Greetings! Today, and each month going forward, I'm documenting how I spent my month in just one sentence per day.
Turns out that the theme for December was Joy!, then Dismay!, then Joy! once again. Sigh. It was an unexpectedly challenging month what with our voluminous water loss on the 5th, followed by the decision to go ahead and have our interior doors and kitchen cabinets repainted, and the kitchen ceiling track lighting removed and replaced, since we'd be ripping up all the flooring (again!) anyway. What. A. Mess.
By the time Christmas rolled around, however, everything but the flooring and Christmas tree - poor bald thing, we had to dismantle it for the water remediation, and I didn't have the energy to put all the ornaments back on - was pretty much back to normal. And we did manage to got our bounce back well before Christmas, enjoying lots of time with family and friends, plus holiday concerts, parties and plays, so a big 'yeah' for that.
December In A Sentence A Month
1. Attended the funnest holiday party with our wine society, eating, sipping, singing, dancing, and even running into a newly retired couple we'd known during our daughters' soccer years . . . we're so excited that after being out there all by ourselves for the past six years, our friends are finally starting to step away from their professional gigs and join us in retirement!
2. A wonderful morning spent touring the Dana Points Headlands with a naturalist, followed by a coastal walk on our own, then a bagel breakfast at this divinely situated harbor cafe..
3. A most festive holiday concert at one of our local colleges, which was absolutely wonderful, and definitely a new tradition going forward.
4. A 25 mile bicycle ride along the coastline on a glorious low 70-degree day . . . we had so much fun!
5. The disastrous day my washing machine overflowed onto my new hardwood floors!
6. A rough day of navigating around the very noisy and numerous water remediation machines situated all over the bottom floor of our house, but did break away for a bit to attend a previously scheduled lunch and tour of the Shakleton Antartic Special Exhibition at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.
7. Deeply depressed to once again be facing a period of demolition, chaos and dust, particularly during the Christmas holidays, but a festive holiday performance by the Dana Point Symphony went a long, long way in helping my mood.
8. This wonderful person, my oldest daughter, turned 35 years old today . . . how is that even possible???
9. Attended a holiday jazz concert at a nearby college and had an absolutely wonderful time - nothing perks up my spirits more than the energy of talented young people.
10. Attended our first theater production at the same college, and though we did not enjoy the play so much, Stephen Sondheim's very dark Assassins, we were blown away by the talented actors and actresses, so we stayed all the way through to the bitter end, and were glad we did.
11. Our dinner club held their annual potluck and planning session, and my husband and I agreed to take on one of the months in 2018 because we think the group will enjoy experiencing Burmese food as much as we did upon discovering the wonderful Irawaddy last year.
12. Worked a tidepool shift and enjoyed the utterly thrilling experience of watching dolphins leaping and somersaulting high into the air in what seemed to be a show of sheer joy.
13. Spent the morning hiking in the ocean-adjacent Laguna Wilderness with my hiking club, giving a little insight into why wildfires are a way of life here - our wilderness areas, even this one located just a couple of miles inland from the coast, are generally dry as a bone other than during the rainy season.
14. Painting of my interior doors and kitchen cabinets commenced, because we figured we might as well get them done before the replacement wood flooring went down; a.k.a., turning lemons into lemonade!
15. Believe it or not, we entertained around the chaos, but just for an hour (they are very good friends!), before heading out to Sol Agave in San Juan Capistrano - yeah for good Mexican food and drink for what ails you!
16. Dinner out followed by the Dana Point Harbor Boat Parade with my oldest and her sweetie.
17. Long walk around the harbor and headlands, one of my very favorite things to do here.
18. Kayaking in the AM, then a meeting with our financial team, followed by a lovely, but sad, farewell party with the members of my longtime book club now that we live too far away to make continuing tenable.
19. My kitchen refresh is done, including removal of of 1980's track lighting, and I am beyond thrilled.
20. Braved Walmart for a few household items, but got there early enough to avoid the Christmas crush.
21. We combined a walk to the beach for breakfast with a few on-foot errands, managing just shy of seven miles by the time we returned to the house.
