Christmas in Florida

Kersti and I moved out of our apartment in San Diego (we will be moving back into in January), and drove up to the Bay Area. Julia (Kersti’s younger sister) was flying back from Argentina after having spent six months in Buenos Aires (her blog is at http://juliainbaires.blogspot.com/). She had a fabulous time there, studying really hard I’m sure. She had a bit of adjustment to be awake during the daylight hours (they often party until dawn there), but it was so nice to see her again after such a long time.



We then flew to Florida for the holidays for a week with the Peter/Johnson family. The whole extended family was in town, and it was the first time I had seen many of them since the wedding. My younger brother David was back from Newcastle, England, having finished his first year of Med School. He leaves for Grenada, next week, so hopefully we will get a chance for an island vacation!


Sarasota is perfect in the winter, and we had some great sailing and so many fabulous meals! My Aunt is an excellent cook, and has become a pro at feeding the 20+ family gatherings. My dad has been perfecting his pie recipes, and my mom hosted two amazing dinners. It was great to see all my cousins’ kids again and of course to see my two nephews, Leo and Isaac. They are only one and two years old, but are so clever already, not to mention super cute. We went on a walk to St. Armand’s Circle, and celebrated Chirstmas with the whole family!



We are now off to the Bay Area again, where we will spend New Years with friends before returning to San Diego and moving back in to our beach apartment!



Christmas in Florida!

Why you need a fireplace in Florida

Reindeer games in the pool

Family dinner

The saxophone pros Emma and Carolyn

Going for a sail on the shearwater

Kersti helping Leo open his presents

The three Peter boys

The whole family!

Leo is a big hit with the kids

Leo checking his email

Mom, Dad, and Max in St. Armands

My bros

Dad and I on the beach walk

A beautiful day and picture, too bad I blinked!

Amy taking Isaac for a stroll

Helping Leo climb the sawdust mountain

Pacific Beach

We have been living the last six weeks in Pacific Beach on Sail Bay, and have decided to stay for at least the next six months! We really like our apartment, as we have a fabulous view of the bay. It is a perfect spot to sail and wind surf, what more could I ask for! We are both working from home, and San Diego is a good spot for our work so hopefully we can stay here long term.

The weather here is ridiculously nice, but this week we had a major storm come through (depending on where in the US you are from, it might also be categorized as a "windy day with some rain"). It was really windy and rainy, and the sight of the bay from out apartment was pretty impressive. We had some leaking problems at the apartment as it turns out the windows aren't waterproof, but fortunately it rarely rains here!

Here's to becoming Pacific Beach residents!

Kersti on our balcony

Crewers coming back in at sunset

Sporting an Umpa Lumpa hairstyle

We can watch the fireworks at Sea World from our apartment

The major storm hit, it was quite the scene!

The sunset after the storm

Thanksgiving 2009 in LA

This year, we spent Thanksgiving in Los Angeles with Inga (Kersti's sister), Paul (Inga's better half), Leslie (Kersti's mom) and Kappy (fam friend). Being SoCal rookies, we didn't leave until late in the morning on Thursday, and thus got to sit in 4 hours of traffic! But it was all worth it, as we had a fabulous dinner at Kappy's, an old friend of Leslie's, who graciously hosted us. The next day we visited Paul and Inga's place, where they are busy studying for their Law Degrees. Paul even showed me his loop machine for his guitar, now I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas! We went out to a nice healthy brunch at a French cafe, and then dropped Leslie off the airport before meeting up with friends in LA.

Jason Taylor (JT), hosted us at his new apartment, and we had a fabulous time despite Kersti's sickness. He recently bought a place in Santa Monica, so we had to be sure to break it in for him. Peggy and Andrew met up with us, and we first headed to a tres chic burger joint/bar, and then to a dive bar to listen to one of JT's friends play in a band. We had met some of his friends years ago, so it was fun to hang out with the LA crowd! We then headed to a courtyard themed bar before heading home.

The next morning we headed to Santa Monica beach for some volleyball, as both JT and Peggy have mad skills. It was a beautiful day with clear skies, and we finished the games off with a few acrobatic antics before heading home.

Paul, Inga, Kersti, and Leslie at brunch

The sisters fighting for the last seatbelt (in a parked car, of course - no moving infringements here!)

Kersti bundled up for the arctic weather of LA, which only she felt.

Kersti squinting for the camera

Andrew, Kersti, Bill, Peggy, and JT at JT's new apartment

Some LA celebrities

A beautiful day at Santa Monica Beach

The Dartmouth crew

How we've grown since college

Demonstrating our newly acquired acrobatic skills

Pre-Thanksgiving

Now that we are back in the States, we decided to revive the old tradition of Pre-Thanksgiving! It started while we were at Dartmouth--the cross country team would have a full turkey dinner a week before everyone went off for the actual holiday. Once we moved to California, we continued the tradition!


This year, we invited our friends down to San Diego for the weekend! Dan, Phil and Telisa flew down from the Bay Area and Andrew and Peggy drove down from LA. Unfortunately, Jason (JT) got really sick so he couldn't make it, but at least we will see him over real Thanksgiving when we are in LA! We also met Telisa's friends, Jessica and Reese, who drove down from northern san diego to hang out on Friday night and Sunday.


It was a perfect weekend! The weather was fabulous, and we spent the days playing beach volleyball right in front of our apartment. Except for Peggy, who is close to becoming a professional, I think we all need to practice a bit!

Kersti headed a wonderful meal as always. She and Peggy (with Dan's emotional support) prepared a perfect (well, slightly undercooked!) Turkey, with a tasty cranberry infused stuffing. Dagny's Yams, mashed potatoes ala Peggy Johnson, green beans with leeks, a second stuffing, corncake, pumpkin pie, apple pie with Apples-by-Telisa, and pumpkin cheesecake made for quite the feast!





The whole gang ready for Pre-Thanksgiving dinner!



The design on the back of our T-Shirts! Poultry in Paradise! Thanks to Amy for the great slogan. This picture was actually taken from our patio, turkeys and all!

The front of our T-shirts, designed by Kersti!

Prepping the turkey... this was the first time for both me and Peggy, so we learned a lot! Thank goodness we had each other -- it's a 2 person job!

Peggy and Kersti in front of their masterpiece turkey. Ummm... lesson learned about the location of the thermometer ;)

Dan is ready to eat already!

Our ever-entertaining friend, Andrew, drove down from LA for the weekend. We hope to be able to see him more often now that we are only a few hours away! That's the closest he and Billy have been since 1997.

The girls modeling their t-shirts

Peggy and Kersti out on the town after dinner!

The butheads out on the town, look out!

The gang out and about causing mischief.

Andrew demonstrating the art of sleeping bag stuffing the next morning after a long and fun night!

San Diego

Kersti and I moved to San Diego last week! We hope to find more permanent jobs while we rent a place for the short term. It gives us an opportunity to see what it's like to live in So Cal! We're staying on Sail Bay, in the Pacific Beach neighborhood. The apartment has fantastic views of the bay, and a nice beach and walking path is right out front. Not much privacy as there's a lot of foot traffic on the beach, but a fun spot. As we are both working from home, we figured we might as well stay somewhere nice! We will be here through the holidays, and then hopefully find a longer term place at the start of the next year, depending on our job situations.

The beautiful view of Sail Bay from our living room! There are sailboats, water skiers, and rowboats zooming around outside our window everyday!

Kersti hard at work in her makeshift office

The view from our bedroom

Not a bad office view!

The view from our small balcony, with the rowers heading back in

Our living room