Tuesday, January 28, 2014

A New Chapter

Before I had even finished putting my Christmas decor away Bob and I went to California for a week.
He was presenting at a conference in Palm Desert, and I was going along.
He had to give a 30 minute presentation and then he was done.
Done.
I mean as in the end to a 36 year career done.
He is retired.

It is the end of the second week and it still feels like he is on vacation to me.
So, my new normal.
We'll see how it goes:-)

In Palm Desert, because he was presenting, they gave us a room with an adjoining living space.  It was so nice to have the space as we both had trouble with the time change and were up at odd hours.  Because we had this space we could go in here and not bother the other.
But do you notice something missing?

There are only 2 lamps on the buffet.  Not a shred of light in the sitting area.  I am not impressed with the decorator of this space.  And what is the purpose of that weird round ottoman?
I am so glad that I remembered to pack my reading light.  It is now a staple in my suitcase along with my pillow and my sleep sac.


The view from the balcony was beautiful.



When the conference wrapped up we headed in to the ocean for a few more days of retirement celebration.
We had lunch here in Laguna Beach.


The view from our table.
This place was right in town and right on the water.
Our lunch was pretty good too.


Then on to our hotel in Laguna Beach.

The Montage.

Lovely.



I was quite taken with the view from the lobby.


And with the lobby. 
 I loved the decor.  It was just like a very large comfortable living room and I could just move right on in.  So many hotels now are decorated in a very contemporary style and while they are very nice, they seem cold to me.
Books, a roaring fire, lots of yellow and comfy places to sit, the ocean right outside the window, oil paintings….





The grounds were so pretty, lots of blooming things.
Everything is so brown in Texas that it was nice to see green grass and flowers.





I took a few pictures of the room because I could just move in here too.  In fact I want that yellow plaid sectional for my library.
And I don't ever think I saw a hotel room with off white carpet.

The room wasn't grand ~ or large ~ but I loved everything about it.
{except maybe the drapery fabric:-) }




This is what we did for 2 days, sat on a lounge at the pool facing the ocean, reading our books.  



We did move off of our lounge chairs long enough to explore a bit.
We headed to San Juan Capistrano which was just a few minutes up the hill from Laguna.
We had breakfast in town here.


Ruby's was the only place we saw open for breakfast.  The restaurant is upstairs and we sat on the balcony and had a delicious breakfast.


From our table I could see the mission, which was the reason we came.
We took the self guided tour and it was very interesting.  


So beautiful.









And then, back to the hotel to take a walk on the beach and read some more and watch the sun set.  I never tire of watching...


Of course, now we are home and getting nothing accomplished!  I still have the trees up in the grandchildren's rooms!

My sister and her husband came to visit the weekend after we got home but no pictures of that.  They needed to escape from MN where they have had 5 days off from school in January due to the cold.  I was glad it was in the 70's while they were here.

It's cold here now too, so I guess no more excuses for me to not finish putting the holidays away.  

Till next time...





Tuesday, January 21, 2014

A New Beginning

Well, hello there.

It's been awhile.

I do love a fresh new year, lots of memories to be made in the days and months ahead.
But before I move on to the new, I need to recap a little of the old.

Our Christmas season was wonderful, as I hope yours was, filled with lots of grandchildren activities and many evenings curled up by the tree with a good book.
{I am doing well with my resolution to read more:-) } 

Here are a few snippets of decor and activities in no particular order, for my memory.  I change my decor very little from year to year, so when I do add something like this monogram to the front door, I like to remember it for next year.
The best part was it showed up great from the street.  The green wreath on the dark door kind of gets lost.

One of the few pictures I took on our annual trip to the Gaylord.
My sweet girls.


The tree in the media room that took ~ oh ~ about 5 minutes to decorate while we watched Christmas Vacation.
The stuff is just stuck on there.


New wreaths for the library doors.



I put the Nutcracker collection on the mantel in the library.


My sweet book club friends and the crowns from our Christmas crackers.  It was fun to introduce some of the women to our family tradition.


Cutie pie Jackson and his preschool program.


A few pictures from our Nutcracker "Sweet" tea party.
I sugared them up and sent them home.
It was to be Claire's first tea party and she was sick:-(
Next year!





Our annual Christmas meal out ~ we always go to the same place, usually a Sunday evening in December.
I brought a few Christmas coloring and activity sheets for the kids to pass the time.



The 3 musketeers.


Claire likes stickers.


Christmas Eve at church.
Can you see why I needed a new camera?
Bob took these and didn't notice that the shutter doesn't' open all the way.
I did get a new camera for Christmas and so now the errors will be all mine.



Snips and snaps of our Christmas morning.







2013 was a good year.
Of course the highlight was the addition of Claire to our family.

I pray that 2014 will be a good year too.
It's off to a great start.