Did you hang your avocado on the tree yet?

Brett and I went to Camille's Ornament Exchange Party tonight. Camille outdid herself with all the food she prepared....it was unbelievable!! Well, not so much for a chef....but she put together a great party and had some real tasty treats for all of her guests to enjoy. She is definitely the hostess with the mostest!!


There were 32 people involved in the exchange, and there were some super interesting ornaments....ornaments to be used very lightly to describe some of the gifts. I ended up with an avacado with a paper clip stuck in it. Interesting indeed!!

Nonetheless, it was a great and fun night!!! Thanks to Camille for hosting!! :)

The Glory of Christmas

Autumn asked us if we wanted to join her for a show in LA a few weeks back called The Glory of Christmas, showing at the Crystal Cathedral. Brett and I happily said that we'd love to.

This was, once again, one of those things that I didn't really know what to expect, but that it was about Christmas and the birth of Christ. I'm game.

We went into LA early today to hang out with Dave and Dayna for a bit in the afternoon first. We met up with them and went over to the Grove for some lunch and window shopping. It was a nice afternoon, that is, until the rain caught up with us. We got a little soaked while we were trying to run between the stores from covered awning to the next. The hot chocolate and warm coffees were a nice relief from the chilliness!

After saying goodbye to them, we headed down to Anaheim to meet up with the rest of the gang for some dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We accidentally spoiled the surprise of Brett's mom joining us when we called her to find out if she'd heard from Autumn, and heard Loralyn's voice in the background.

So, everyone enjoyed a nice big and tasty dinner, and then it was time for the show.

It was a wonderful show....all the animals and the angels were my favorite part. If anyone is around the area and has time to get to this show, I highly recommend it. You won't be disappointed, and you might even be a bit surprised!!



Thanks to Autumn for thinking to include us!!

Who knew there was new fun to be had in Santa Barbara?

Discovered 3 new places in Santa Barbara tonight.

First, I went with Brett and Kyle to a Chinese restaurant around the corner from their new place, Wing's Restaurant. Turns out that it's not hot wings, but rather a person named Wing, who has a restaurant. :) We ordered way more than the 3 of us could eat, but we had no idea the size of the plates. When the 4 egg rolls came out and it could have fed 6....we knew we were in for a night of lots of food! It was all yummy.....and we left with a few doggie bags.

The boys went to watch Star Wars at their place. Since I've already seen it twice, and I don't like to watch movies over and over again, I went to meet up with a few folks that were at Telegraph Brewery. I hadn't ever been to this part of town, but how fun! The brewery was right next to Carr Winery, and both places were so quaint.

Love Miss Emily and how she can find 33 or the letter "e" anywhere. Look at what she turned her pretzel into....of course, an "e". :)

The guy that offered to take our picture took it faster than anyone I'd ever seen before....maybe that is why it's a little blurry? Or was he hanging out at the brewery all day? Guess we'll never know. :)

We walked right next door to Carr Winery. What a gem of a place!! They had shuffleboard, backgammon, and live music. We all sampled the house Red and it was tasty too!!

The place was decked out for Christmas, with lots of green and lights, and it was so darling. We all said that we'd have to come back soon!! Had a wonderful time tonight with some of my favorite girls.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

The song has nothing to do with our night, but it's what I think of when I hear Arigato....and that is where we met up with DJ and Christianne for dinner tonight.

We haven't seen or hung out with them in ages, so when DJ suggested a Double Dinner Date....we were in.

We ate, and kept ordering, sushi, until we were all too full to even order any dessert. We got caught up on each other's lives, travels, holidays past, and holiday plans upcoming. The food was good. The company was great. The conversation was wonderful.


After we thought it'd be good to get some warm hot chocolate and WCM, so a quick stop into Starbucks was in order. I laughed when I saw this "wish" on the window. It is so Brett. :) No matter how old he gets, he'll always be a KID on the inside.

Handel's what??

