My Husband Has A Vaccine Appointment!

This feels a bit crazy, but I was able to get my husband a vaccine appointment after reading that California's Governor Newsom just expanded eligibility to seniors 65+ years old, and that my county (Orange) was ready to proceed accordingly. So after spending 4+ hours on the Orange County vaccine sign up website yesterday, I was finally able to get him scheduled. 

It was a frustrating process. There is no rhyme or reason to when the appointments for the next available booking day are loaded onto the website. It's pretty much down to luck. If you are lucky enough to make an attempt within about five minutes of the appointments being loaded, you may be able to snag one. I made over 100 attempts before finally getting through. As I shouted in excitement, the first appointment I attempted to grab disappeared before I could click through. My second attempt was successful, however, and we got one. My husband will be vaccinated this Sunday, and my understanding is his second appointment will be given to him then and there, so no website follow up needed. 

It feels a bit surreal.

This won't change my life for the time being, since even vaccinated he can still carry the virus and thus infect me, but I least I'll no longer have to worry about him becoming ill.  Plus, he will now be able to fly back east to visit and help out with our granddaughters in that my son-in-law is back out to sea with the Navy. I wish it were me as well, of course, but I'm relieved that at least one of us can soon go back.

Otherwise, much relief that our home is once again a place of peace and tranquility with all work pretty much completed. Shower glass has been ordered for two bathrooms, and is due in next week, plus we have two small adjustments that will need tradespeople to return, but all of these will be brief and mess free. 

As a result, I've been able to rejoin my kayak, hiking, and bicycling groups and it feels really good. I feel free for the first time in months, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

Here is a photo of where we sat down to eat our lunch during yesterday's bicycle ride. Our high yesterday was 98 degrees, so this ride took some determination to complete, not to mention a whole lot of water. Still, it felt great to return to having my days once again available to spend outdoors.

January In A Sentence A Day

 

1. A very welcome New Year's Day, which we kicked off with a 35 mile bike ride along the ocean with our daughter and her boyfriend, then back to sit out on their warm and sunny ocean viewing patio sipping champagne while they whipped up freshly made lobster mac and cheese . . . I was relieved to learn that the lobster had been purchased frozen when I saw it boiling away in their kitchen(!).

2. We loaded up our kayaks and headed to Newport Harbor to meet friends Ray and Dayna for a six mile paddle on another beautiful day, beaching our kayaks midway at Balboa Island in order to pick up To-Go burgers and, yum, truffle fries, from the delicious Snipe Island Crafthouse, then back home to wash down the kayaks, enjoy leftover Chinese food, and watch one episode of The Crown before falling into bed.

3. A 2:00 AM wakeup, oh boy, five to six hours of sleep seems to be my max these days, but did accomplish a lot as a result - de-cluttered the garage, weeded and trimmed the yard, ran a load of returns to Home Depot, read, made a new recipe for dinner -  but couldn't stay awake past 8:00 PM.

4.  Slept till 4:00 AM, a miracle, after experimenting with taking my HRT pills at night vs in the morning, 

,5.  Slept till 4:00 AM again, so, so far so good with regard to timing my HRT pills, 

6.  Enjoyed a beautiful 7 mile hike along the Bear Canyon Loop trail in Cleveland National Forest with my hiking group, a stop at decadent JD Flannels after for earned donuts (blueberry meyers lemon and cinnamon crumb) a phone call to let us know our new TrailManor travel trailer had arrived and was ready for pickup, then a beyond dismal rest of the day as we learned about the Capital being stormed by angry mobs.

7.  

Five Happy Things

Focusing on things that make me happy (you can substitute 'thankful' if you prefer) is a good practice even when we are not in the midst of a pandemic. Or political chaos. Or remodeling.

So here are this week's Five Happy Things . . . 

1.  My guitar.  I love it sooo much, and am playing pretty much daily in my little office. I have a guitar corner set up where I can simply swivel my office chair around and play to my hearts content. Time flies when I'm playing, and my husband has assured me that the sounds coming from my office are soft, and that he enjoys them, so I'm pretty relaxed as I go along.

2.  The canyon behind our home. I love the space and tranquility it affords, and not a day goes by that I don't spot a hawk of some sort out there, which always gives me a thrill. And every so often we'll either spot or hear coyotes, also beautiful in their own unique way. Yesterday, as an example, we were FaceTiming with our granddaughter, listening to her read, when a pack of coyotes began loudly yipping and howling, so along with several of our neighbors, we went out back to the edge of our yard to listen, holding up the phone so our granddaughter could listen as well. She thought it was wonderful, and of course we didn't tell here the likely real reason for the howls(!).

