'Tis the Season to be Jolly in Cabo San Lucas

Being of Hollywood royalty and all, this year our family did as the celebrities do and spent Christmas in LA and New Year's in Cabo.

Ok, truth be told, my Mom's cousin and her husband have a timeshare there, (as I'm sure George Clooney's mom's cousin does too, which is why he's there so much) so my parents' gift to our whole family was to share some time in Mexico. So nice, Mom and Dad.

We planned to caravan to LA but the day before we were supposed to leave, our car broke down. Plan B was to pile into my parents' car for the 6 hour road trip to La-La Land. It turned out to be a better arrangement as Isabella had many to entertain her. She was such a trooper! We stopped at the usual stops: Anderson's Pea Soup Restaurant and the rest stop right before hitting the Grape Vine. Isabella ran free in the parking lots whenever she got the chance.

Back in the car seat again. Don't worry Little One, only 4 more hours of this.

We miraculously arrived in LA way before schedule, so we stopped off at Christa's (my sis-in-law) mom's house and hung out there before leaving for the Christmas Even dinner at Suzie's (Christa's aunt's house--are you following?) This meant another hour in the car, but we soon discovered it was so well worth it, as we had a dinner to die for (more on this later). Christa, Suzie and Steve (Suzie's husband) prepared soup, salad, lobster and and tri tip steak. Then there was the table full of desserts including Christa's Bread Pudding, which was the best many of us had ever tasted. Recipe, please Christa! :)

I was so fun to see Isabella take to her cousin Jack. She wanted to do whatever he did.
He was lounging in the arm chair, so she wanted to do the same. She kind of followed him around, did a little twirling to the Christmas music, and tried to eat the Christmas lights.

After dinner we got back in the car and drove another hour and a half to Torrance where my Dad's sister lives. Needless to say we were all a bit punch drunk from driving. At this point I was in the driver's seat with three co-pilots. A captain doesn't need 3 co-pilots. But Mom was being the director, Dad was in charge of GPS instrumentation and Mark was trying to smooth over familial relationships by being the "road whisperer" (allowing the road to tell him where we should be going). Isabella started crying, Mark discovered he was sitting in a puddle of milk from a leaking bottle, and Katie demanded to have only ONE co-pilot, which she would designate. (Despite his failing GPS, I picked Dad). We pulled into Aunt Elinor and Uncle Bob's driveway sometime around 11 pm.

Day One--over.

Day Two: Christmas Day. We had a quick breakfast at Elinor and Bob's, then got back in the car to drive an hour to Christa's Mom's house for presents and brunch. We hung out there most of the day, getting out in the sunshine to watch Jack ride his new bike.

Papa gives Jack some tips on bike riding .

By mid afternoon we drove back to Elinor and Bob's for Christmas dinner.

I love having dinner at Elinor and Bob's as the dinner conversation usually evolves into a political discourse (or sometimes argument) often between the Professor and the Engineer. This year the topic of conversation was which meal we would choose to eat if it were to be our last. More specifically, if we'd been sentenced to Death Row, (the political turn) what meal would we choose the day before our execution. Ironically, out of the 6 adults present, 4 of us would choose a lobster/steak plate, much like the one we'd eaten the night before. Only Bob and Dad deviated from that menu requesting pizza and a German beer and chocolate and brandy, respectively. Dinner was followed a dessert of Yule Log accompanied by Heated Conversation over Death Penalty. Ah! Christmas with the Accampo's!

Day Three: Off to Cabo. We left Elinor and Bob's and head for LAX to catch our plane to Mexico.

Isabella liked the airport, the airport food and the airport Christmas decorations. After some time, she even liked watching the airplanes take off and land.

Dave (my brother) and his girlfriend, Janett.

Isabella was without seat. Mark was listening intently to emergency landing procedures.

This was Isabella's first plane ride and she was fabulous. The take-off didn't bother her at all. She was deeply concerned for the fussy baby sitting behind us and stared at him over the backs of our seats. She fell asleep part way through the 2 hour flight (yay for short flights!) and slept through the landing. We arrived in Cabo without incident--Isabella or any other kind.

My parents, our family and Dave and Janett all shared one unit. It was nice and located very close to the pool, which became Isabella's obsession. Our morning routine quickly fell into place: breakfast of fruit and toast and then the morning swim.

Then down to the beach.

Our first morning there we did the buffet breakfast on the beach.

Double re fried beans, fresh fruit and Mexican fare.

On occasion we'd walk into town,

The cruise ships arrived.

We had one stormy day, which was pretty unusual this time of year in Cabo. It rained a lot, but we didn't mind. We hung out in the jacuzzi anyway.

The rainy day coincided with Dad's b'day.

