Christmas #5 - California!

I especially was sad to leave my family in Utah, but my spirits were lifted when we landed in Sunny and (warmer) California. We were greeted by the one little boy we had never met, Lyle's brand new nephew of six weeks - Luke Thomas Schofield. We immediately fell in love with him. It was truly a joy for us to see his brand new parents (Lyle's sister Diana, and her husband Mac) enjoy parenthood and seem so calm about it. I guess Lyle and I have a more chaotic view of what new parenthood would be like. Then again, Luke was very easy to enjoy with his cute smiles, and concentrated eyes.
(funny note: Lyle would soothe Luke with his version of "white noise" humming. It worked like a charm.)

We enjoyed a lot at the Schofield abode, and I think most of all, it was having to do absolutely NOTHING. We hardly had anything on our schedule and we loved every second. We had a family talent show (Lyle and I acted out a joke in skit fashion), we caught up on some movies in our queue, we ate WAY too much food including our favs not to be found in New York including Baja Fresh, In-N-Out, and Lucille's BBQ, we played games, helped put together the family puzzle, Lyle hooked up the new plasma the family got (this was no fun for anyone), and best of all--we finally got to get on a mountain and ski/board!

We headed up about an hour and a half to Lake Tahoe and skiied at Sugarbowl resort. Here is Lyle with his youngest brother, Peter.

Lyle is serious when it comes to sports. He is a serious competitor (no matter what he tells you), and he is serious about protecting his body (thank heavens for that). Imagine my surprise when I was dropping Peter off at snowboard school that morning when I came to find Lyle LYING ON THE SNOW next to his (too expensive to buy) demo skiis stretching so that he wouldn't be sore.It was too funny for words. As quietly as I could, I hurried a snapped a few shots, and then I could hold it in no longer. I burst into laughter that caught Lyle off guard. Needless to say we had a GREAT day. It was warm, the snow was ok, not great, but it was good enough for the two of us who haven't been able to enjoy ANY mountain riding for a whole two years! Hopefully we won't have to wait that long again. One of my favorite parts of Christmas in Sacramento was getting to know Lyle just a little more through his scrapbook that his mother made him. I had never seen baby pictures of my own husband, so it was one of my first demands when we got to his parent's house. We pulled out the scrapbook and I caught up on his childhood. We traveled back in time to the 80's and 90's and I loved every picture. I hope someday I have a little boy that looks just like Lyle! We'll just have to wait and see.

I can't finish this post without telling the travel home story. Well, it's not much of a story. Delta missed my bag and couldn't just put it on the next flight, but had to wait until the NEXT morning. I didn't even receive a voucher for the MAJOR inconvenience. We arrived on our LATE plane around 11:30pm and I didn't get my bag until 5:30pm the next day. They said it would be at my door by 1pm. Delta and I are fighting. My lesson learned? Don't take a connection! Is a couple hundred bucks worth it? Maybe. Time will tell.