3.  How large our bedroom 'grew'.  Our handyman removed the crown molding and remaining two arches from our bedroom yesterday (the first arch was removed as the shower was being re-tiled last month) and the ceiling seemed to magically grow taller overnight. 

The issue with the crown molding and arches is thus - the crown molding shrunk the ceiling because it was painted in the same Swiss Coffee white, thus appearing to be an extension of the ceiling, not the walls. By removing the crown molding (which was nowhere else in the house as an FYI) we visually raised the height of the walls by 5", the same width of the removed crown molding. And it really does now feel like the ceiling is higher as a result. And the arches were just bad, plain bad. We have no arches anywhere else in the house, and the exterior style of the home is Cape Cod, not Spanish, so why they were put into place originally by the builder is beyond me. Regardless, they are now gone, the entry between the closet hallway and the bathroom now goes all the way up to the ceiling, and as a result our bathroom now feels immense, so I'm again thrilled with the results.

On a funny note, my handyman's helper was from the east coast and could not seem to get over someone actually removing crown molding. He said that folk where he came from couldn't seem to get in installed quickly enough and it simply went against his grain to remove it. But he did, of course, and likewise couldn't get over how much taller the room visually became as a result.

Going, going, soon to be gone!
(I took this photo from outside the patio door, using a zoom lens just to clarify!)

4.  That our new trailer fits nicely in our garage. This is actually a beyond-happy thing, this is a thrilled thing. Our new travel trailer is officially 18 feet long when folded down for storage (vs. 25 feet long when fully open) but needs just 16 feet of storage length due to it's unique swing arm, which literally swings back alongside itself for storage, as  pictured here:

We knew the trailer would fit in for the purposes of closing our garage door, however, we were worried that the larger size would block access the the storage cabinets we have along the entire rear wall of our garage. In anticipation of that, we had contacted a garage cabinet company and had gotten a bid to redo the cabinets and make them slightly more shallow if necessary. It was not a project I was excited about though because it was not going to significantly improve the storage we already had, and in fact would remove some due to taking 4 to 6 inches of cabinet depth away. Add to that the cost, plus the subsequent need to entirely empty out our garage for construction, and I was not, not, not excited about the prospect whatsoever.

Happily, however, the new trailer fits with ample room to access our current storage system, hooray! Our new trailer is about 6 inches wider and longer than our previous one, but feels much roomier due to having a large slide out dining table and seating area. Thrilled, yet again, at how it all turned out.

Here is my husband demonstrating that as long as neither of us gains a pound there's enough room to still walk back and forth behind the new trailer, LOL.

5.  A home remedy for my dry winter heels. I suffer each and every winter from dry feet, but other than applying Vaseline at night to them I figured I needed to just tough it out until spring. But this winter they've been particularly dry and cracked, and I was beginning to experience pain when I walked as a result, so I did some research online and found an easy home solution to try - simply soak my feet in warm soapy water for 15-20 minutes in order to soften the dry, dead skin, then dry and use a exfoliating brush to remove the excess skin. I did this for the first time two nights ago and about grossed myself out by how much dead skin had accumulated as I was exfoliating. However, they felt just a bit better afterward and the next day, so I did it again the next night. This time there was waaaay less dead skin needing removal, and I could actually see fresh skin peeping through. So I'm going to continue exfoliating every other night, which is way less expensive than making an appointment with my doctor as I thought I might have to do.

No photos and aren't you glad! 😄

Bonus Happy Thing. My new leopard print ultra light Skecher's walking shoes. Love them!

That's it for me at the moment. What's making you happy this week?

Currently 1/10/2021: Stop The Spend!

As I was logging this past week's considerable spending expenditures into our Budget spreadsheet, the phrase 'Stop the Spend!' literally flashed through my brain. I mean, how perfect, given the past eight weeks of insanity and chaos.

However, regardless of the irony of the particular message my brain elected to put out, this last week was a spending whopper for sure, and even though all monies that flew out the door were anticipated, I am relieved that for the foreseeable future we are done with big expenses.

As to where it went, this was the week we paid the remaining expenses of our recent bathrooms remodel, plus we paid for, and took delivery of, our new travel trailer.

