It’s winter in Southern California. This week, the weather has dipped into the low 60s, and I’ve observed many brave souls confronting the cold with wooly sweaters and heavy coats. Having lived most of our lives in four-season climates, we’ve become conditioned to expect it to get “wintery” (properly) this time of year – yes, you start with the usual reminders: presents, jingles, Christmas TV specials, shopping madness… and crisp December days, snow flurries… Wait, we obviously don't get the last two bennies over here on the Left Coast. This year is our third Christmas in SoCal and we've had to mentally prepare ourselves each time for the new December expectations out here. This year, I’ve been completely oblivious to the mounting holiday fever. I suppose the crescendo of pregnancy drama over the past 8 1/2 months has been slightly distracting. Nevertheless, it hit us with full impact the day after Thanksgiving – it’s Christmas (or Hanukkah or Festivus ["for the rest of us"] or whatever designation suits your fancy). This sudden realization produced a slight panic - "we have to get into the Christmas spirit!" Battling through the turkey food comas, we immediately put up our Christmas tree...
The result: it did make us think of Christmas but even more so, made us reminisce about recent residences with wonderful Decembers that were truly “wintery”…
London 1998-2003 (living steps away from the Albert Bridge, this illuminated structure always seem to shine brightest when needed most during the winters):
New York City 2003 (yes, that’s THE Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza; yes, it’s very touristy; yes, Lorraine had to drag me out of our apartment, trek into midtown through armies of people and taxis, and pay some guy $10 for this blurry Polaroid):
Now, we're looking forward to adding the following entry to our Winter's Greatest Hits list…
Newport Beach 2006 (the arrival of our Christmas baby): our OB told us in the early months that she would only allow Lauren to be one week past her due date (12/18), which placed that date as the 25th. Ever since then, she’s been our Christmas baby. So whatever the weather or day she arrives this December in Southern California, I’m sure this will be, like, the most awesome Festivus ever!
5 comments:
Hi Everyone. I forgot about this blog until Lisa reminded me...sorry for my tardiness. Enjoy the next few days(weeks)! Rest up! We are all so excited to meet Lauren. The nursery is beautiful and the conversation...always clever!
Much love!
Rochelle & Nick
Shoot for the 10th!!! I have no biases toward that date! :)
I don't think Lorraine will mind having her come a week early rather than a week late.
It was great to see you guys of TG. I'm sure we'll be seeing you THREE soon!
-Koh-moh (Auntie) Helen
Talk about your Festivus feats of strength! Lori's ready for the biggest one yet. I have a feeling Lauren will take it easy on her mom after giving her such a jimmy-legged back-pain time of it throughout the pregnancy.
The 10th? The 10th?! Nahhh. Martin's birthday's the 18th. That's the way to go. What's this stuff about the 10th? :-)
LoLaine:
So glad to see you've made the baby!!!
I get occasional updates from the team. Congrats to you and Henry. I'm so happy for you. You are going to be a great Mom.
Miss you.
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