Harbour Cruise, Fondue, Old Friends, New Friends, A Flat Tire

"What do these things have in common?", you may ask. The short answer is that they all helped create a Merry Christmas in California.
This is our third Christmas here and I was ready to skip the holiday - no snow, no family, no visitors - all combined to make me believe there was no Santa. But, being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to create some cheer. One might think the chance of getting tickets on the Harbour Light Cruise in Huntington Beach, the day of the actual last cruise, is non existent. The Internet gods were with me and Mark and I enjoyed an evening boat ride while sipping coffee and Baileys as the lights of the harbour entertained us. Still in need of a tradition we decided a Christmas Eve fondue was in order. This is a feast we shared every year with our children, while sitting by our fireplace. Be darned if I was going to cut up meat, buy a fondue pot or light a fire in California (yes we have a fire place) so I did what I do best - I made reservations. There is a fabulous restaurant called The Melting Pot that serves - you guessed it - fondue.
So far I was doing an adequate job of celebrating the season but it took a few surprises to really brighten up the holiday. My old friend Lynn (she's not old but I've known her a long time) sent me an email saying to expect a delivery on Christmas Eve. This was not unusual as she has sent me flowers at Christmas before. Answering the door bell and seeing her standing there holding flowers was, however, a great surprise! She and her husband had decided, at the last minute, to fly down from Edmonton to visit family in Newport. We spent Boxing Day shopping and eating hot turkey sandwiches together, just like in CANADA!
Our new friends (I say this because we've known them a shorter time and they are young), Seth and Lauren, joined us for turkey dinner on Christmas day. They surprised us with a bottle of champagne, which added a festive air to Mark's wonderful dinner. I still can't believe we ate all those brussel sprouts!
This brings me, at last, to the flat tire. It has become a new tradition to walk on the beach on Christmas Day. Let's just say it makes not having a white Christmas bearable. Mark had gone fishing (what else is new?) so I drove the short distance to Sunset Beach. Upon returning to my car I discover one tire is completely without air. I consider it a miracle that I made it to the ocean at all, and I was walking distance to home. I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas full of events that will make you smile for years to come. Maybe you will have pictures to jog your memory, as for us, we forgot to take any! The ones on this post were taken this morning.
PS - I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Li family for reading my blog!