New Year's Eve at Sea World

We made a somewhat spontaneous decision to do something fun for New Year's and use our yearly pass for Sea World. 

First stop, tacos!  We happily discovered that our favorite taco spot has several locations.

Last time we were there:

A lot has changed in 3 years!

  P.s. Colin is as tall as me now :(

It was different going at night, but they had everything decorated for the Holidays and fireworks at closing.  We were only able to see one show; a Holiday musical...usually they do a dog show here and I kept waiting for the dogs to come out, but no dogs ever came.

This is how impressed Colin was with the penguins.

Sure wish I could take credit for the cute little boy in the photo.  I'll just pretend he goes with us.

Christmas flamingos!

We sipped some hot cocoa and watched the dolphins.  We didn't see them jump, but it's still amazing to see them swim around.

And our own viewing of the orca.

Then we got to count down for the east coast ball drop and watch fireworks.

It was a spectacular night! 

I had to pinch myself as we were leaving.  This is the first time that we didn't have to go back to a hotel or drive back to Yuma...we just drove home and that felt pretty amazing.

 

Christmas Day

Only 1 kid was up early this year and he had to wake up the other 2 at 7:30.  I'm fully prepared to be opening presents at lunch time next year.

We got these snuggies for Christmas morning and then it turned out to be too warm to wear them.  We even have a fireplace this year, but couldn't turn it on.

Ben surprised Alison with her own laptop.  She's taking online college classes and it's time she had her own workspace.

It was another year of being thoroughly spoiled, which I am so grateful for.

We took Maya for a Christmas walk.

And worked on the puzzle and played many, many games.

Elf and hackie sack :)

And what better way to end Christmas, than having a steak dinner while finding puzzle pieces?

 

Christmas Eve

While Ben and Eli ran a last minute Christmas errand, Alison, Colin and I picked up some fun Starbucks drinks and went to the Harbor.  My friend Gwen (from Yuma) grew up here and recently told me of the hidden gem of the harbor.  She said there's a spot that only locals know where there are always sea lions.  Parking is free, sea lions are super close and there are no tourists...perfect.  It's been on our list to go find the spot and let me tell you, it was worth it!  So fun! 

It was quite the show!  Two of the sea lions spent the entire time fighting over a spot on the dock, while several others just napped through the whole thing.

Apparently kayaking with a Santa hat is a thing here on Christmas Eve...maybe next year we'll join them.

The rest of the day was spent working on a puzzle and fresh tamales were had for dinner.  We finished the evening with Advent and sacks.  We've read this book every year for 17 years and even though the kids are getting slightly old for it, it's still a favorite tradition.

 

Christmas time :)

A happy accident=our new coffee table turned out to be much bigger than we thought and was perfect for our first Christmas puzzle.    Way too many Christmas movies were watched as we put it together.

We made sugar cookies one evening and it was a lot more fun than gingerbread houses.