Nobody’s dreaming of a white Christmas in Aptos, and with good reason! Yesterday it was 69 degrees in Aptos, two days before Christmas, with sunny blue skies. In fact, it was downright balmy last evening when I stepped into the back yard to pick a couple of those small red Asian chilis I have growing out in the raised beds I built this summer.

A couple of days ago, my sister Amy and her family arrived from Boise, and I wanted the chilis for the vegan Thai pumpkin curry I made last night. We had spent Thanksgiving with my sister’s family in their cabin in Idaho City, and that was loads of fun. Now they’re here for Christmas in Aptos, and it’s great to have a house full of happy kids screaming, shouting, and crying over toys that don’t want to be shared.

Yesterday I spent an hour with my kids walking around our neighborhood dropping off Christmas sugar cookies we’d baked that day. My son Evan, the 3-year old, was so excited, he walked right up to every door with a bag of cookies in his hand and knocked determinedly with his little fist. When the door opened, he would thrust the bag of cookies forward and say “Merry Christmas!” with genuine enthusiasm – it was so cute to see, especially because Evan can be pretty shy around strangers.

One fun thing we did this holiday season was help organize and participate in the Cash Mob at Le Chef Kitchenware in Aptos. We could only stay about 20 minutes, and in that time a few folks from our community came to do some shopping with us…I’m not sure it actually turned into a mob, but every little bit helps. I look forward to doing another Cash Mob with the folks of Aptosia soon.

We could only stay for those twenty minutes because we had to run over to Los Gatos and hop aboard the Holiday Lights Tour bus. We met some cool folks (Scott and Lydia) on our son’s Aptos Soccer team this year, and their family owns West Valley Trailways in San Jose. It was a great tour on a super-comfy bus, and they had pizza, cookies, and hot chocolate for everyone. We sang Christmas carols as we rolled along, oohing and ahhing at the lights in Vasona Park and in a variety of Silicon Valley neighborhoods. Check out this video I took of one particularly awesome display:

We didn’t send out any Christmas cards this year, because this year, I thought I’d try something new. I’m going to call everyone on our Christmas list and wish them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I started a couple of days ago, and clearly I’m not going to be able to reach everyone before Christmas, so a lot of folks are only going to get a heartfelt wish for a Happy New Year. It’s been great talking to so many people already – it’s really so much warmer and more engaging than a Christmas card, I think I’ll do it again next year.

If you haven’t received a call from me yet – it could be because I don’t have your phone number! If you suspect that might be the case, we’d welcome a call from you! Please call to say hi, you can reach us at 831-704-6873.

And if for whatever reason we don’t speak by phone or in person this Christmas, I want to wish you and everyone you love a wonderful holiday season, and all the best in the coming year. After all these difficult years just gone by, it is my sincere hope that 2015 will bring peace and prosperity to all, in Aptos and far beyond.