Our last couple weeks in San Diego were a whirlwind, but a fun one!

My brother's family was in town at my parents' house before Christmas, which was a windfall for us -- normally we only get to see them a few times a year, so we got bonus time before we see them in Atlanta! The downside was that everyone got super sick, so the adventuring was at a minimum and there was a fair amount of napping, self pity, and racing to the nearest tissue box. But sick or not, I was grateful for the time. (Sidenote since everyone I know seems to be sick right now: did you guys know there's a such thing as a travel humidifier? We got one when we were sick, and now we can bring it with us everywhere. Handy.)

Then I went to Findlay, Ohio to see Mike's family for Christmas. He had already been there for two days. It was jam-packed with family time, and was a real blast. My only wish is always to be able to spend more one-on-one or small group time with each person, so we can really get to know each other. So I felt really grateful, knowing that this trip would give us that exact opportunity.

We flew back to San Diego, and had four days until departure. We spent a day at the San Diego Zoo with my parents. Then on New Years Eve, my aunt joined us all for Indian brunch and a movie. Then we went home and did a Miracle Fruit taster buffet! If you're not familiar with miracle berries, they're a berry (more easily taken in tablet form) that bind with your taste buds in a way that removes bitter and sour flavors from food, so things taste really sweet (even super sour stuff that you can't normal eat straight). My parents hadn't done it before, so we set up a whole table of a bunch of fruit (lemons, limes, and grapefruits were the major crowd pleasers), salt & vinegar chips, pickles, cheese products, and more, and had a sweet feast. When we were done, we went to go watch the ball drop. We decided to celebrate Eastern Time New Years instead so we wouldn't have to stay up till midnight, but at around 9:02, we confusedly realized that the ball hadn't dropped -- the channel we were watching was on a three hour delay to line up to Pacific Time midnight. Whoops!

Other highlights from the past few weeks:

Doing VR with my brother and sister in law
Trying a bath bomb for the first time (so fizzy and blue)
My one-year-old nephew's first trip to our family Mexican place, Anita's (which my parents have been going to since before my brother, his father, was born)
Mike's dad made a little fort for me in his shop so I could drink coffee and read my book while watching the beautiful snow falling outside
Driving around Findlay with Mike's parents to look at Christmas lights and seeing Santa
The Christmas Eve walk down Findlay's luminary-lined Main Street
Watching Sound of Music for the first time, and enjoying Mike's mom's reactions to one of her favorite movies
Asking the guy next to me on the plane if he'd switch seats so Mike could sit next to me, and he said that he loves his wife but would never give up a Comfort Plus seat for her like Mike was doing for me
Accidentally wearing my slippers to the zoo and having to buy really expensive tourist flip flops

After our botched New Years countdown, Mike and I stayed up late packing up the RV. Next post: our goodbye to San Diego, and lessons learned from our first leg.