22. Worked a volunteer shift at the harbor, which was fun but brisk at just 50 degrees in the shade where my info booth was set up, brrrr!
23. Ran six miles at the harbor with my running club, followed by breakfast together at Coffee Importers, then made and baked salted caramel chip chocolate cookies and delivered them to all the neighbors, plus attended a festive Rat Pack concert . . . a long, but super fun day!
24. Long walk along the beach, then to my older daughters for an amazing Christmas Eve dinner: Coffee crusted filet mignon, sweet potato puree, grilled asparagus, heirloom beet salad, and for dessert, fresh cherry pie. #feelingspoiled
25. Merry Christmas, S. California style!
26. Today was all about Japan - we booked a trip to visit there in the fall, and we bought ourselves a new Toyota Prius!
27. Wonderful hike along a coastal ridge trail near our home with my hiking club, and learned our daughter is having a girl!!!
28. Worked a volunteer shift at the harbor, took down all the holiday decorations, organized the garage, and made a fragrant slow cook Indian chicken curry for dinner.
29. Small drywall patch job by my painter in advance of our new floors going in in January, to Target to replace my 34 year old Hoover vacuum cleaner (!), plus our water loss reimbursement check arrived in the mail, big sigh of relief!
30. Morning run with my club, prepped the house for overnight guests, then spent the evening with them enjoying dinner and a Neil Diamond tribute band at The Coach House.
31. Took our friends for a walk along the Dana Point Headlands followed by breakfast at Coffee Importers, tidied the house after they left, then made a romantic dinner for hubby and me and settled in for a night of movies and waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square.
Goodness December was a roller coaster of a month! But I have to say, I doubt I would have bitten the bullet and gone ahead with getting our kitchen cabinets repainted, and our overhead kitchen track lighting removed and replaced with recessed lights if not for the loss. So, I am actually super happy with the way my previously very nice kitchen is being elevated to gorgeous status, and I look forward to sharing photos next month once the final touch ups occur.
How was your December? Please share your highlights (or lowlights!) below.
An InLinkz Link-up
By the time Christmas rolled around, however, everything but the flooring and Christmas tree - poor bald thing, we had to dismantle it for the water remediation, and I didn't have the energy to put all the ornaments back on - was pretty much back to normal. And we did manage to got our bounce back well before Christmas, enjoying lots of time with family and friends, plus holiday concerts, parties and plays, so a big 'yeah' for that.
(P.S. - Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see who else is participating,
and to visit their blogs for additional September In A Sentence A Day inspiration!)
December In A Sentence A Month
1. Attended the funnest holiday party with our wine society, eating, sipping, singing, dancing, and even running into a newly retired couple we'd known during our daughters' soccer years . . . we're so excited that after being out there all by ourselves for the past six years, our friends are finally starting to step away from their professional gigs and join us in retirement!
 |
| Can you tell my husband is sporting a black eye in this photo? The result of an accidental head bump with our granddaughter while playing Hide n Go Seek! |
2. A wonderful morning spent touring the Dana Points Headlands with a naturalist, followed by a coastal walk on our own, then a bagel breakfast at this divinely situated harbor cafe..
3. A most festive holiday concert at one of our local colleges, which was absolutely wonderful, and definitely a new tradition going forward.
4. A 25 mile bicycle ride along the coastline on a glorious low 70-degree day . . . we had so much fun!
5. The disastrous day my washing machine overflowed onto my new hardwood floors!
6. A rough day of navigating around the very noisy and numerous water remediation machines situated all over the bottom floor of our house, but did break away for a bit to attend a previously scheduled lunch and tour of the Shakleton Antartic Special Exhibition at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.
 |
| The Endurance, stuck in the ice of Antartica in 1915 |
7. Deeply depressed to once again be facing a period of demolition, chaos and dust, particularly during the Christmas holidays, but a festive holiday performance by the Dana Point Symphony went a long, long way in helping my mood.
 |
| Not the greatest sightlines in that the symphony plays at a church, but the acoustics are great, and the tickets are a modest $15 each, so we'll deal. |
8. This wonderful person, my oldest daughter, turned 35 years old today . . . how is that even possible???
9. Attended a holiday jazz concert at a nearby college and had an absolutely wonderful time - nothing perks up my spirits more than the energy of talented young people.
 |
| The conductor brought up the children in the audience at one point, which will hopefully plant the seeds for future jazz appreciation. |
10. Attended our first theater production at the same college, and though we did not enjoy the play so much, Stephen Sondheim's very dark Assassins, we were blown away by the talented actors and actresses, so we stayed all the way through to the bitter end, and were glad we did.
