Tag Archives: Christmas

SoCal Christmas: Palm Springs

Family, Travel,

Last year I blogged that I was afraid we’d never again celebrate Christmas in our house on Christmas day. That post caused Alex’s mom, Lisa, to call me and we had a nice chat about how to share Andrew and Alex for Christmas. We speculated that there would probably be a time when Andrew and Alex would want to spend Christmas at their own place. We also joked that maybe the parents (John, Lisa, Dean and I) would go to a warm beach somewhere.

That happened… Sort of. Since Dean and I spent Christmas with Andrew and Alex in Atlanta last year, we decided to spend this Christmas with Clare — but not in chilly Olympia. Somewhere warm, we thought. We decided on San Diego because we heard the weather was perfect much of the year. Then I read a book that mostly took place in Palm Springs and thought it seemed like a fun, quirky town, so suggested that to Clare. She liked the idea, especially since it was close to both Joshua Tree National Park and the Salton Sea, places she was interested in visiting.

When Andrew and Alex heard our plans they hinted they might like to go too. Then Alex’s folks and brother thought it might be fun. So, on December 22, the eight of us converged in Palm Springs.

Our Airbnb was nice. Not in Palm Springs proper, but about a half hour north, in Desert Hot Springs. The house (marked with a red star in the image below) was half a block from several mountain trails.

map of the area where our Airbnb was located

The Airbnb had a pool and connected hot tub. The view from the nearby cabana was spectacular.

Palm Springs was fun. We took a long hike at Tahquitz Canyon, paid our respects to Marilyn, and walked around downtown.

Clare, Dean, Dona, and Andrew pose in Tahquitz Canyon
Clare and Andrew pose in Tahquitz Canyon
Looking out over the canynon
hiking in the canyon
Statue of Marilyn Monroe by Seward Johnson
Rupert and Chum pose on Marilyn's toes

Christmas Eve was spent exploring Joshua Tree and visiting Pioneer town where we found a lively bar that was built by Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers! After that we relaxed in the hot tub at our Airbnb.

Christmas Day was spent preparing a festive dinner, and of course hanging out in the hot tub.

Lisa, Alex’s mom, made her traditional wassail, Eric, Alex’s brother, made two delicious pies. Andrew and Alex played Santa and filled our [clean] socks with fun treats after making a vegetarian lasagna — the centerpiece of our dinner.

[Not] Home for the Holidays

Events, Family, Musings, ,

It occurred to me after we returned from our almost spur-of-the-moment trip to Atlanta for Christmas (which was a lot of fun) that we may never again host Christmas/Christmas Eve in our house. It’s pretty clear that Clare won’t be returning for the holidays ever again and Andrew’s fiancé’s folks are quite invested in Christmas, so Andrew and Alex probably won’t be spending the holidays here ever again.

When I made that realization, I was really bummed. I felt sad and a little hurt. After all, we travelled to Illinois every Christmas for at least two decades even though I would have liked to create some Christmas traditions here in Bethesda with our kids.

After thinking about it though, I realized that we did make traditions in our home. It might not be on Christmas day or Christmas Eve (in fact that was a tradition in itself — having our personal Christmas after Christmas) but we still hung stockings on our mantlepiece and unwrapped presents in the morning of the day we designated our “Christmas”.

I don’t know what the future holds for subsequent Christmases — travel probably. Maybe we will go see Clare sometimes. Maybe Dean, Clare and I will rent a house somewhere warm for a Christmas someday. Maybe if A&A have children we’ll all gather wherever they are.

Almost back to normal

Events, People

We had low-key Christmas holiday these past couple of weeks. Our traditions were pretty much discarded but that was okay. Andrew drove down from Pittsburgh and stayed with us for a couple of days, then left for Atlanta to spend Christmas and New Year with Alex’s family. Clare arrived on Christmas Eve (but left a few days later to hang out with friends in New York through the New Year) and Andrew returned on January 3rd. We celebrated our family Christmas Eve that night and Christmas Day the next. Clare flew home to Olympia yesterday and Andrew drives back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. The only constant was Mingus who spent three weeks with us, loving the huge windows to the deck where he could observe squirrels feasting on peanuts I set out for him.

It was great having the new kitchen and our “lodge”. Clare adopted the lodge and made it look cozy and very Clare-like. She even slept there (on the floor) two nights, but realized her bedroom had a comfortable bed. That didn’t stop her from spending her waking hours in the lodge though. The kitchen proved to be as useful as we’d hoped and we spent lots of time as a family cooking and eating in it.

That said, it is always a bit of a disruption when everyone is here and the house usually gets very messy.

Here are a few photos of our last few weeks.