But for now we are done writing checks with commas(!), and can instead return to our regularly scheduled 2021 budgeting. Feels good I tell ya! 

Otherwise, Currently I Am . . . 

Organizing  Our travel trailer, our garage, our home. The relief at being done with the our remodel, plus successfully delivering our old trailer for trade in just as we took possession of our new one, has given me the motivation to do some significant decluttering of our home. 

In the house, a few display items went to Salvation Army as I continue to focus on fewer but more meaningful items in our home. 

In the garage we let go of a good chunk of holiday decor items in one of our storage cupboards as I realized that my desire for increased simplicity did not lend itself to cluttering up my home with seasonal tchotchke's. Hard initially, because there were memories of enjoying these items when my daughters were younger and still here at home (😢), but much relief once they finally got bundled up for removal, a sure sign it was time to say goodbye.

Also, our trailer unpacking (old trailer) and subsequent repacking (new trailer) resulted in some aspirational item being shed. We have learned we are lazy RV'ers, and want minimal set up and breakdown, so we set aside a small EZ-up we'd been hauling around unused for years, plus a gas BBQ and accompanying 1 pound propane canisters -  our George Foreman grill, which we also carry around, is so much smaller and easy to use in that it just plugs in. We also removed some excess serving bowls and utensils, because with our limited storage and fridge capacity there is pretty much zero chance that large quantities of anything will be coming out of our trailer anytime soon. Simplicity rules the day when we RV due to the smallness of our kitchen area.

Stock photo from manufacturer.
Our trailer has two additional hanging cupboards, but the prep space is the same, so,
as I indicated above, we keep our meals pretty simple when traveling.
I carry a toaster oven, a George Foreman grill, and a small crockpot, in
addition to the travel trailer's two burner stove.
Plus, see that fridge in the right corner? Small!!!

Buying  These two lovely eucalyptus leaf prints, a tree that we are surrounded by here in S. California, both from the wonderful Emily of Jetty Home. I purchased six of her canvas prints when we updated our family room last year, and these two will be displayed on hanging shelves in our newly remodeled powder room. 

I find that I'm craving calmness the older I get, and the simplicity of these two prints absolutely delights me.

Plus I purchased my first air fryer, a combined toaster/oven/air fryer, for our new travel trailer. A small size was critical due to the limited counter space in the trailer, so I landed on this one from Black+Decker, that comes in at a petite 15.5" wide, just one inch wider than the Black+Decker 15 year old toaster oven it's replacing:

Fifteen years service from our prior Black+Decker toaster oven is impressive, so I expect/hope the same from this one. 

Reading  Nothing this past week due to being so distracted by the news, plus the arrival of our new travel trailer. I have several books waiting to be read, however, so that is my goal this next week. On that list is finishing White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, an unbelievably compelling read. As much as I've attempted to educate myself with regard to inherent racism in order to do better, this book is giving me more to think about than I had even known needed thinking about. Also waiting to be finished is the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which has been absolutely delightful so far. Still waiting to be started is Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, for an upcoming book club discussion, plus a re-read of the illustrated version of The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. As I previously indicated, Dan Brown is not necessarily my favorite author, however reading the illustrated versions of his books is pretty interesting in that he so mixes the factual with the fictional.

Cooking  Several recipes from On-Pan Wonders by Cooks Country. My foodie youngest daughter introduced me this cookbook, and it is excellent. I most recently made Lemony Chicken with Wilted Spinach and Potatoes and it was delicious. I'd post the recipe, except Cooks Country puts all their recipes behind paywalls, however it is available to view on Amazon if you click on the Look Inside Icon and scroll forward a few pages. It's the fourth recipe in the cookbook.

Excited  We have a handyman in for the next three days, beginning tomorrow. He is going to repaint our bathrooms, all looking a little disheveled from their recent remodel, hang the final mirrors, remove the crown molding from our bedroom, the only room with it in the entire house and thus out of character, plus remove two arches in our bedroom, which should both update and visually enlarge the room. After that, we are done other than awaiting installation of our shower glass, and a sliding privacy door in our guest bedroom. Neither should cause any follow up repair work, so we are definitely approaching the finish line. 

Goodbye arches and crown molding!

Not to much to get excited about otherwise, because, well, pandemic.

