Holiday Lights

We started the holiday season at the Global Winter Wonderland, as I mentioned in my last blog post. With that December came, and with no surprise it's been busy and crazy in all aspects of our lives. Even with the regular madness, we decided to try and do a quick getaway to San Francisco to experience Christmas in the city. So last weekend we got a good deal on a room at the Palace hotel in San Francisco.

But first, we met my older sister and Daniel and Amelia for lunch on Saturday in Oakland at a Chinese restaurant that good good reviews on Google, but looked rather dumpy. The food turned out to be pretty good. Afterwards, we met the family up in Oakland for Michaela and Mariah's ballet performance, The Nutcracker Suite. Michaela had 3 parts, performing as a family member, a snowflake and a peppermint. Mariah was a fairy in the performance.

Finally, we drove into San Francisco, got checked into our hotel, and Lauren and I hit the pool. Then we grabbed a cab to Union Square to see the lights and the Christmas tree. As expected it was crowded and there was plenty to see. We tried to get into the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, but there was a 2.5 hour wait, so we walked over the Westfield Mall and had dinner at the food court which has some pretty incredible restaurants.

We then walked back to our hotel, and saw a very fancy party going on in the atrium. Google Adwords apparently was having their holidy party at our hotel. The next morning, we had breakfast in the atrium before heading back home.

The annual Christmas family dinner and get together is at our house on Christmas Eve again. And we look forward to seeing lots of family!