Cabo Christmas - Part III

Christmas morning the kids awoke to see that Santa had come to Cabo after all!  He left stockings with a few little things and some clothes!  They were excited.  We enjoyed a normal Christmas morning and had a great breakfast on the patio in the warm Mexico sun!

After breakfast and a relaxing family swim in the ocean, we were ready to meet our transportation for our day trip of ATVing on the beach!  We were super excited to go and live it up a bit.  We trekked out to the private preserve beach area and were fitted with helmets, goggles, and bandadas to keep the dust/sand out of our eyes as we rode.  Once we were all outfitted we were ready to go!

We rode on some trails and also out of the open beach area.  Luckily we had a great guide who took us off seperately and let us do some fun stuff!  All the kids enjoyed themselves with the day trip!
The scenery was beautiful and it was so nice and warm and sunny.  It was a great Christmas Day!

 After returning to town we ate a meal at the Crazy Lobster, shopped for some souveneirs in town and headed back to the hotel for a night swim and some microwave brownies.

Cabo Christmas - Part II

Our first full day in Cabo was filled with fun and sun!  McKinley's big Christmas present was to go and be a "trainer for a day" at the Dolphin Encounter.  She and I got to spend 5 hours at the aquarium learning all about the dolphins, swimming with them, training them, and feeding them.  It was an amazing experience that we will both remember for a long time.  We loved learning all about them and how they are trained and what they eat.  We were able to command the dolphins to do thing we wanted and swam under water and across the surface with them.  No cameras were allowed while we were there, but we did get these posed shots at the end.  It was a marvelous day!

While we were off with the dolphins, the boys were exploring the beach and the town.  They had a good time swimming and shopping and eating in town.  A fun relaxing day.

Christmas Eve dinner we had planned to eat at the beach at a restaraunt that had been highly recommended, but turns out, Christmas Eve is a big holiday and most of the restaraunts were closed.  We did find a smaller place on the beach that was open until 7pm, called Omego Bar and Grill and we had a nice meal there right on the beach.  It was a nice Chritmas Eve dinner, although we missed our traditional pancakes and sausage dinner we normally have.

After we got back it was Christmas Eve and we did all our traditional things...inlcuding Jammies for everyone (with lots of pictures...using a timer!) and read the real Christmas story from Luke 2.  Then we hunkered down for Santa to come while Dave and McKinley watched "It's a Wonderful Life" like they do every year!  Perfect Christmas Eve!

Cabo Christmas---Part I

This year for Christmas we decided that we would go on a family trip over Christmas and make memories instead of getting more "stuff".  It took months of savings and planning and it finally came time to go!  Austin was flying home from New York the night before our departure and as luck would have it his flight was delayed and his luggage didn't make it, so he arrived without any clothes or personal items...but he was here!  Luckily he had some old shorts and high school t-shirts he threw in a bag and he knew Santa would bring PJs and a swimsuit for Christmas, so we were good to go!

Our flights were pretty uneventful and quick.  Our flight was delayed from SL, but then also our flight from Phoenix was delayed, so we walked off  the first plane, went down 3 gates and walked on our connection to Cabo...smooth! 

 Once we arrived in Cabo there was supposed to be a driver there with a sign that had our name on it.  But, alas, there was no driver there.  Luckily I had printed out my confirmation and after flagging down a couple drivers who were standing around they agreed to take us to our hotel and figure out how to get paid later.  I guess they kind of all work together and as long as they had my confirmation number they would figure it out.  That was fine with me as we were ready to go!

Our transportation included a stop at Walmart where Ethan, Evan and I went in an started shopping for some groceries for the week.  We were planning on eating breakfast in our room and then some snacks and Sunday meals.  We didn't know the conversion rate to pesos, so we were just getting the things we needed and hoping it was a good deal.  We ended up with $100 worth of food and snack and sunscreen and off we went to our hotel!

The room and hotel was amazing.  We were right on Medano beach in Cabo San Lucas at the Pueblo Bonito Rose.  We had a great patio that walked right out to the pool.  The beach was warm and sunny and I knew this was going to be great!

Pearson Family Christmas Party

This was the first Pearson family Christmas party since Grandma Pearson passed away.  It was fun to get together and see some of the Pearson relatives and know that Grandma would be so happy that we continued on with the tradition.  It's always a fun night to catch up with relatives and see how kids have grown and people have (or have not!) changed.

The highlight of the evening for the kids is always the gifts that Santa drops off at the party.  It's usually the first gift for Christmas and the joy of a simple gift is always evident with the kids.

All my pictures are of the Smith family relatives since I'm kind of shy to take pictures of others...but it's great to see them all at least one night of the year.  We missed those who could not attend and hope that we will continue having the party each year so we can always catch up!

The tree is up!!

We got the tree up on Saturday this year.  It is one of my favorite parts of Christmas because I love seeing the ornaments that we have let the kids pick each year and the ornaments of places that we've been that year or gifts from friends of ours from all the places we've lived.  Our tree does not have a decorator's touch or follow the latest trend, but it is so beautiful to me because of the memories and love that is on that tree!

McKinley wanted to put the angel on the tree this year and Ethan was trying his best to help her get it up there.  They did this attempt 3 or 4 times before Ethan decided he would get the angel up straight  by using a chair.  It was funny.

I love having the tree up and sitting with the lights of the tree shining brightly.  It's a peaceful time and I feel the love of the season.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving

So we celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of our family this year.  It was also Marlee and Keegan's 10th birthday on the Sunday we celebrated with my side.  It was a delicious meal and a very fun evening hanging out together.  I can't believe these two are 10!!

This was the first Thanksgiving in 5 years that we were home.  We missed seeing our friends in California and spending time with soccer family, but it was really nice to be home with Dave's family.  There were 53 of us this year and it was a wonderful day.  We were all able to eat together in the basement and spend the day enjoying each other's company, watching some football, and making some graham cracker candy houses.  It was a great holiday weekend with a lot of the kids home from college and married grandkids stopping by.  The family is really growing up, but we had almost everyone there this year!

Maylene also brought a game of Bean Boozled that some of the brave people played.  You had to answer a question about Thanksgiving and if you got it wrong you had to spin the wheel and take your 50/50 chance of getting a good or nasty tasting jelly bean.  Some of the bad ones were stinky socks, skunk spray, and vomit.  Boy...those were gross!

There were some pretty fancy graham cracker house architects, but they all turned out yummy!