Matchbox Advent Calendar

My friend went all starry-eyed over sheets of Christmas paper that were left over from a church activity. She wanted us to make matchbox advent calendars from them. I thought, "OKAY! Why not? I have some nieces I could send one to!"

I put up some tables and we spent the night in our pjs reverse engineering the little craft by looking at an example.

The boxes turned out cute! I enjoyed the project more than I thought and it was less complicated than we were anticipating. Each one turned out different.

Above: Marla's Box
Below: Anna's Box

Each drawer holds a prompt of something to do that day. For example: Make hot chocolate. The drawers can hold treats, but only very small ones. And since I made this for two little girls, I chose not to do candy in all of them—hard to fit TWO candies in one tiny drawer. I had to make up all the activities so hopefully they'll like them and don't think some are too weird. Ha! Enjoy this box my nieces.
If anyone wants the list of things to do, I can send it to you. 

Thanksgiving

We interrupt the regularly late scheduled postings to wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving! We hope you had a good one. Our plans changed and we ended up with just the two of us this year, which I don't mind. It means we get to break some old family traditions in favor of our own new ones and that's always fun.

I'm a firm believer in having a good drink to sip out of a fancy glass if I'm going to be spending some extra time in the kitchen (or chocolate of course.) From Welches, I found a Sangria Mocktail and an alcohol free Rosé to taste. They were both excellent, especially the Sangria.

I wasn't planning on decorating the table but after thinking a bit and scavenging around the house and yard, I found enough things to get away with a decent tablescape.

 While I set the table, we listened to Christmas music and Adam read.

 The Sister Missionaries decorated our door and then doorbell ditched us. Fun!

And then the meal was ready. We had Cafe Rio salads! Funny, I know. But those restaurants aren't here in Texas and it's one of our very favorite meals. (I even traded a secret family recipe for this sweet pork salad recipe.) And since it takes QUITE A WHILE to prepare all the different elements...it almost never gets made around here. This is the second time we've made it for our Thanksgiving meal and it's GREAT and we get SO FULL. In all seriousness, we never miss nor crave a turkey. If you're the same, you have our permission to make something you crave next time too!

 For dessert, we enjoyed a roll your eyes back and make yummy noises, Tres Leche cake. (I DID make a sweet potato pie too. I knew we'd want some a day or so later.)

The day after Thanksgiving it dawned on me we could invite Adam's parents over to help us eat the left overs. I hadn't messed up the table...so we did it all over again and enjoyed their company.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you my loves. I hope you all had a pleasant holiday. Thank you to my family for sending Marco Polos. It made me feel a little less out of touch.

Addendum: We can't forget to answer the question....What are we thankful for this year?
Adam—for a job he actually likes. He doesn't dread work everyday. Especially in comparison to his job at Lockheed. It made him see how much he actually likes what he does now. 
Anna—For the ability to loose weight. With discipline, I've rid myself of all the unwanted pounds I gained last year/winter. I feel better emotionally and physically, and I am grateful it's at least one thing in my life I can control. LOL.

Highway 1 from Carmel to San Simeon

From Salinas we drove west to the California coast—Carmel by the Sea—and followed Highway 1 down to San Simeon. This stretch of highway is beautiful and well known. We gave ourselves 4 hours so we could stop and take in the views along the way.

It was so breathtaking, I cried. It always feels like scenes like these were created just for me. Though, I'm sure everyone else feels the same.

Some friendly foreigners took our photo.

 And for them...I took video of a choreographed dance to music in front of the view.

I hope it turned out alright. The music went on so long that I started to shiver, I tried to hold the camera steady but I'm sure the video had a slight jiggly quality toward the end.

As we went further south, the fog hadn't burned off. And so, a lot of the drive looked like this. Sadly, this was through Big Sur too. We could hear the ocean but the long shoreline wasn't visible.

Down in San Simeon there's a part of the beach where sea lions sun bathe.

We also saw a line of cars pulled over on the wrong side of the road—the land side. So we pulled over too and saw a herd of elk with a majestic bull accompanying them.

As we drove back home, we decided to try that stretch of highway again, hoping the fog had burned off. And it had!

Unfortunately, there were a couple of vistas we could't pull into because of a "photoshoot" going on. (Obviously for something like Instagram.) Picture this: barefoot boho girl sits on a rock, wild hair blowing in the wind, pretending to strum a guitar while a photographer takes entirely too many photos while another man keeps everyone else from parking.) Grrr.

We also witnessed a quintessential California hangout scene, perpetuating the image of how all Californians spend their free time: VW van, a group of young adults dressed like hippies, sitting on a tribal patterned blanket on the roof while getting high and taking in the view. Thanks for that.

I particularly liked this scene below: horses on a hill with the wide ocean as background. It's not something you normally see in person. It felt like it belonged in a movie scene. 

Someday I hope to drive more of Highway 1 from Monterey up toward Oregon with plenty of time for stops along the way. Aaaand plenty of Dramamine too. 

Monterey Bay

Last minute we decided to drive to Monterey and visit the world famous aquarium. It's a long drive through mostly farm land but I personally enjoyed it. For many of the crops it was harvest season. So we got to see how several different crops are gathered by hand or by machine.

The aquarium is found on Cannery Row where they used to can anchovies. (Turns out my great Aunt LaDene (not sure how to spell her name just this moment) worked there when she and her husband first moved out to California. From the stories Dad heard...she didn't last long. It was hard work.
I found it fitting that the aquarium had a huge tank of anchovies swimming 'round and around.

 They open their mouths big and wide to catch food. It's funny to watch, interesting and weird.

 There are plenty of other fascinating and colorful things to see.

 Below are some kind of starfish.

The jellyfish tanks are impressive and became one of our favorite attractions. It's mesmerizing to watch as they gently float up and down trailing their tentacles behind them like underwater kites.

They had several species, some teeny tiny ones, and others that light up.

Adam jerked his head back when he saw these eel. "Ugly!" He exclaimed and walked on. He had no interest in a closer look. However, I thought this particular green was quite lovely but yes, in an ugly sort of way.

Below are Striped Pajama Squid. So cute! They fit in the palm of your hand.
There was a tank with cuttle fish close by too. They were very lively and active, changing color often. I very much enjoyed watching them.

There were several live sea birds inside the building as well. 

There was actually A LOT more to see than what I am posting. The aquarium was entirely packed. It was difficult to see things and even more difficult for picture taking. I try to be polite and not get in the way of people just to take a photograph—I can't believe how many people lack photographer's etiquette. (Soap box!)

Below, is Cannery Row. There are many shops and places to grab a treat along the street. I recommend a fresh cookie and hot chocolate from the Nestlé Toll House Cafe. Because cookies are always a great idea and it's cold on the coast!

 Or try some Turkish delight or baklava from Troya Turkish Delight and Coffee.

 When I saw the display of baklava flavors—I mean, what do you think happened?

 Hello my lovelies.

 And then when I saw assortment of turkish delight??? I've had the generic flavors but these? Yeah. Those happened too.

Watch out though, it's an undelightful $30.00 a pound. And you much purchase more than a single bite. We tried a chocolate one and a pomegranate. I liked both but sadly, Adam decided for sure he didn't like Turkish delight at all. I think the chewy factor got him.

Then off to dinner. We had clam chowder at Old Fisherman's Grotto on 39 Fisherman's Wharf—excellent chowder. It's what they're known for. I'm craving it now. 

Then we drove to Salinas to spend the night because we'd decided to keep traveling down along the coast to see some more amazing things the next day too!