December in San Diego

Last month was filled with goodies for all, so I will attempt to share all of ours. The first 3 weeks we spent in San Diego. Spencer finished up school and hit the books hard for finals. I tried to keep him entertained and able to enjoy the holiday season. It was fun to explore what the new town has to offer at Christmas. 

Sadly,  I had realized the month before that all of our Christmas decorations were stored at the Midway house and never made the move. SO we had to have SOMETHING and decided that we would get a REAL Christmas tree. First timers. 

We stopped by to pre-shop trees one night and see what we were in for and decided it was as good a time as any to buy. 

It was raining. It smelled so good. It was such happiness

Dripping wet here...

And since we didn't have our decor, we had to improvise on ornaments as well. 

That was sad because I love our traditions of going through the years, taking turns and putting up all the ornaments our lives have collected. 

BUT string popcorn garland to Christmas flicks was pretty sweet too. 

And I got to use my intense snow flaking skills to cut out some paper ornaments. 

Our cozy workspace for the decorating

EVERY December night at home brought hot coco and Christmas movies

One night we went to look at Christmas lights and I had read all these different neighborhoods to go on the internet...well it was later and most of them were turned off. So we end up at this site. Drove pretty distant to get to it. And it was listed online for just this ONE house. We laughed pretty darn hard. As we drove away the lights turned off. It's a good thing we at least got to see this. 

My FAVORITE part of our December adventures was going to the popular San Diego festival held at Balboa Park called "December Nights". I felt silly wanting to go so bad cause I KNEW it was going to be a zoo and probably overrated and Spencer wouldn't love it as much as me, but we HAD to. 

We took the trolley so we wouldn't have to deal with parking and traffic. 

I love taking the trolley. It makes me feel like we're on vacation or something. 

Spencer does it everyday so he's not as impressed.

When we got there we laughed out loud because it was HUGE. So so many people. So popular and so bumpin'. I had never been to Balboa park though, so I was in for a whole different SURPRISE!

Like serious surprise. I knew about Balboa Park but that did me no good. 

The festival was cool - tons of booths there with food and shopping. Lots of music and lights.

A big reason I wanted to go was because there was a few hours each night that they opened up all the museums there for free. HEAVEN! I only got into 2 or 3, but I didn't even need to go inside the buildings. I just wanted to be outside them. 

Except for the Museum of Photographic Arts.

That one we went in. For a while. And I soaked up every megapixel. 

After that though. Just outside. Just the buildings.

Two things I have a passion for:

1. History

2. Architecture

So you give me HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE

Bingo - it's a good night. 

A GREAT NIGHT.

See for yourself, but none of this does it justice.

I'd go on about the history of it (which I learned upon returning home and interneting and then the next day in stacks of books at the library. AND the Book I bought for my own library about it: History in pictures - upon postcards....TRIPLE BINGO!),

 but we don't all share the same interests, so I'll spare you. 

BUT know that it was heavenly and it is so much more than this.

And I want to go back everyday. 

The California Tower

NUFF SAID

I want to go back to this museum first. With my man.

The Grinch plays at the "Old Globe Theater" they have at the park every year and they had the Grinch there to take pictures in front of the Whoville tree.

There was some lovely nativity scenes set up. Life size.

I actually thought they were pretty cool. 

They had music and choirs here and brought out all the nativity peeps.

This tree was...breathtaking. Far away. And up close. 

Off the beaten path we found this view. And silence. And perfection. 

It seriously became my new favorite place and I can't believe it took me so long to get there.

Balboa Park...sigh.

I can't wait to go back and everyday I want to!

One night we did Christmas shopping and dinner at a new place called Stacked. 

Pretty good. Yummy. And high tech. Ordering off an iPod. Who needs a waitress I guess.

After finals we had some real chill days and some splorin' days. 

This day was a combination of the two. 

We found our local libby and it was like a candy store. 

We've always loved going to the bookstore together and purchasing books, but lesbe honest...we broke.

So free books is just as good. Limit of 40...just fine. 

We read up on current interests and looked through some neat books 'bout SD.

After it was a Costco run of fun (why do you always have to spend $100+ there, even when you went in to get face wash??). I do love the Costco hotdog special on a student budget though!

Then it was off to northern counties to visit the outlets and the Del Mar Festival of Lights.

Spencer and I had the tradition in Provo of going to the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights.

Every year since we started dating. 

It made us laugh so hard. 

So many billboards, so much hype, and we always pretended it lived up to it.  

SO - this was the SD version. 

It was a bit better. A bit fancier. And it was on the Del Mar race track and THAT is cool in it's self.

A whole VOLLEYBALL GAME? Eat that Spanish Fork.

Surfing Santa...bonus points

This tunnel was pretty rad. 

Another year of tradition - success

I took this stalker shot at the BYU Football Fireside for Elder Orr. 

So he would think we were risque. 

Or lame.

I started my 12 days of Christmas for Spencer at 12:12pm on 12/12/12.

Nifty

Lastly

A December afternoon or two was spent here

It was a good time here...then it was onward to spend Christmas with family.