Sunday, December 23, 2012

celebrating the solstice

Rain in Southern California. Heading to Carpinteria! at crushcakes lunch at crushcakes lunch at crushcakes peace cakes down to the beach me and faith faith and jacob rainer at the beach bare feet tons of shells heart shaped rock solstice beach trip flowers by the side of the road coloring solstice dinner 2012 cookie tray outdoor tea and bonfire

Happy Winter Solstice!  We had a lovely rainy misty day (we celebrated on the 22nd because I was freaking still working on the 21st.  Gah!  But I'm happily on break at last). 

I love our tradition for celebrating the winter solstice (we started this last year).  We go for lunch as a family at Crushcakes in Carpinteria and then go tidepooling at Carpinteria State Beach.  It wasn't a super low tide but the guys were loving all the unusual and exotic shells that were washed up.  I have a lot more photos of the shells that Ken took--maybe for another post.  It was really fun and misty and cold.  Felt like winter!  I love that --  winter is hit and miss here so it is super fun and cozy when we get some cool and wet weather.  Yay!

After our beach trip we drove the mountain road home and Ken stopped and a roadside stand and bought me flowers (basically made my Christmas).  At home we colored and I made bread and chili for dinner.  After dinner we had a little bonfire and tea and cookies in the back yard. 

So fun!  How did you celebrate the solstice?  This is maybe my favorite part of the Christmas holidays.

We are going to see the Hobbit tonight with just the big kids (young adults, really) and the little boys are staying with my parents.  Looking forward to it!  Happy Winter, everyone!

3 comments:

Rain said...

Those flowers are gorgeous. It looks like a truly lovely day/ Enjoy your time off and Merry Christmas!

Madame Melville said...

Mary Beth,

Looks like you had a great day. Love all the photos, especially the beachy ones.

I haven't had a chance to thank you for my little note. It was such a nice surprise in my mailbox. I will send something your way in the new year.

Merry Christmas!
Jen

Anonymous said...

I borrowed your idea last year and did a Crushcakes/Carp tidepools last year on Christmas Eve. We were looking forward to it this year- but now it is raining! It is an hour drive for us up to Carpenteria and I don't really want to do that in the rain. Oh well! It looks like you guys had a great time. Merry Christmas!