12. Worked a tidepool shift and enjoyed the utterly thrilling experience of watching dolphins leaping and somersaulting high into the air in what seemed to be a show of sheer joy.
13. Spent the morning hiking in the ocean-adjacent Laguna Wilderness with my hiking club, giving a little insight into why wildfires are a way of life here - our wilderness areas, even this one located just a couple of miles inland from the coast, are generally dry as a bone other than during the rainy season.
14. Painting of my interior doors and kitchen cabinets commenced, because we figured we might as well get them done before the replacement wood flooring went down; a.k.a., turning lemons into lemonade!
 |
| Original maple cabinet paint color at bottom, a yellowish ivory, and refreshed color, the same Cream I used in my prior kitchen, on the top. |
15. Believe it or not, we entertained around the chaos, but just for an hour (they are very good friends!), before heading out to Sol Agave in San Juan Capistrano - yeah for good Mexican food and drink for what ails you!
16. Dinner out followed by the Dana Point Harbor Boat Parade with my oldest and her sweetie.
17. Long walk around the harbor and headlands, one of my very favorite things to do here.
 |
| My husband waving 'Hello' from the headlands trail. |
18. Kayaking in the AM, then a meeting with our financial team, followed by a lovely, but sad, farewell party with the members of my longtime book club now that we live too far away to make continuing tenable.
19. My kitchen refresh is done, including removal of of 1980's track lighting, and I am beyond thrilled.
20. Braved Walmart for a few household items, but got there early enough to avoid the Christmas crush.
21. We combined a walk to the beach for breakfast with a few on-foot errands, managing just shy of seven miles by the time we returned to the house.
 |
| Where the wonderful beach trail by our home ends. |
22. Worked a volunteer shift at the harbor, which was fun but brisk at just 50 degrees in the shade where my info booth was set up, brrrr!
23. Ran six miles at the harbor with my running club, followed by breakfast together at Coffee Importers, then made and baked salted caramel chip chocolate cookies and delivered them to all the neighbors, plus attended a festive Rat Pack concert . . . a long, but super fun day!
24. Long walk along the beach, then to my older daughters for an amazing Christmas Eve dinner: Coffee crusted filet mignon, sweet potato puree, grilled asparagus, heirloom beet salad, and for dessert, fresh cherry pie. #feelingspoiled
25. Merry Christmas, S. California style!
 |
| Us in the fall of 2018. |
 |
| Us right now! |
27. Wonderful hike along a coastal ridge trail near our home with my hiking club, and learned our daughter is having a girl!!!
28. Worked a volunteer shift at the harbor, took down all the holiday decorations, organized the garage, and made a fragrant slow cook Indian chicken curry for dinner.
29. Small drywall patch job by my painter in advance of our new floors going in in January, to Target to replace my 34 year old Hoover vacuum cleaner (!), plus our water loss reimbursement check arrived in the mail, big sigh of relief!
30. Morning run with my club, prepped the house for overnight guests, then spent the evening with them enjoying dinner and a Neil Diamond tribute band at The Coach House.
31. Took our friends for a walk along the Dana Point Headlands followed by breakfast at Coffee Importers, tidied the house after they left, then made a romantic dinner for hubby and me and settled in for a night of movies and waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square.
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Goodness December was a roller coaster of a month! But I have to say, I doubt I would have bitten the bullet and gone ahead with getting our kitchen cabinets repainted, and our overhead kitchen track lighting removed and replaced with recessed lights if not for the loss. So, I am actually super happy with the way my previously very nice kitchen is being elevated to gorgeous status, and I look forward to sharing photos next month once the final touch ups occur.
How was your December? Please share your highlights (or lowlights!) below.
An InLinkz Link-up
