Thanksgiving

 I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Gary and I sure did. We were originally planning on heading out to Taft Wednesday night, but after a few things decided to take their time (my prescription wasn't ready, the laundry wasn't finished yet since work kept me late, etc.), AND we were kindly asked to wait due to the weather, we headed out Thursday morning.

 We arrived in Taft and were warmly welcomed by Gary's mother and the two happy dogs. I helped a little setting up but she did an AMAZING job with everything. We were very grateful for all the hard work put into it and especially grateful for the deliciousness of it. After we enjoyed our feast, we watched some television, chatted, and spent the rest of the evening quietly in the home.

 Early Saturday morning (not the crazy Black Friday early, but early enough) we awoke, got ready, and headed out to Southwest Bakersfield. We had a great time shopping for clothes, boots, electronics, video games, and other items. Best Buy was nuts! At one point while we were leaving, a young man stopped me and said, "Hey, long time no see." I glanced up at him, did a polite smile while wondering who this was until it finally hit me. "Oh! I hardly recognized you!" It was Keith Mayberry. I hadn't seen that kid in ages (last time I saw him he really WAS a kid). He was working there, saying he arrived at 4am and there was a huge line wrapped around the building. Crazy if you ask me! After a crazy/busy day of shopping, we eventually became worn and headed back to Taft. That's when the headache from you know where decided to hit me. I've been getting these migraines for the past few days and this one hit me smack dab in the car on the way home. When we arrived, I took some meds and rested on the couch. An hour later, it was still horrible. I took a few more pills and tried to rest again. Still, an hour later, nothing. Finally I crawled into the bedroom we had been staying in, turned out the lights, and went to sleep for a nap. An hour later, it was still there, but I was feeling better than before. However, Gary and I made a run for the store to buy Excedrin Migraine. That kicked its butt.

We headed back to Santa Clarita this morning and arrived home a little after noon. We cleaned the stinky cat box, washed some clothes, then decided we wanted to do more shopping (crazy us!). Since the weather was cool/nice, we walked over to our mall. We took a detour through the Montecito apartments across the street from us and I was amazed and how beautiful it was. While Gary and I were browsing apartments before we grabbed this one, the Montecito apartments were calling us trying to set up an appointment. Unfortunately they were slightly out of our price range at the time, but I realized it's because it's in a gated community and near the Valencia Country Club where there's a gorgeous lake and golf course.

Anyway, we arrived at the mall and we just loved how Christmas-y it was! We became especially impressed at The Patios-the newly constructed outside section of the mall. It was filled with new shops, sections for kids, everything (even an "archeology" dig store for children-if they found something they kept it). It was just beautiful. I had to take pictures. Definitely love what they're doing to Valencia! Even Gary's face lit up on all the new construction. We both had the Christmas spirit beaming in us with the lovely Christmas songs in the background.

Beautiful Christmas tree and the surrounding ponds

Gary warming himself by the fire

Fun little fountain area with "jumping water"

They had a few of these. So pretty!

Train area for kids

The train itself. Super cute!

 It was very much alive and super fun! Gary even spoiled me a bit since I didn't get any gifts for myself on Black Friday. What a sweetie!

New dress!

New skirt!

  Now some pics of our shopping center all Christmas-y.

  Gary and I really do love Valencia/Santa Clarita. The security is great, the schools are fantastic and there's so much nearby like the beach, temple, downtown shopping, anything. We just wish it didn't cost SO much. We even agreed it may even beat the fact this is California. We hate California, but would be willing to put up with it to live here. I may adjust living like this. Oh, we'll just see where life takes us.

 Since we just got home today, Christmas decorations aren't up just yet. But soon! I am most definitely looking forward to the holidays.

 Anyway, we grabbed some pizza at Pavilions and finally made our way home. I love being able to go everywhere on foot. We then watched a really lame but funny action movie.

 My goodness it is raining madness out there (as you can see from the photos above). Time to snuggle up with hubby and kitties with some hot chocolate and enjoy the rest of our night!

PS- Speaking of hubby, we recently discovered he is a polymath. Polymath- A person with extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge. I mean, in 7th grade his IQ was 146. Yeah, he's my genius! I also call him my Wikipedia.