Christmas Day Brunch

Mike and I took his grandmother, Enid, out for a Christmas brunch at the La Valencia hotel in La Jolla.

Mimosas.

The buffet

They had carolers

Enid loves her dessert.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Mike and I decided to make a Christmas Eve dinner for ourselves.

The ham

The sweet potatoes

The wine

The apple pie

Our Christmas Tree

We collect Christmas ornaments when we travel.  We share memories of our trips when we decorate our tree every year, which is fun.  Sometimes we have a hard time finding ornaments, but we usually find something last minute or even at the airport.  Here's our tree this year and some of our fun ornaments.

San Francisco Chinatown

Venice, Italy

Syndey, Australia

Big Island of Hawaii

Belize

Alaska Cruise

Wine, Bikes, and Mud

All these things go together in Calistoga, a town in Napa Valley.  Calistoga is located on the northern end of the valley and has a small town feel.  They just had a Christmas Tractor Parade the weekend prior to our visit and people were still talking about it.  We planned this trip to celebrate our anniversary last month.  I'd found a cottage rental on VRBO that was nice and quiet for our stay.  We took a self guided biking wine tour on Saturday and experienced a Calistoga mud bath on Sunday.

Start of the 20 mile bike tour visiting 5 wineries.

We had an unexpected warm, sunny day.  Fog was all around the mountains.

We tried and bought a wine that was served at the White House from August Briggs winery.

We experienced our first mud bath.  "The combination of clay, peat and hot springs mineral waters in the mud bath relaxes muscles and joints, detoxifies, and leaves the skin soft and renewed."

More photos on our online album:  Calistoga Dec 2010