College Reunion

It is always a delight when Meagan and the Cheek's come to town for the Holidays. We were excited to get the college girls back together. We met in Azusa at a fun food hall. Everyone could pick their meal and visit.

Then we drove to APU to walk the campus and revisit all our old memories. The Freshman dorm where we all lived and met!

I don't think I've been back to campus since after graduation!!!

The West campus where all the nursing classes were held has had a big transformation. They built a large library and sports gymnasium.

After our little campus tour we went back to Robbin's house to hang out. She lives only a 10 minute drive from the school. 

All our cute little kids, minus Jenn's son Caden who is in college and was out with friends. Lily, Carsen, Gemma, Charlie, Collin, and Kobe.

All us "Gina" girls and our spouses. Not a bad bunch!!!

Merry Christmas 2025

Gemma reprised her role for the second year in a row as the Christmas sheep at Ascension Lutheran's Christmas Eve service. She got a new sidekick donkey this year and they added a dog character.

 

We even had a few far away visitors log in and watch the performance on Facebook.

We took our annual tree photo and then headed home for Christmas eve dinner and awaiting Santa's arrival.

The tree was all decked out and filled with gifts waiting to be opened.

We left cookies for Santa and a little boot mug of milk.

We must have made the nice list again this year, the stockings were heaving full.

It was the first year where we slept until the sun was up and didn't open gifts in the dark early hours of the morning. 

We stayed toasty by the fire as usual.

Some Percy pig and friends made their way all the way across the pond.

Gemma had quite the "haul".

A good spa day with a Christmas gift, soak those poor weary toes!

Over break we spent several hours putting together a lego art masterpiece. 

It proudly hangs in Gemma's room, until she tires of it and then the office can have it. We are excited for a summer trip to Japan so this gets us in the mood.

Holly Jolly Holiday

The holiday season rush always feels hectic with only a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gemma kicked off the season by having her digital baby for Child Development class home for the weekend. Baby "Esmerelda" need to be fed, changed, burped and consoled upon crying. She did a LOT of crying. Even Santa had to pitch in and help.

We were not at all sad when the weekend was over and she went back to school. The only think that consoled Mama Gemma was a big tin of home made chex mix.

Our second annual tradition of decorating gingerbread houses with the Parker sisters. 

They always want to make it a competition. Lily and Ellie vs Gemma and Avery. For some reason they did themes. Lily and Ellie did the TV show "House" and added some other characters.

Gemma and Avery did the movie "Wicked" which lent to the green roof.

We made Alex judge and he hates that job. It is pretty awful to anger 50% of the crowd. Gemma and Avery won, the second year in the row. 

We added some new friends to the family this year. We got an artificial Christmas tree and adopted a Highland cow, Hamish. Once it was announced that Costco would no longer be selling fresh trees we bit the bullet and bought a fake one. It was a great deal at Target and it is 8ft tall! You can change the lights from white to color and twinkle or solid. 

Rosie came back again to join us for some festive fun. She is getting older and mostly just moves around every couple of days. She doesn't get into much mischief and can't quite keep up like she did in her younger years.

Lily had her Orchestra concert. It is always our favorite because they play holiday tunes and the kids can wear festive headbands. 

Lily had a few small trumpet solos as first chair so she got to be recognized.

Because we weren't home together for Thanksgiving I ended up making a do-over holiday meal on one weekend. We got a brined half turkey, made mash and stuffing and green bean casserole. You have to do gravy and fresh cranberry sauce. Everyone loved it. Best bonus was we didn't feel pressure to make a big Christmas day roast since we had it just recently.

Hamish was supposed to be an outdoor holiday decoration but we loved him so much we couldn't bear to kick him outside.

It is not the Christmas season without baking cookies. Gemma loves to bake so we made sugar cookie cut outs. 

Then the real fun happens with icing and sprinkles.

They may not be masterpieces but they were fun and they really taste good too.

Right after break began Gemma, Josie and Sarah from color guard wanted to attend a one day clinic that their coach Cesar and his team "Icon" were hosting as a fundraiser. It was so so far away in South Orange County but we made the drive. While the girls were at the clinic I found a local cafe and got a holiday drink! An iced gingerbread latte. It was amazing! Then went for a lovely long walk at a park. 

They choreographed a long holiday theme performance and posted it on their social media. It was really cute. 

The local Peterson Fam had our holiday gathering at Goppy's Belmont Bistro. We brought Buca de beppo for dinner and then played some games. We got Christmas crackers that all contained a whistle. You play your whistle to the holiday tunes. We were not very good and it was hilarious. 

Rosie managed to get into one bit of mischief after all! Collapsing roofs!

Thanksgiving in England

Our annual tradition of high-tailing it out of California for the Thanksgiving week break continued again this year.  With Sara unable to make it due to her recent job change Dad and the girls decided to visit the Grand Parents back in jolly ol' England.  The plan was to hit the ground running with a few days in London first before heading to Lechlade for the remainder of the week.

