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Cliff and I trekked up to Berkeley on Christmas Eve to spend time with his family. We don't get to see them that often so it's always nice to catch up! The kids (Cooper and Kayla) have grown and were really enjoying themselves. We brought Snuffles along with us, in hopes of getting Kayla over her fear of dogs. Kayla is still afraid of dogs, but now Snuffles has another friend in Cooper! Cliff's parents got them a computer which is what the photos are of. Kayla was very excited. I'm afraid there are not that many pictures, but I was too busy eating and catching up. The one thing that Snuffles enjoyed most was cleaning up anything that fell on the floor. He waited patiently in the kitchen!

On Christmas day we headed over to my parent's house in Milpitas to spend Christmas day with my family. The highlight for Snuffles was getting together with his BFF (Best Friend Forever) Lola. Those two dogs opened their presents, played all day and by the end were passed out in their beds. The kids thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. Jordan got a scooter and was riding all over the place. Quinn got tons of Bratz items but seemed to enjoy her mom's karaoke present best! The highlight for Cliff was receiving a shirt from Samantha that said, "There's no place like 127.0.0.1". Now, you really have to be a nerd to get that. 127.0.0.1 is the IP address for localhost or "home". I will say that Gary enjoyed his "I fart in your general direction" shirt as well.

We tried "Tur-duc-en" for Christmas this year. That is Chicken stuffed inside a Duck stuffed inside a Turkey. It's a Southern specialty. The overall consensus was "delicious", but no one really cared for the duck that much. We might try making our own TurHen next year and skip the duck! We did do a Chianti wine tasting, but I never did finish recording the results. All I will say is that I was VERY relieved that the bottle that Cliff and I carried back from Italy came in 2nd and not last! I will say that the loser (which was horrid) was the Chianti in the straw bottle! Anyway, check out the pictures here.

The last part of our vacation was a trip down to Rancho Mirage (Palm Springs). Sam flew down on the 26th and Pat and Gary drove down with both dogs. Sam had the house and dogs to herself Wednesday and Thursday as Pat and Gary headed over to Orange County to work. Cliff flew down Thursday and we enjoyed a great New Years. We learned a new game called Mexican Train and just relaxed with the exception of a "supposed" short hike that turned into an eight mile trek over a mountain! The hike was beautiful though and the dogs were allowed off-leash and enjoyed the freedom. Needless to say, our legs were sore the next day.

On New Year's Eve we stopped at an open house being held by Pat and Gary's realtor and he offered to show us a house that was 1/2 block from my parents. To make a long story short, we ended up making an offer and are now going to be happy 2nd home owners! I guess Sam's stalling on buying a 2nd house paid off because we almost bought one last year and now we are getting one 50k cheaper!

Gary gave his retirement notice on January 2nd! He will be officially retired at the end of the month! Congrats Gary!

Here are the pictures!

Happy New Year!

Sam & Cliff