as my time in indiana winds down, and i prepare for my return trip to the city of angels, i thought i'd take some time to sit down and document my annual holiday pilgrimage to the midwest. it's been a wonderful Christmas spent with friends and family, where i've visited several of my "homes," and traveled through missouri, indiana, kentucky, and tennessee--when i head back this way, i really try to make it count.

my holidays began before i left los angeles, with some presents, parties, ice skating (outdoors in santa monica, complete with palm trees!), it's a wonderful life watching, and verrrrry serious apartment decorating, evidence of which you can see below...



my flight to st. louis was thankfully uneventful, and i loved the subsequent car ride with my good buddy, kyle, and the frigid wintry air biting at my nose!!! spending a few days at my first stop in missouri was amazing. i love my cape families, and my best friends from high school--we always seem to pick up right where we left off! we celebrated with a baby shower for kelly, and got some cute pictures. i know i'm probably a little biased, but i think we're all aging quite well ;) here we all are with kelly and baby!!



then, of course, we had to take our signature staircase picture at meredith's house. if you've known me since my high school days, you may have seen our almost full decade of pictures on these stairs. if not, maybe sometime i'll scan a series of these. that would actually be pretty hilarious--proms, Christmases, bad hair, babies, spice girls...these stairs have seen a lot, let me just tell you...



after the shower, mom and i headed to evansville, where i spent the next few days relaxing and enjoying having television and my huge queen sized bed, and staying inside to avoid the inclement weather! hanging with the family was, of course, a favorite part of my trip. and, i had fun with my "5/3 family" at my mom's work Christmas shindig (shoutout to all you guys!). next came Christmas and KY with extended family, delicious food, and spirited board games, to name a few fun things! here's a little family pic for ya:



another fun outing in kentucky was our annual Christmas trip to the movies...except this year was sort of more exciting because i had my "big screen debut," haha! ok, so not really, i was just an extra and barely even saw myself, but! we went to see adam sandler's "bedtime stories," which i was VERY briefly in earlier this year. if you go see it, i'm in the pier/beach scene riding by on an orange bike. blue tank top and red shorts. i seriously had to strain to find myself. it was a bit like "where's waldo," so good luck! maybe this time next year i'll have been in something where i actually have a line or something (gasp!), but until then, thanks to my friends and family who joined me in the trek to the theater to see even my blurry premiere.



all in all, the holidays have been excellent, and i'm relishing in my last moments here, while also looking forward to going back to california. i hope you all had blessed Christmases (or other holidays), and were able to escape the craziness of the season to experience the heart of the holiday. this will most likely be my last post of 2008 (wow), so i wish you all a great last few days, and an even greater 2009! something tells me it's going to be another good year...

take care.
lp

i just experienced the most beautiful thanksgiving of my life. i have about 500 photos i would love to post here, but i know that's much, so i'll refrain, and just post a few of my favorites. and, i'm going to try to post a couple videos later (courtesy of my flip camera from ellen!) this post may be extensive, so be forewarned! ok, here are the highlights of the trip:

cambria, ca
on thanksgiving day, parker, holland and i drove up the coast to cambria, california. we met up with about 30 people from our church at a hostel, where we had an amazing potluck meal (complete with post-meal food comas), met great new people, walked around the quaint town, and played some rousing rounds of taboo and phase 10.







monterey, ca

after staying the night in cambria, we split from the rest of the group, and the three of us headed farther up the coast on our way to monterey. my cousin, brad, is in air force intelligence training there, so we made it a stopping point on our journey. it was great to see family for the holidays!

the weather couldn't have been more ideal the entire trip. it was sunny and fairly warm each day, and brisk at night. as you'll see, the scenery in northern california is breathtaking. we were so blessed by God's gift of nature. on our way to monterey, we stopped to take pictures at some vista points, and to see the famous elephant seals, which were both incredible and disgusting!! as you'll see below...





we met up with brad for lunch, and then headed to big sur to set up our camp.





big sur

we camped friday night at fernwood in big sur. this region is filled with redwoods, creeks, the beach--it's just gorgeous. we enjoyed our camping, cooking dinner and breakfast on the fire, playing cards, and hiking to a waterfall. holland really got to put her new camera to good use on this trip-all the photos are from her and park's cameras--they're both talented photographers!







south on highway one

we stopped to see the elephant seals, yet again, as we headed back south on saturday. and, we took a tour of the hearst castle, which, again, was stunning! it was william randolph hearst's estate, and it was massive!! kind of like the west coast biltmore estate, if you've ever been there. then, we made the 5-ish hour trip back to la, home sweet home. it was certainly a very full three days. we experienced so much, i feel like. i ended the weekend grateful, tired, and enriched.





i hope you all had equally enjoyable thanksgiving holidays, and i hope you like all the pictures! take care ~lp