Amused  My east coast daughter has an enormous heart, and as a result she has been fostering dogs for a rescue organization. Recently she had a sweet little elderly cocker named Terry, that was quickly adopted by an older couple. Currently she has a three month old puppy rescued from a hoarder that had 42, wait for it, Great Danes. Yep, she has a three month old Great Dane currently with the biggest paws I've ever seen. Oh lordy, for her sake, as the primary pooper-scooper, I hope the little gal gets adopted quickly!

Side note, she was in downtown DC picking up the new puppy one day before The Capital horror occurred, which initiated another round of intense emotions when she told me.

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That's a wrap for me currently. What's up currently where you are?

A Send Off For 2020, And A Lovely Start To 2021

 

I've been forcing myself to remember that it wasn't all bad in 2020, and that in spite of the pandemic, there were many lovely moments. Included among these would be our magically cruise around South America in early 2020, just prior to the pandemic reaching the America's. The memories we made on that trip will be with us forever. We drank Chilean wine straight from a winery in the Casablanca wine valley, sailed through the stunning Patagonia channels all the way down to the tip of continent, saw and circled Cape Horn, walked among native penguins, stood outside of the balcony where Eva Peron gave her famous speech in Argentina, and attended Carnival in Rio de Janero, Brazil, an experience to top all experiences for sure.

We also explored every inch possible of our beautiful coastal location, on foot and by bicycle, during the first few months of our initial Stay At Home order, as we sought for ways to break the monotony of being so much at home while working to remaining safe.

We took a wonderful 9 day RV trip along California's ethereal central coastline, and enjoyed ourselves so much that we committed to upgrading our travel trailer in order to do even more RV'ing in 2021.

And finally, we closed out the year with a simple, yet special evening that again drove home how happy we are to live where we now do. We packed a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses along with some folding chairs and drove five minutes to a bluff park overlooking the ocean to watch the sunset. The parking at this beach-adjacent park is free, a rarity here, and even nicer, alcohol is fine to consume. During the pandemic coming to watch the sunset has become a big event, and it's been lovely. People are mellow, spread out, happy to chat, dogs and kids are aplenty, and oftentimes someone nearby is playing a guitar, or a keyboard, or something equally pleasant. 

Social distancing at work last night, and which now feels completely normal.

After enjoying the sunset show we headed over to one of our membership wineries at the harbor, and chatted with the owner for a bit. He shared that as a fire captain (his other job - yes, he is amazing!) he had received his first dose of the COVID vaccine and felt fine so far. We were so happy for him, and after wishing him the happiest of New Years, we sat down at a table out on the patio and sipped our To-Go wine and talked about our own hopes for the new year. Of which we have many!

From there we headed to The Little Kitchen Asian Cafe, a new-to-us restaurant that is currently being listed as among our county's best for Chinese food, and hunted down our bagged order from the 40(!) or so that were neatly lined up awaiting pickup. The place was absolutely packed outside with people waiting in a long line place their To-Go orders, and we were very happy that we'd thought to order ahead. We took our food back home and enjoyed it while watching a British-made docu-drama someone had recommended, Fisherman's Friend. It was sweet, even if somewhat predictable, and we much enjoyed. We turned into bed about 9:30 PM, our usual New Year's Eve turn in time - I much prefer getting an early start to New Year's Day - waking up for a few moments at midnight to the sound of celebratory fireworks traveling up our canyon. 

It was really a perfect send off to 2020.

Today, the first day of 2021, I am celebrating not only the completion of our very messy bathroom remodeling project (yeah!), but that I actually managed to get window cleaners in yesterday to tackle our subsequently very dirty windows, so this morning the house feels truly clean for the first time in months.

And even better, we have plans to spend the day biking along the coast, from Huntington Beach to Long Beach, with our daughter and her boyfriend, after which we'll return to their place in order to enjoy lobster mac and cheese and champagne out on their ocean viewing patio. The boyfriend is cooking the mac and cheese, and we're bringing the champagne.

Tomorrow we are going kayaking with friends.  

Happy 2021 To All . . . It's Got To Be Better Than 2020!

Closing The (Budget) Books On 2020

We are at that time of year where I implore my husband to defer any spending until January 1 so that I can close out our 2020 budget worksheet and send him our final numbers for analysis. His super power is managing our investments and ensuring funds arrive in the checking account when needed, while mine is managing our budget. It's a good partnership.

