand up to her squinting little eye and squeezed her fingers.

At one point, my mom shoved Molly into the can. Gabby reached in and in about 0.001 seconds, screeched, "IT'S MY MOLLY!!!!" snatched her out, and cuddled her. If this isn't the cutest thing ever, I don't know what is!

Also funny was when my mom stuck a handful of chow mein noodles from dinner into the can. Which of course, Gabby identified immediately. After several rounds, Gabby decided she wanted Mimi to be the guesser, and she was going to place a mystery item in the can. Which led to another hilarious moment, when right in front of my mom, Gabby grabbed a big wet rag lying on the dinner table, wadded it up and shoved it into the can, and then asked her to "guess". She kept either putting things in the can right in front of my mom, or she would instantly just yell out what it was..."Here Mimi, put your hand in here...it's a SPOON!"

After dinner we all got in the car with our hot cocoa to go look at Christmas lights. Gabby was in PJ's since we weren't planning on getting out of the car, but one neighborhood we went to was CRAZY decorated with lights, and you totally had to get out and walk around to get the full experience. It was the type of decor where EVERY SQUARE INCH of real estate was covered in lights, where there were window displays and lots of animated decorations...it was so over the top and fun.

Also during this trip, Teri got to walk down memory lane with all of her old treasured toys...Strawberry Shortcake dolls, Charmkins, My Little Pony, and all of her doll collections. She unpacked a few boxes stored in her closet and she and Gabby had a great time playing with all of the "vintage" toys.

Also notable on this trip...Lego Land! I'll save that for the next post.