A Not So White Christmas

I spent two weeks in LA for Christmas with my family. Here’s a break down of what I did:

Christmas Eve – 

Mom, Dad, Luke, and I had a nice Christmas Eve dinner which consisted of Ahi. Its not your typical Christmas Eve dinner but it was delicious (it always is if my dad is cooking). We then played Monopoly while we waited for Ryan and Missy to come over. At first my dad was dominating (surprised?!) and almost had Luke bankrupted about 30 minutes into the game. But then out of nowhere Luke comes back and sweeps the board. He owned 3/4ths of the board by the end which lead to dad, mom, and eventually, me, getting our booties kicked by the youngest member in the family.

Ryan and Missy spent most of the night with Missy’s family. The came over just in time to see Luke take over the Monopoly world.

The night ended with some cookies (made by yours truly) and White Christmas.

Christmas Day – 

We had a great Christmas with everyone getting what they wanted (well, they should considering we pass out list to each other every year). I got the complete series of X-Files, a long winter coat, and Disney movies. After opening presents we made pigs-in-a-blanket for breakfast, which is a family tradition.

 

After enjoying a nice Christmas at home we headed out to Temecula to have our huge family Christmas party with all my dads extended family. There were about 45 people there and we all had a blast. I was finally able to see some of my cousins kids that I have never seen before due to distance. It was nice to be able to spend time with the family and catch up with everyone even though the party was a little hectic.

The day would not have been complete without the Lakers beating the Boston Celtics (REVENGE!). It was fun to sit around the TV with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins while we cheered for the Lakers (except for Uncle Walt who decided to mix things up a bit and root for the Celtics... big mistake!).

On our way back up to LA after the Neilson Family Party we stopped by to see my cousin Tad, his wife, and their kids. Its been years since I've seen Tad and it was nice to get caught up.