We started off 2020 with a six week cruise around S. America, departing from Santiago, Chile in late January, and ending in Fort Lauderdale in early March. The world changed completely during our cruise, so our disembarkation on March 7 was surreal to say the least. As we flew home, we really had no clue as to what would unfold the remainder of 2020, and it was actually probably a good thing in hindsight. The adjustment, as I documented here, was hard.

From a budgeting standpoint, our monthly spend dropped to new lows in March, April and May, as we entered a hard Stay At Home directive here in California pretty much immediately upon our return home. With no real comprehension as to how COVID was spreading, our only spending was to pay our insurance and utility bills, plus shop for groceries. Beginning in June, however, with the rolling back of California's Stay At Home orders, our budget spend began to increase month over month, returning to pretty close to normal by October. Interesting to me, however, is that where the spending occurred did change as a result of COVID, and I am guessing these shifts will hold true through most of 2021 as well.

What Changed:

Charitable  We increased this line by about 20% as a result of our ongoing involvement in a local food pantry. Food insecurity is real here in America, sadly, and COVID has brought new transparency to just how many are affected. As a result, we added two local food banks to the list of charities we were already making regular donations too.

Entertainment  This line dropped precipitously, by approximately 66%, as everything shut down, and a multitude of pre-paid subscriptions and events we had tickets for were cancelled. Everything from our Pacific Symphony pops concert subscription, to our summer tradition of attending Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters, to our wine society monthly events. Instead, we ended up joining two local wineries over the summer, simply to have a place to go and sit outside, and in the case of one winery, listen to live music and enjoy half price outdoor dining. We also picked up a Zoom subscription at $14.99 monthly, which we continue to utilize on a frequent basis. 

Home Items  This covers everything from placemats to mattresses here in the house, and we ended the year up 20% over prior year. Feather nesting replaced traveling as the year went on it appears. Over the course of the year we updated our family room with new art and a refreshed fireplace, purchased new rugs and pillows for many of our living areas, updated table lamps in our bedroom and living room, and updated many of our display accessories.

Our refreshed family room continues to make me happy.

Personal Care  Due to COVID concerns, I stopped coloring my hair, plus we stretched our hair appointments out an additional two weeks. As a result, this line item dropped by 33% in spite of spending considerably more on another personal care budget item . . . i.e., the hoarding of toilet paper. 😄

Restaurants  This line dropped about 33% over the year. Gone were frequent social get togethers at new-to-us restaurants or treasured favorites, but there was a significant increase in the frequency with which we did takeout. Prior to the pandemic we rarely ordered takeout for dinner, but post pandemic we do so about once a week to both support our local restaurants and to break up the monotony of weekly cooking for me. We've also increased significantly the number of times we pick up a lunch to share as getting out of the house on a daily basis has become a priority in 2020, and we have come to sincerely enjoy a shared meal while hiking, bicycling, kayaking, or simply chilling at one of our local beaches. 

Travel  We started the year off with a bang due to our 6 week cruise, however, cancelled due to COVID was a combined pleasure/volunteer trip with Sierra Club to Mammoth Cave National Park, Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky, and a 30 day trip to hike 225 miles of the Camino de Santiago in Spain to celebrate my husband's 65th birthday. (This one still makes me sad as while we can, and will, reschedule the hike once the pandemic subsides, we can't recreate my husband's milestone birthday, which would have been marked as the day we completed the hike and arrived in Santiago.). Instead,we managed one trip to the east coast in late October to see our youngest daughter and granddaughters, and we took an RV trip in early October to enjoy California's beautiful Central coastline. Otherwise, nothing save putting down about $700 to reserve RV sites for next summer's trip up into the Pacific NW. Total reduction for the year was therefore about 30%.

Our trip around S. America, including Patagonia here, was a dream come true for my husband,
and hopefully NOT the last cruise we are ever able to take!

What Did Not Change:

Clothing  To my surprise, I continued to clothes shop this year in spite of having very few occasions to dress up. But what I did, and which I plan to keep doing, was I shifted away from big (and oftentimes crowded) retail department stores, and shifted instead to small boutiques. So I purchased fewer items overall, but those I did purchase were individually more expensive. Notable purchases this year that continue to make me happy are two well made felt hats, one in baby blue and one in camel, two pair of cozy Ugg boots, and a wonderful pair of Hunter rain boots in black. I also picked up my husband's clothing game by purchasing him a slew of slimmer fitting pants (he looks great in clothes at a slim 6 feet!), some well made sweaters, and very cool looking moto black leather-ish jacket). Even if we aren't going anywhere but to the beach for a picnic dinner, I love seeing him dressed up.

