Last night we went to a neighborhood in Brea to see the Christmas lights.  This neighborhood really goes all out.  We were there four about an hour and half before everyone pooped out and didn’t even see half of the houses.  One of the houses had a live nativity scene complete with goats.  There were houses with live music, people selling hot chocolate, even a house selling churro’s.  We picked up hot chocolate on the way and found a place to park and walk the neighborhood.  Tristan made notes of things we especially like to incorporate into our house next year.  Some of the houses had really elaborate window displays as well as stuff in the yard.  Gavin especially liked the houses that had trains of some kind.

Another Christmas tradition is the making of the Sugar Cookies.  Both boys really enjoy picking out cookie cutters for cookies and then decorating the later.  We just let the boys do what ever they want, though we end up with dinosaur cookies, or tie fighters, or this year, the state of California cookies.  They have so much fun we don’t enforce any kind of Christmas theme, and all the cookies taste the same, lol.

Well I’m running a bit behind on the blogging, between getting ready for Christmas and getting Brenda’s book out It’s been a busy couple of weeks.  It’s late, but here is the post about staying at Crystal Cove State park.

We checked in at 2:30 on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  Check-in time is at 4, but they will let you in at 2:30 if the room is ready.  To get to your cabin you park by the check in then they run you and your stuff down to the cabin in a big golf cart.  The kids love golf carts, so riding in a big on was a blast for them.  Once you get all your stuff in the cabin they run you back to your car, which you then have to park in the lot on the other side of PCH and walk back to your cabin.

By the time I got back Brenda had already unpacked most of the stuff and the kids were running around exploring the place.  It was getting dark so I went out back to setup the little propane BBQ.  The cabins themselves only have a microwave, not stove or anything, but you are allowed a small propane bbq in the back.  It was about this time I realized that I’d forgotten to pack any matches.  After running around a bit to the little store and restaurant and being told there were not matches in the park,  I finally gave in and told Brenda I’d have to head back to home.  Tristan had forgotten his kindle anyway, and we’d forgotten a couple of other little things so it wouldn’t be a totally wasted trip.

I was dark by the time I got back, and not wanting to wait on the shuttle down to the beach I decided to walk down the path.  This was not such a good idea as the path is not lighted and I managed to trip over a drainage gutter that was much deeper than it looked in the dark.

Once back to the cabin, with matches this time, we cooked up some hotdogs for dinner.  There is a ruby’s diner on the bluffs over looking the beach, so after dinner I walked up there and got us all some shakes.  It was getting kinda cold by then, so the kids curled up on one of the beds and watched a movie on the ipad.

The cabin was basically one big room, with a small bed and couch/pull out bed in the front and two murphy beds in the middle.  We had one kid on the small bed and one in a murphy bed (they traded off as they both wanted to sleep in the small bed in the front as it had a window you could look out.

Tuesday was a beach day.  We had breakfast, then headed down to the beach.  The kids staked out a play area and I setup my chair right behind them with my ipad to read.  Brenda had to go off to a local Starbucks and use the free wifi to get some book work in.  When she came back, we were still at the beach where she had left us.  Other than for lunch, we basically didn’t  move until it got dark.

Wednesday, was a repeat of Tuesday, but with guests.  One of Brenda’s friends brought her two kids down in the morning, which Tristan and Gavin really enjoyed.  My mom and John came down and bought us lunch at the restaurant there, and after lunch another friend on Brenda’s came down with her son, which took us up till night.

Thursday came all to soon and we had to pack up and leave, and head to my mom’s house for Thanksgiving dinner that evening.  It really seemed like we had just moved in, time had gone by so quick.

We had cabin #2, right next to the Beachcomber restaurant.  We were worried a bit about the noise, and we did get woken up every morning by the staff setting the restaurant up for breakfast.  It didn’t seem too noisy overall, but they were closed on Thursday for the holiday and it was a ton quieter.  #2 is our least favorite of the cabins that we’ve been in so far, though that wouldn’t keep us for going again, if it was the only choice.  Having the beach literally at the bottom of your steps was too cool for words.  And the sunsets every night were amazing.

The coolest thing that happened was the first day when I was sitting watching the kids, I heard people start to yell and I looked up and there was a seal swimming along just behind where the wave broke not 10 feet from me and the kids.  About 15 minutes later a pod of dolphins came swimming by the exact same place.  We figured out that the seal and dolphins came in the morning to swim behind a crab boat that checked his traps just offshore the beach at that time every day.  We ended up seeing the seal and dolphin every day in the morning and a couple of times in the afternoon.

Overall we had a lot of fun, and if you ever get a chance to stay at Crystal Cove we would all heartily recommend it.