it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's pouring rain in Southern California and with temperatures in the 60s there is no chance of the rain turning to snow.  This was the photo from our Christmas card when we lived in Connecticut in 2002.  I was still using film back then so it wasn't until a few days later that I realized I had this shot.  I'm pretty sure this was the first photo I took that day and their instincts were of course to catch snowflakes...perfect!

I would like to think I give quite a bit of thought every year into our family Christmas cards...but this one is still our favorite.

We loved the photo so much we had it enlarged to 60 x 40 and it hangs in our stairway with our other black and white photos.

l o v e l y t h i n g s t h u r s d a y

A visit to Bristol Farms market is always a treat...but at the holidays it's simply wonderful.  And they have the best breakfast in their cafe for $3.99!

before & after living room plus a new holiday tradition

This was our living room before...

One year later.... The height of the moldings on the walls were designed to incorporate our wave and pier photos taken by surf photographer Tom Servais.

We collect sand from every beach when we travel.

The long mantel gave me plenty of room to add a new family tradition.  24 days until Christmas.  Each day my kids take turns opening a small gift counting down to December 25th.  They are so thrilled, but I think it may have been more fun for me to find 12 little gifts for each of them that were meaningful and without spending a small fortune.

The entire mantel, built in bookcases and white brick was inspired by a photo in House beautiful October 2009.  The room was designed by Aaron Home and the title was, "You'll Never Get Tired of Keeping it Simple."  It was perfect!  Our contractor added a few things that made it look more traditional, but what I loved about it were the clean simple lines...so it went back to the original plan.  I have always loved white brick and we were able to use it into a few areas around our house.

                                             Aaron Hom design as seen in House Beautiful.