HO HO NO

Isn't she pretty? I haven't seen a dawn for a long time. I'm not a morning person. But I got up early to go to the DMV to get a new driver's license.

Unfortunately, this was Thursday. And Friday, the day of our flight to visit my family in Utah for Christmas, was wet, windy, and bad enough weather that SFO cancelled a hundred flights, ours included. Seeing as it was the 21st, there wasn't anything unbooked for a 250 mile radius (ok, 1 seat on a flight out of Fresno... a 3 hour drive away).

I did a quick check into driving, but the same storm causing problems was also dumping heavy snows in the Sierras. Love Monkey says they've since closed that freeway. I've learned my lesson, don't fly in or out of SFO for anything time-dependent.

So. Christmas at home. Which I usually vastly prefer (mmm, not a fan of airports, especially during busy seasons) but there is that still-moving-in-feel here. We're still coping with reducing Box Mountain.

That's my living room. It's gotten slightly better since then.

Although we just unearthed a box of the Love Monkey's old Star Wars toys.

The Rancor says that in this season of sugared goodies, please remember the importance of oral hygiene.

The Rancor also knows how to party.

Holiday season, an excellent time to devour fruity drinks and tootsie rolls.

The other M

I'm not so good at keeping track of days lately. Witness that I should be doing last minute Christmas shopping that I'm not doing. I'm just having trouble summoning up the enthusiasm to care much. I like giving gifts to people, but I am so done with deadlines for this year.

The house is sold! We are moved. We are all urban 'n' crap now, and I still have a mountain of boxes of stuff to get rid of. It's putting a damper on the whole moving-into-a-new-place thing.

It has been nice weather until just last week, and we've had a couple weekends in all the craziness to play tourist a little. I tell everyone I think I have climate jet lag, because it really, REALLY doesn't feel like December. Then again, there's a reason there's palm trees growing here.

This is the Car, all loaded up before I drove down the last time. On the trip I took to calling it Toronado, as I was listening to Zorro by Isabelle Allende on CD most of the way down.

No, that wasn't everything left. I seem to think I can bend the laws of space and time when I move. Not so much. I could have fit more in here (just take everything out of boxes and you get rid of all that pesky empty space. The whole car rattled) but I was already running very late and needed to get on the road. Here it is at the Vallejo rest stop, right before the descent into Bay Area Rush Hour Traffic Hell.

Frances is acclimating better than I am, but she doesn't have to order any Christmas presents for any nieces and nephews. Hmph. She's instead hanging out on the balcony, enjoying some sunshine.