Destination Destin

Our meandering travels eventually led us to the white sands and grey skies of Destin Florida.
Once there we could continue the I Spy games that occupied much of the drive across the gulf coast. Time away from coach Sergio hasn't caused Carson's backhand to get overly "tin-man". It wouldn't be a Jordan family gathering without a picture of everyone on a sofa of some sort.
Emily does her best to make the classic Christmas day step pic nipple free. As Pops can attest, nudity in this pic isn't uncommon.
Santa made it a zoobtastic Christmas for Carson. Aunt Caroline got a lot of love from Summer for her gifting efforts. Knuffle Bunny didn't give her squat and got similar treatment. Uncle Ken looks ready for the real thing while caring for Gina Corrina's infant daughter. While the gulf is typically warmer than the Pacific, that was only marginally the case in this pic. While our first day in Florida was quite warm, the remainder of the trip required vests Thankfully it wasn't so cold that we couldn't have the occasional pose off.

Show Your Kids! Show Your Kids!

For the second time in two years we spent a long weekend in New Orleans prior to the family fun days with the rest of the Jordan's in Destin, FL. Although during our last visit he was only 3 years old, Carson didn't seem to have forgotten his love of Beignets. Summer refused to be licked by the long day of travel the night before. Eating like this had her prepared to hang with Uncle Ken for the week. Grandma made an excellent dinner recommendation, and despite a rough start to the meal, the night ended with smiles all around. Making a last minute bid for Parents of the Year, we took the kids out on Bourbon street to collect some beads. An earlier pass yielded nothing, and had Laura sprinting for a touristy stand to buy some beads. By the end of the night even the strippers were throwing the kids a set of beads. Sadly Laura wouldn't let Bill throw them back.

California Dreamin on Such a Winter's Day

It's not the White House lawn or Rockefeller Center, but El Segundo lights a pretty nice tree. The event did involve the most legit Santa visit ever, as Mattel volunteers were on hand to distribute free toys to the underprivileged children of the west side. Many of these children only have one iPad. With Laura and I rushing from work to make the event Thea was responsible for dropping off the kids. She got plenty of love in return. While we can't build a snowman in Los Angeles, we did the next best thing and caught Frozen in 3D. The soundtrack has since been in heavy rotation at the Jordan house. Our little landscaping project really took on a life of it's own, and now we're just a Mario Batali visit away from having Mozza in our backyard. The keg of El Segundo's Citra Pale Ale is a nice addition as well. While we have plans to do the real thing in the mountains over New Years, a little beach sledding always makes it feel like the holiday season. The first time Carson and I took to these hills together we nearly snapped cousin Mary Jane's tibia. These runs were slightly less traumatic. We were bound and determined to get our SoCal themed Christmas card image, and with more than a little bribery were successful. In our first year as El Segundo residents we feel significantly more entitled to multiple Candy Cane Lane visits. We're so accustomed to being here we even stop by in pajamas. With an early flight out to the Southeast, Pageant season was conveniently scheduled to all occur on the same day. First up was a dress rehearsal at Redwood Village. Followed by the real deal at Richmond Street School.

Celebrating Movember with Movement and Not Silly Mustaches

Well we all know, the boys and the girls are doing it. By "it" of course I mean taking a weekend trip to the Hyatt Palm Desert, home to this lovely waterslide.



Although the end result of Carson's "eagle dive" is typically a belly flop, the execution looks quite majestic for the half second before he hits the water.



The same cannot be said of Summer's "silly jumps", but they definitely do hold up to their name.



While we've never been shy about taking the kids out for dinner, typically they dine on a slightly lower more economical budget than Mastros. However, when the only thing you really want out of a meal is bread, a steakhouse is a pretty good option.



Blue ridge meets blue steel. Ok, technically it is the San Jacinto mountains in the background, but they are equally immovable as this look is from Summer's face when you point a camera in her direction these days.



Was the adjustment back from the desert temperatures too tough on Carson & Summer? Not exatly. In actuality they were just modeling their ski clothes for our upcoming New Year's trip to Big Bear.



We broke ground on our revamped backyard. After tearing out the old cement patio, Tipper the Cement Mixer paid a visit to lay down a new pad.



Although it seemed interminable at times, We were fully engaged in the soccer season by the time our last game came around.



A little m&m bribery during game 7 really picked up Carson's level of commitment. By the time game 10 came up there was some serious effort put forth (and we had even already eaten most of the m&ms from Halloween).



While it was really just for participation, it could easily have been for most improved effort.



Thanks to good timing and everyone in the office taking the day before Thanksgiving off Carson and I got to take in the Clip Show from up close.



I will never understand the fascination of taking pictures of people sitting around a table while dining, yet here I am using them to populate the blog. Photography is definitely the wrong medium to convey how tasty Laura's Thanksgiving dinner was.



With the Morris' out from Florida, Christmas came early and buried the kids in a snow drift of presents.



What's up doc.



If you look into the light you can see pictures like this, that take you all the way back to the 60s.



Carson dutifully helped me check all ten thousand imported italian twinkle lights, although there were still a number of sections that failed to light. We'll definitely be hitting the after Christmas sales to more fully achieve our exterior illumination vision in 2014.