We got a mailer with information on Handel's Messiah at The Granada a week or so ago. I'm always up for doing something new, and so when Laura asked if we wanted to go, I immediately said "Sure!".

She got the tickets. We got all dressed up. Brett came to get us, and we were on our way. As we were walking into the theater, I commented that, "I have no idea what to expect for tonight.". I hadn't really looked to learn what this was all about, I just knew it was songs and about the story of Jesus. Ok, that all sounds good to me.


We walked in to find our seats. The usher said we were in the 2nd row, and at first, we were like "Whoa! Great tickets, LB!". We were stoked until we got up to our seats, and realized that, "Oh, we are in the 2nd row.". We were almost licking the stage and all we could see was feet.


Looking up to the stage, I saw a bunch of people warming up their instruments. Their string instruments. It was an orchestra on stage. Surprise #1.

After everyone was in their seats, the choir walked in to take their spots, and then lastly the conductor and 4 soloists. At this point, I was kind of clued into what I was in for.

It was a lot of orchestra music and a lot of repetitive singing. The soloists were right there.....they could see our every move....so I paid close attention. I appreciate the story of the songs, and the bits of the lyrics that I could understand....but, it just really wasn't my cup of tea. I'm more of a musical kind of gal. At intermission, Laura and Brett had a good time chuckling at my reaction. We cheated and moved back a few rows to open seats, and the 2nd part was much more enjoyable. I was able to see more than just the 2nd chair cello's feet, so it was good.

Regardless, I was happy for the new experience and enjoyed getting out, getting dressed up, and a nice night on the town with wonderful loved ones. :)

A few friends of Laura's came over afterwards for dessert. We had a great time laughing with friends and we all enjoyed the deliciousness that LB had cooked up!!

Thankful....for Women and Target!

Yay, it's Friday!! What a week! I was so glad to be done with work at a decent time today. I went to hang out with Brett for a bit before meeting up with the girls for our Friday night plans.

Reality hosted a Women's Worship Night at the Ventura campus tonight. I was thrilled that we were able to get a group of the girls rounded up to make the trip together. Amy drove so all of us could actually drive together too!! So, we all packed in, and made out way towards Ventura.

We had to get some food in our tummies. We stuffed ourselves silly at Baja Fresh first! So good! :)

The evening at Reality was better than I could have imagined. The worship was wonderful and it was so great to be there praising our Lord with so many other God fearing women. I usually get overwhelmed during worship, to where I can't continue singing, and it happened again tonight. At one point, I looked around and it was just so powerful to be there, with almost the whole room full of women, all singing, worshipping as one.

The note from the church said to bring snacks. Whoa, did the women follow that suggestion!! There were more goodies there than you could believe!! I couldn't believe that I still had room in my tummy after dinner....but I managed to get down a brownie and part of a pumpkin cookie too!! Geez!!!

After the service was over.....we stuck around in Ventura for a little fun. TARGET!!! We managed to find the two story one, and it was so great!! I haven't been to a Target in I can't remember how long.

I had written up a small list of things before hand....and I surprisingly enough didn't stray too much from it. But, I think that we had more fun just playing around and killing time.

Who doesn't love putting on funny sunglasses??

And funny hats too? Do you only have to be cold to wear warm hats?

We had a lot of fun going all through the different departments! I was totally shocked that with everything that ended up in my basket, I was still under $100!! Woohoo!!! Reason for celebrating for sure! :)

I couldn't be more thankful for the wonderful women in my life in Santa Barbara. I sat there tonight and thanked God for putting each and every one of them in my life. I look forward to more shared memories with all of these women - worshipping and shopping alike! :)

Work, work, work!!!

Whoa....it's been a really long few days at work. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I worked from the 6am hour until the 5pm hour. It was great though. Not only did the days FLY by, they were good too!! I'm excited to see how the rest of this quarter ends up.

So, since it's been a long week at work, I haven't done anything else.

That's all.