Christmas Road Trip - Christmas Day

Christmas Day - Santa Barbara Style As far as I can remember, we have not spent Christmas in a warmer climate. In some ways, it didn't really seem like Christmas but then in much of the world, Christmas is celebrated without snow. So why do we associate Christmas so much with snow? There certainly wasn't snow where Jesus was born, at least to my knowledge. Maybe all those song writers got us to think snow when we think Christmas.

Nevertheless, we had a wonderful Christmas with the Bergthold clan. We began the morning with warm pull-apart bread, coffee, stockings, and a few gifts. It was fun seeing what each of the kids got in their stockings and we found that the Bergthold santa is very similar to the McLaughlin Santa with a slant toward more practical items such as socks, deodorant, and a little candy. We followed the stockings with a delicious breakfast and then the guys and kids went for a hike in the mountains. Kurt & Colin went all the way to the top of Montecito Peak, the highest peak above Santa Barbara. We'll see how they fare in the days to come. . .

After a lunch of leftovers, we headed to the beach in time for low tide so that we could see the tide pools. There were tons of sea urchins on the rocks. There were also tons of Santa Barbarans walking the beach. The Bergtholds ran into a number of friends along the way and we enjoyed being on the beach on such a pretty day. It was almost surreal. We also headed over the harbor to walk along the dock and see Santa Barbara with the sun set shining into the mountains. Beautiful!

Beach walking was followed by a fabulous ham dinner, lots of laughter, and joyful hearts. It was a great day celebrating the birth of our Savior and the company of good friends.