California

The weekend before Christmas, we were back in California. It was a long travel day! We woke up at 3:30 AM and landed in Sacramento just before noon.

I noticed that as soon as our plane touched down in Sacramento, I immediately felt like I was at home. I was pretty sure though that I would experience the same feeling when we would land in Austin.

That first night, my dad was given a few tickets to see the new Star Wars movie from work. We went with Ryan, Tyler, and Mom. Thankfully we took a nap that afternoon or else I probably would have slept through most of the movie!

I had some Christmas shopping to do and Charlotte was nice enough to go to the mall with me. We almost were knocked over by the wind as we walked there, but it was great.

A big part of the trip was sharing one of my favorite Christmas memories with Jonathan. Going to the Nutcracker. This is Ron Cunningham's final year as the artistic director and for me it will always be the real Nutcracker ballet. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but the first time was when I was 4. Thankfully, Jonathan enjoys going to the ballet. We've already seen A Midsummer Night's Dream and Clara in Coppelia.

On Sunday, we went to church with my parents and got to see my mom give a talk in Sacrament Meeting. Afterwards, we went to Andy's house. I'm sure that the next time I see Ryan, he will be taller than me! We took turns playing the piano. Luckily I still have a few songs memorized from when I was Ty's age. Tyler plays really well especially since he hasn't been playing for very long. Lyla made up a song and it sounded surprisingly good! It was nice relaxing evening hanging out with the family. Before we left, we gave the kids Texas Ranger badges. Within 5 minutes, Kyle lost his badge. Lyla was sweet enough to give him her badge.

The next day we headed back home. It was a really quick trip, but a really good one.