Well, after a long time of hoping and wishing, we finally moved out of our apartment at Avana San Clemente. And good reddens! We were so sick of the apartment lifestyle with all the inconsiderate neighbors and tight living quarters. We were lucky enough to find a great townhouse for rent on the south end of San Clemente near the golf course that is just perfect for us. It's a nice and quite neighborhood right above the Municipal Golf Course with a beautiful ocean view. Although our unit is just about the same size as our apartment in square footage, it includes an attached garage, two outdoor patios and a balcony, so it feels much bigger. Especially because of the garage, we are very excited for all that storage space.
Although the timing wasn't ideal, we moved in on Saturday right before Christmas. We were lucky enough to have our friend, Brandon Shubunka, come all the way down from Santa Clarita to help with the heavy items like the the couches and the three of us were able to do everything by 5pm. And as much as we are all hating life that day, I think it went fairly smooth.
The next morning we did a little unpacking and repacking as we were headed up to the parents' for Christmas celebrations. On Sunday we made the long trek up north and made multiple stops on the way. First it was a stop at Kyle's grandparent house in Camarillo to visit them since they would not be able to join us at Christmas dinner since Grandma is not feeling so great these days. Although short, it was a nice visit and great to see them. We were all very sad when we had to leave. Next we headed into Santa Clarita to visit the family of Kyle's childhood best friend, Shawn. Unfortunately, Shawn passed away a few years back in a car accident so it is always bittersweet to visit his family. But they are such amazing people the it is much more sweet that bitter. We were only able to catch Shawn's mom, Jaren and brother, Ryan as his dad was at work. There we enjoyed some eggnog and plenty of laughs as we all reminisced on the good times. Then off the the in-laws to drop off Lilly for the night. We were head up to my parents house and since she is not a fan of their dog, Luna, we are lucky to have such great 'grandparents' who are always willing to watch her for us. Finally, we drove another hour and arrived at our final destination for the night, my parents' house. There we spent the night and the following day for Christmas Eve. It is always nice being home because I just feel so comfortable and relaxed there. It was just the immediate family so everyone could just enjoy each others company. Luna always loves when we come over because Kyle plays with her almost the whole time we are there. Those two are inseparable whenever we visit. Luna even tried jumping in the car when we were leaving, I think she was sad to see her friend go. Christmas Eve was lovely, my mom and I baked together, we watched movies and hung out around the house. Then presents around 10pm, which is not the traditional time of 12am, but since Kyle and I needed to leave that night, we started early. After presents, we gathered our things and headed back down to Santa Clarita.
There we stayed at Kyle's parents house and arouse there on Christmas morning. After Trevor and Mandi arrived in their pj's, we all sat down for a lovely French toast breakfast. Then some present and relaxing until it was dinner time. Dinner was lovely and complete with the traditional Thordarson pineapple, everything was delicious.
We arrived back to our new home last night around 9:30pm. It was very strange passing our usual exit on the freeway for the first time. But once we arrived, it felt like home. I think Lilly is starting to realize we live there now too. She slept much better last night and seemed much more comfortable than our first night there. All in all, we are so thrilled for our new home and we can't wait to make it more homey. For now, I gotta run because little Tosh is stirring and he's going to be up soon. :-)
