For thanksgiving we drove to San Diego to visit Morgan's family. The drive down the day before Thanksgiving was a bit long but we all did great and were very excited to get there. Our first day there we went to Seaport Village with Morgan's mom (Candace) and Morgan and Lena went on the carousel. Lena was very very excited.
Here they are after selecting the giraffe as their steed of choice.
Bird-of-paradise flowering in Seaport village.
Later in the afternoon we went to Jack and Lynn's house (Morgan's aunt & uncle) for thanksgiving dinner. It was great to see everyone and share this meal together. Before the festivities started we spent a little time running around with Lena in the backyard. Here is Lena's photo of Jack.
The view from Jack & Lynn's backyard is beautiful. Here Lena and Paul take in the sights.
A little later Morgan's cousins, Jenny and Patrick, came with their families and dogs. Lena was in awe of these hounds.
Lena gazing at dogs.
Lena got to share one of her favorite books with Jenny and her husband Gabe. The book is a graphic novel called Robot Dreams.
The thanksgiving table.
Lena met Liam, the newest addition to the family. Liam is the son of Morgan's cousin Patrick and his wife
Clarisa. Here
Clarisa, Liam, Lena, and Morgan visit after dinner.
Mary and Marvin (Morgan's grandparents) and Jack after the meal.
Lena snapped this photo of her great grandmother.
And this one of her second cousins.
The day after thanksgiving we took the trolley to Old Town and toured around and then spent the rest of the day with Candace, Mary, and Marvin. This photo was taken en route to Old Town.
Old Town.
Our last day in San Diego we spent at Balboa Park with Candace. It was really great. We went to the
Mingei museum, had coffee/lunch, went to the model train museum, watched a street performing juggler, and went out for vegetarian food for dinner. The
Mingei museum was really cool and here Lena climbs on one of the sculptures before we went in.
Another from Lena's view.
The tooth of the creature.
Lena feeding "
jum jills" to the "funny thing" in front of the
Mingei museum. Lena has been really into Wanda
Ga'g's book "The funny thing" in which there is a doll-eating 'funny thing' that ends up developing a taste for '
jum jills.'
More feeding of the funny thing.
Inside the model train museum.
At the end of the day we drove north from San Diego and found a place to stay just outside Santa Barbara. Much to our surprise our Motel 6 accommodations were remarkably chic, comfortable, and inexpensive.
Lots of strange retro touches.
The next day (Sunday) we drove back to
Palo Alto. En route we stopped at the beach.
Fantastic bivalve
borings in beach rock! More about
pholads here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholadidae.
Once we got back Lena was laid up with a cold for a few days. This is a photographic study of hers from that time.
While in San Diego we went to a fantastic farmer's market in Little Italy and bought Christmas Lima beans which Morgan and Lena cooked up this week.
Cookie-making with the housebound sick-o (Almond butter
thumprint cookies).
Treat and Riley one afternoon this week.
More wildlife (i.e., in addition to the cats). It has been fun to see so many hummingbirds since we moved to California.
Finally a last photo this morning over pancakes.
This last week Candace (Morgan's mom) came for a visit and we celebrated an early Christmas together here in California. This was a real treat and full of baking, making crafts, and exchanging gifts. Here are a few photos we took of the festivities. Tomorrow we fly to Baltimore to celebrate a late Christmas with Paul's family. Looking forward to all the snow back east after our sweater weather here in Palo Alto. 
Lena hanging edible ornaments for the squirrels and birds.
Making treats for the squirrels. The squirrels aren't really hurting for treats in our neighborhood (they look pretty well fed), yet watching them gnaw away on these peanut butter/bird seed ornaments from our kitchen window is pretty fantastic.
Lena opening her stocking.
Our christmas morning included a favorite meal of pancakes.
Lena playing with some of her gifts. She was really pumped and loved serving us up "hot chocolate", "tea" and "noodles" in her new dishes.
Lena feeding her bison toy.
Cookin' in the kitchen.