First stop was LAX and a 10 hour flight to Heathrow on a British Airways 777.  We made good time and zipped through arrivals and onto the train to Paddington where our hotel favorite "The Premier Inn" was waiting.

No time to dilly-dally, we checked in, dropped our bags and hit the town to see the Christmas lights and do some shopping.  Top of the list was Selfridges and the Jellycat popup store:

After dinner it was back to the hotel and an early bed, we were pooped.

There's no better way to start your day than the famous Premier Inn "Full English".  I think this might be one of our highlights of hotel stays in the UK, and set us up for a very busy day ahead:

First stop was to visit Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a short walk across the Thames from St Paul's Cathedral.  It was a beautiful crisp English morning and provided lovely views of the City.  Unfortunately filming inside the theatre is prohibited.  The tour was excellent and especially good as rehearsals were underway for an upcoming production, so we were able to get a feel for how a play is performed in the open air theatre.

After the Globe we popped next door to the Tate Modern Gallery and took in some of the modern art on a few of the floors.  We didn't have time to see it all but it was fun to see some of the famous pieces:

By now our stomachs were grumbling (especially Gemma's) and so we made the short walk along the river to Borough Market.  It was packed and buzzing with life although this made it hard to decide what to eat.  The famous TikTok inspired chocolate covered strawberries were a must for desert and we settled for pulled pork sandwiches for the main course.

In the afternoon we headed out to the Millennium Dome to drop by the Radiohead merchandise store.  The band (a favorite of Lily's) were playing that evening and she wanted to grab a t-shirt from the tour.  Unfortunately the tickets were long sold out.  Better yet though we had tickets for Mamma Mia in the West End, so it was back to the hotel (via a short stop in Harrods for more JellyCat's) to freshen up before heading out.

The show was fantastic and had everyone singing in the aisles by the end. We hummed Abba songs all the way home on the Tube!!

For our final half-day in London we headed up to Camden Market.  We spent the morning making our way through the stalls looking at all the oddities on sale.  There were so many food options it was impossible to choose but we settled on some traditional English Fish-n-Chips, which we all devoured and made a great end to our short stay in London.

And so it was back to Paddington Station (and the obligatory photo with the famous Bear) to catch our train to Swindon and meet up with Gran and Gramps for the rest our our trip.

Once we had settled in at Lechade the first order of business was for Gemma to present her annual Christmas gift list PowerPoint presentation to a riveted audience:

After a quiet morning in Lechlade we set off in the afternoon to Blenheim Palace.  Gran and Gramps very generously treated us to the annual Christmas lights event.  The palace was decorated and the grounds transformed and setup with an amazing light show walking tour.

Christmas market stalls were setup in front of the Palace selling food and drinks.  So we all tucked into hot chocolates before it was time to start the tour, perfect for a chilly English evening:

The inside of the Palace had been transformed into a Wizard of Oz theme complete with all the characters and interactive rooms.

Granny even got to meet Dorothy and Toto:

Then it was outside to start the walking tour of the lights.  As we moved through the tour the themes of the lights changed from disco to Christmas to classical, all set to music with smoke and effects.  The highlight was the water fountain show over the lake set to the music from Disney's Frozen.  It was wonderfully done and a fantastic experience.

The tour ended of course at Santa's grotto:

The next day we headed into Oxford.  A special exhibition of Radiohead artwork was on display at the Ashmolean Museum.  Granny had managed to secure tickets especially for Lily and we were very excited to attend.  The exhibition showcased the artistic partnership between lead singer Thom Yorke and his long term collaborator Stanley Dodwood.  This included album artwork and other projects that has defined the image of the band over the past 30 years.

Our final adventure of the trip was to visit the city of Bath.  Their Christmas market had just opened for the season and we also wanted visit the famous Roman Baths museum.  A short 30 minute train ride from Swindon dropped us right into the city center.  It was packed with everyone coming to visit the market and start their Christmas shopping, all very festive.

We headed straight for the Roman museum first to start the tour.  We were given an audio headset which allowed us to explore at our own pace and transported us back to Roman times.  The tour starts high above the main baths and winds down through to street level and then the underground waterways.

The museum was a hit and kept us thoroughly entertained for several hours  It was interesting to see the Roman influences in England and compare back to our Italy trip just a year earlier when we visited the historic sites of Rome and Pompeii.

After the museum we braved the Christmas Market crowds and enjoyed some mulled wine and West Country sausage hotdogs, yum.  Then explored the shops and back streets of Bath for a few hours before heading back to Lechlade.

We made it back to Lechlade just in time for the annual "turning on" of the Christmas lights.  A stage was setup in the town square with live music and Santa was on-hand to flip the switch.

On our last day before heading home we visited the Farmers Dog pub near Burford, made famous in the Clarkson's Farm Amazon TV series.  We were lucky to find a table in the back patio with stunning views over the Cotswold countryside, a perfect place to enjoy a drink and end our trip.  Gemma of course had to get some "merch" at the store to bring home.

It was another great trip and a safe flight home to the evening lights of Los Angeles.  Many thanks to Gran and Gramps for hosting, we had a wonderful time and can't wait to be back.