Gifts  While gifts to friends for birthday, anniversary, and wedding celebrations was down, we made up for it by lavishing gifts on our family this year, my granddaughters in particular, likely to make up for not being able to see them as often in person. A few things I much enjoyed gifting were locally made Rainbow sandals to my youngest daughter when she was here this past summer, Skechers ultra soft sneakers for both of my daughters this Christmas, and a frothy pink dress and matching tiara for my oldest granddaughter just prior to taking her to her first fancy tea at an adorable outdoor tea house this summer.

Groceries  This continues to be the same $100 a week that it has been since we retired in 2011. I attribute our being able to enjoy lovely meals at home without increasing our budget to an Aldi's opening up near enough to us to manage a swing through every two weeks or so. I would guest-imate the savings of shopping at Aldi's to be a conservative $20 a week, or $1040 a year, enough to not have to increase our grocery budget yet again in 2020. Plus, we rarely buy any pork or beef save bacon and Italian sausage, which I use as meal 'seasoning', and chicken is now less expensive than when I retired. Salmon is purchased only when on sale, and since we are fairly modest eaters, a single 8 oz salmon filet will serve the two of us. Additionally, many of our weekly meals are vegetarian, which tend to cost very little due to our local Sprouts produce markets. And of course, cooking from scratch means there are almost always leftovers, oftentimes for days. 

Hobbies  We picked up golf during the pandemic, plus I purchased a guitar, so that ensured this line item got spent as normal.

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How about you? How did COVID impact your 2020 budgeting?

Losing My Holiday Mojo?

It is the day before Christmas Eve, and I am having a little pity party over here, the result of a small cascade of recent events. Prior to this week, as things began to come off the list of holiday do-ables due to the pandemic, I would search around for an equivalent replacement to keep myself feeling peppy, and managed to keep coming up with something in order to feel positive and forward facing. For example, though we would not have any festive indoor holiday restaurant celebrations with our local family as we normally do, we could instead haul out our warm coats and do it outdoors. But then restaurants went into takeout-only mode a couple of weeks ago, meaning all outdoor dining is now closed. Or, it's OK that we won't be going to any of the indoor holiday plays and concerts we normally do, we'll enjoy outdoor walking light tours instead. But then those got shuttered as well when restaurants were re-shut again this month. But that's still OK, because our remodel will be done, and we'll enjoy nesting back in to our now-even-prettier home. Sigh. Nope. The job is running over and the upcoming long holiday weekend will simply prolong the completion of the job.

And worst of all, we won't be seeing our granddaughters this holiday season other than via FaceTime.

So, yep, a bit of a pity party currently going on here with regard to Christmas, which I now simply want to be over so we can get this house finished up before New Year. Which, by the way, won't include a Rose Parade viewing from the comfort of our cozy family room as would normally occur. Sniff. Sniff.

So, it's clearly time to channel my inner Cher in Moonstruck and . . .  

LOL. So let me try again to focus on what is good, and what I am still able to look forward to.

• We're going to spend Christmas Eve going on a bicycle ride along the coast, and we'll stop midway to enjoy egg salad sandwiches, our very favorite sack lunch. When we return home, we're going to spend the evening watching holiday movies, enjoying a butternut squash posole supper that will be slow cooking all day, plus warm homemade cookies and hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps for dessert.
• On Christmas Day we will be going over to our oldest daughters, who lives directly across from Huntington Beach. We'll go for a walk along the beach, I'm bringing my guitar to play Christmas carols out on her balcony, and dinner should be lovely. I'm bringing over a pan of pumpkin/mushroom/bacon lasagna, and the boyfriend is contributing a warm spinach salad and bread, plus he's making something insane for dessert - mixed berry and lemon curd tarts with limoncello.
• The rest of the weekend will be spent outdoors as much as possible, hiking and enjoying takeout lunches on both days.
• And finally, Monday should be the beginning of the end of our remodel, meaning I can look forward to spending the New Year's holiday weekend cleaning and settling us back in to our downstairs bedroom. 

I saw this meme today and it made me laugh. I mean, seriously 2020 - don't let the door hit you on the way out!

How are you doing this holiday season?