Here's Dad celebrating his birthday.

Party Animal.

We had a family party that night.

Our whole group consisted of 10. In addition to our family and Mark and Tina (the timeshare holders), my mom's sister, Donna, and her daughter, Jen, also flew in from Connecticut. Apparently in our family no one likes to look up.

Isabella awaits more chocolate.

Jen tries to convince Isabella that she's the cousin to like.

Another morning, more fruit.

One highlight of the trip was the sunset cruise.

Isabella was the cruise ship's entertainment

until the ship started moving.

It was beautiful watching the sunset and although it was not a whale watching tour, we did attempt to chase a whale for a while with some other whale watchers. We caught a few glimpses of it. Dinner was included as well.

The next day it was back to the pool.

Another highlight: Kayaking with Mark.

Mark is really fun to kayak with because he used to go all the time when he lived on Long Island.

My favorite part was kayaking right under the bow of two of the cruise ships. SO COOL. We went through the choppy waters of the channel and beached our kayak at a nearby beach called Lover's Beach. Legend has it that it's the place to go to ditch your spouse and meet up with your lover. We hung out on the beach, climbed the rocks, swam in the ocean and then got back into the kayak to ride the surf a little bit , then headed in for lunch.
We went out again after lunch for another hour or so and then called it a day.

Nana watched Isabella for us. Isabella ate more fruit.

The next day was New Year's Eve Day. We knew it's be an early night for us, so we went into town to get some dessert and to look at all the lights. Isabella scouted out balloons and scored one from some restaurant. We tied it around her waist and marched on.

We ate dinner back in our room. Isabella must have sensed that New Year's Eve was a time to let loose; she put her spaghetti between her toes and wiped butter in her hair. Bathtime, bedtime, pack up! Mark and I then hung out and watched a movie while the rest of the family partied at some party on the beach.

January 1, 2010: We boarded our plane and headed back home.

We claimed our little piece of luggage, and headed back to Elinor and Bob's for one more night. We woke up early the next day and drove our 6 hour drive home. As much fun as it was, I really couldn't wait to get home. Here's to a happy, happy New Year.

A Fresh, New Look! And oh yeah, we moved...again.

Despite our record, we Holstens do not move for sport. But we did move again. We have left our beautiful apartment in the Napa countryside for a farmhouse further into the Napa countryside.

Complete with a horse, cow and some chickens. We weren't looking to move again, but a series of circumstances sort of fell into place and here we are. Well, not here. This is Isabella's farm house, and she won't let anyone move in unless you look like a chicken. Or moo like a cow. This is the real farmhouse. It's over 100 years old and sits on a 26 acre family ranch. There are vineyards, oak trees, animals, pastures and coyotes that howl at night.

It's charming. Even on a cloudy day. I have known this house since we moved to Napa a little over 2 years ago. A friend of ours, Suzanne, had moved to Napa around the same time we did and she was renting it. I was insanely jealous that she had found this house, since at the time, we were living in a one bedroom apartment (which ironically was about 3x's smaller than our apartment we had moved from in NYC). Suzanne knew I loved her little place and its accompanying space. Oddly enough, it was Suzanne who had learned about the country apartment being available to rent and we (ok, I) jumped at the chance to have something similar to what she did. 6 months after we moved into the apartment, circumstances changed for Suzanne and she ended up vacating the little farmhouse. The landlords (whom we had met several times before) were looking for tenants. I started daydreaming. I tortured myself over it because we had it pretty good already. But how could we pass this up?

And by that I mean, how could we pass this up?

Ironically (again) around the same time circumstances were also changing for our landlord and his family and there was a possibility that we were going to have to vacate the country apartment anyway. Because there was no guarantee of how long we could stay there, we decided to take the opportunity to move into the farmhouse since it wouldn't likely come around again. In short, after only 6 months in the country apartment, we moved. In moving, we inherited Suzanne's four chickens. Isabella loves them. She wants to move in with them.The Chicken Whisperer.I have to say how pleasantly surprised I am at Isabella's comfort level with all creatures great (goats) and small (chickens). Me? I love the chickens. Seriously, they make me happy. I LOVE having fresh eggs. I have no problem cleaning out their coop, feeding them, collecting their eggs, hanging out with them in their pasture. Just don't ask me to pick them up and put them in their coop at night. (That job was quickly relegated to Mark). At night they become The Feathered Beasts that peck your eyes out and claw you to death. Nope. Not for me.
We also inherited several rose bushes, which I also love. Fresh flowers in the house! Isabella is terrifed of the thorns. I guess she'll stick to animals.

I will post more pictures soon, including some of the inside of the house. Hopefully we will be staying put for a while now.