On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated at Aunt Claudia's with lots of family. Here are the girls clowning around in the garden...
The next day, we drove to Palm Springs and stayed with Margie & Van in their timeshare. Saturday was 77 degrees and sunny! We played tennis, took a dip in the pool and then went for a hike on the side of the San Jacinto mountains which abut Palm Springs...
Aunt Julie, and nieces Whitney and Kendall came to visit on the first weekend in December. Our good friend Rachel got us passes to the Eukanuba Dog Show in Long Beach and wow! was that a lot of fun. Aunt Julie took this picture of us resting after a lot of walking...
Before they left, the southern sweeties helped us decorate for the holidays...
December was a blur of school events: Parent/Teacher meetings, Christmas concerts...etc. Savannah is part of her school's choir and did a couple of concerts...
Charlotte and her best friend Alliya in their penguin costumes for their number...
Our Christmas break was a blast. We hosted a Winter Solstice Poker Party (any excuse to wager!), went bowling with the neighbors and hit a few holiday parties. Christmas morning at our house...
Santa was even good to Sydney. Here she parades around with her new toy...
That night, an exhausted and happy family went to sleep, their prize possessions close by. Charlotte...
Savannah...
and, um, er...Sydney
Our niece Kadie passed through town en route from Montana to Asia for a college study program. We went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner...
The weekend leading up to New Year's Eve we drove to the mountains behind Santa Barbara for a few days of ranch-style roughing it with our friends from the Bay area, Noam and Rachel...
Noam and Rachel brought their horses and graciously led the girls on a couple of long trail rides. Here is Savannah on Juliet...
And here is Noam, Charlotte and Lukka. Lukka is an Icelandic horse which explains her size and the Wookie-like fur coat...
Rachel sensed Savannah's eagerness to learn and spent some quality time working with her and Juliet. Savannah LOVES Rachel and Juliet!
Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the highlight of the trip: The ranch allowed Sydney to test her herding skills on a small flock of sheep! She was timid at first, but her instincts took over and pretty soon she was quietly putting the flock into a tight, motionless bunch. Lesli and I felt like proud parents! Here is a shot of her in the barn area expressing a healthy dose of curiosity at the goat behind the fence...
Instead of tent-camping, we stayed in a 1-room cabin at the ranch. No running water, but it did have a mini-fridge and electricity...
Savannah caught a stomach virus one night and (ugh) everyone but Charlotte was up all night. The next day we all took it easy and just strolled around the ranch...
New Year's Eve was quiet, but a couple nights later two drunk teenagers drove their BMW over the curb, over a street sign and into our lawn. The driver took off on foot. Here is her partner calling AAA...
All for now. Look for some mountain & skiing adventures in a few weeks!
