Christmas part 2

Christmas part one

Vacation

Newport OR, annual Labor Day cousin vacation. 

Seaside

                                                 

It's become a tradition, two siblings and their families meeting for one last summer frolic. We meet in the middle, in the state between our two homes. We line the kids up, noticing the growth spurts and hair cuts, the new faces they make now for the camera. We spend long days at the beach, reading and digging in the sand and inching out into the water as far as our frozen feet will let us. 

We play piles of board games, we play guitar, we settle into this borrowed home in these last days. Gotta bottle it up and make it last, gotta hold summer in your palm like one more fragile sand dollar. Until it's time to fold it all up, shake the sand out, and head back where things are waiting. Routines and lunch boxes. New teachers and closed toe shoes. 

And that daydream- of a beach house, and a few extra days, and the last taste of the season. 

California Christmas

Santa wrote back!

We had such a lovely California Christmas with a housefull of family and talent shows by the cousins. We cuddled on the couch and watched the Grinch, we baked cookies and a fabulous Christmas feast. We took walks and played in parks and made music and just hung out in the sunny backyards. 

So perfect. 

Beach days

We are coming home from beach days, with sand in our hair and sunscreen between our fingers. Coming home from a lovely beach house filled with cousins, and long lazy days spent on towels, eating peaches and watching the waves. Coming home from campfire nights with sticky s'more faces and pile-on bedtime stories with four kids in a bunk. Coming home from the sweetest last gasp of summer.