Merry Christmas!

We’ve had a really nice extended weekend in San Diego. Our arrival was eventful since between take-off and anticipated landing, fog rolled in and prevented us from landing. Apparently, the FAA thinks that pilots should have a certain visibility to land the plane. So, it’s not just a wing and a prayer! We were very lucky in that we were diverted to LAX rather than Ontario. I was diverted to Ontario earlier this year and it was pretty horrendous logistically. You’re stuck 100 miles from San Diego with few public transport options and local hotels. The airport closes so you can’t stay behind the TSA line and, of course, these type of things seem to happen at night when staffing is low.

We were very lucky that SMS’ sister and brother-in-law had been in LA the day before to see the Petersen auto museum. They had stayed overnight and picked us up on their way home! Hooray! It was an excellent Christmas present 🙂

On Saturday, SMS and I headed out for lunch at The Taco Stand, where we got burritos. As one does. Then we headed over to the Point Loma Native Garden, where the plants were fairly green but there were few flowers. It will probably be really nice this Spring since the plants look so healthy! We came across a seed library for native plants, which is super cool. I love the little free (book) libraries and this is such a clever variation of it.

Later that afternoon, we went over to his sister’s house for a Christmas Eve dinner of tamales. They were delicious! We also had a side of Spanish rice and margaritas. Dee-licious! SMS also took the chance to monitor the growth of his Englewood Oak, since he lived out his native plant gardener fantasies at their house since we are apparently never going to have a yard.

On our way home, we went to Belardo Lights, which is pretty close to Mark’s childhood home. It was pretty impressive.

The tamales were delicious but we were gearing up for a special Christmas feast. My father-in-law is a fantastic chef. For Christmas, we had a Turducken. Since the French-American family across the street came over, I asked them what Turducken would be in French: dincalet (DINde+CAnard+pouLET). We had such a nice time and even though the Turducken might not become a tradition (it was very intense!), it was very cool to try.

Also, please note in these pictures that I have two Christmas sweaters. One is supposed to be for SMS but since he’s a real-life Grinch, only I could be a lit-up Christmas tree Fa-la-llama’g my way to Christmas joy!