It’s been over 3 months since my last NorCal visit. It’s easy to get caught up with my life here and not realize how much I miss NorCal until I’m there. After all this time, it still feels like “home” to me. The minute I get on 101 from Pacheco Pass, there’s a sense of comfortable familiarity. Not so much my surroundings, but a feeling inside of me. And of course, reuniting with my family and friends always fill me with so much happiness.
Like always, our NorCal trip was full of fun, laughter, food, friends, and busy-ness.
Thursday:
- visited Rudy at the cemetary
- lunch and shopping with family
- our traditional Thanksgiving Hot Pot dinner
- hanging out till “midnight madness”
Friday:
- swent shopping at 12:00 to 3:30am. Fighting the crowds at the Gilroy Outlets in 30 degree weather. Sheer craziness!
Note to self: NEVER do that again!
- lunch with family
- Happy Hollow
- hung out with Levi and Vanessa
- shopping
- dinner with family
Saturday:
- brunch with family
- hosted a Barrette Party….which turned out to be a great success. But I could have cared less if I had not sold a single hair clip. It was just a great excuse to get together with friends, and meet new ones. It was great to see Amy again and to finally meet Manny and Naomi. I was very grateful to Rich and Millie for driving all the way down from Davis, and being able to meet baby Joli (who totally stole my heart). I was most excited to meet Jodie and her family…being a fan of her site for years, it was cool to see them in person. I hope I didn’t come across too creepy. It was hard to contain my excitement, and I think I was grinning like Nancy Reagan. 
hehehe
- hung out and had dinner with friends
Sunday:
- packed and drove home. We stopped by the Gilroy Outlets on the way and did some shopping. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as “Black Friday” and we scored on some great deals! *thumbs up*
It took us 6 hours to get home…not bad.
All in all, our trip was awesome. I only wished Sis, Chris, Amanda, and Marisa were there. *sniff* We missed you guys!
November 28th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Aww man I’m so sad I missed out on the barrette party, just had so much to do before I left for my trip. Maybe I can catch the next one. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. *hugs*
peg: i missed you, Dina! Next time, oka’?
November 28th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Hey Peg! Now that I’ve finally met you, I feel like I can leave comments here without feeling like a stalker!
Anyway, Ally keeps talks about that poor goldfish whenever she sees one of her new barrettes! 
peg: poor Ally!
i hope that didn’t traumatize her. shoot! i forgot to tell my dad…that poor fish is probably still stuck in the rock upsidedown! *YIKES!*
btw, it was so great to meet you…could you tell? i hope i didn’t scare your kids. hehehe
November 28th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Hi Peg, so sorry we couldn’t make it to the barrette party. we had such a crazy weekend and i caught a cold from the kiddies at school and promply passed it on to mandy!! we will definitely make it to the next one.
peg: no problem, beth! hope you guys are feeling better!
November 29th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
it was so great to see you, even if it was just for a little while! manny’s voice was going out, so he said he’s sorry he couldn’t talk more. plus your kids are cute and he felt very relaxed around you and your friends. me, too! and naomi definitely felt right at home! she really liked jasper; i forgot to mention that. i totally know what you mean about that “feeling inside”–i get it too, except socal is my/our home. i get it right when we hit the grapevine going south on the 5. i guess we should switch places. haha.
November 30th, 2006 at 8:48 am
p.s. — thanks for the great food. the dips were fabulous!
November 30th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
PEG!
So sorry to miss your barrette party! Do you have a website that shows the barrettes? I may need to buy some for gifts! Miss you!