Beaches, gifts, and pan-pans

This is one of the best times of the year. Not only because it's Christmas and everyone is in good spirits and parties are numerous, but also because it's time to spend with family. My Mom and Dad have been coming out to Cali for Christmas ever since my brother lived here in 2003. They enjoy the warm weather and vacation-like atmosphere.

We spent one morning in San Clemente and had breakfast on the pier.



Christmas Eve was when we always used to open gifts at my Grandma's house in Chicago. There were so many of us and so many presents that it was the only way we could ensure that we had plenty of time to get them all open because more gifts would arrive in the morning from Santa. This year, we made use of our webcams and watched my nephew open our gifts for him live over the internet. I also got to see my favorite dog, Lucy.



For Christmas Mass, my local church used to put up a large wedding-style tent in the equestrian fields at Antonio and Ortega Hwy. This is because the regular weekend mass services were held in the Oso Grande elementary school, which wasn't large enough for the volume of people who turn out for Christmas. The church is planning to build their own new building on the vacant land near my apartment complex. They recently constructed a small temporary church building on that land and so the Christmas tent was erected on the grass. It would've been really nice if it hadn't rained all night! We lucked out when the sun came out on our walk home.



We had one of my favorite breakfasts on Christmas. We had what I grew up calling "pan-pans" for unknown reasons because they are not pancakes and do not even resemble pancakes except for the fact that they are made in a pan and are topped with syrup. Pan-pans are simply slices of cornmeal loaf fried in a pan from a recipe my Grandma (on my Dad's side) used to make. Now my Dad has carried on the tradition. Mmm mimosas....