Merry Christmas week!!
As early Christmas gifts to each other Joe and I gifted ourselves with a mini kid-free getaway. We dropped the kiddos off with my parents on Friday and right as we were about to walk out the door Declan started legitimately choking on a grilled cheese sandwich. Joe had to Heimlich him and thankfully he spit all the sandwich out, but it was so scary and not the best way to start a relaxing day off from parenting. Joe and I were just marveling at how much younger we looked in one of those throw back snaps. This is why. I'm pretty sure I got a dozen new gray hairs that day alone. Parenting ages you fast y'all. But back to our getaway, which I promise was still fun despite its traumatic start.
We rented an AirBnB right in the heart of Sacramento. I've probably mentioned this on the blog before but Sacramento is where Joe (and my stepdad) went to school, so it will always hold a special place in Joe's heart. Even though I grew up not too far away, I hadn't spent too much time there so I was excited to explore it with Joe, who knows the area better than me. We kicked off our stay in Old Town, which is like a wild wild west town right on the river with tons of cool shops and restaurants.
Unbeknownst to us, Old Town does a Christmas lights show on the weekends leading up to Christmas. We just happened to be there at the right time and grabbed a spot along with everyone else in the middle of main street. It was basically a Sacramento history lesson given by actors on the rooftops of the buildings, along with lots of cool changing lights, culminating in a battle between Santa and Jack Frost. We even got blasted with a bit of snow at the very end. It was a very merry beginning to our trip.
After the light show we were starving and stopped for...what else? Mexican food. Once we were properly fueled up we headed back into the cold for a bit of browsing and Christmas shopping. There are so many cute little specialty shops, it was a really fun spot to shop for the last few random gifts we had left to get. Back at the AirBnB we played a Zelda version of Monopoly which was probably the shortest Monopoly game ever since Joe took all my money right off the bat and I had mortgaged all my properties within thirty minutes.
Joe insisted on an early start the next morning, so we bundled up and walked out into the early morning cold for breakfast at the Fox and the Goose, a cute little pub where we had breakfast last time we were in town on our way to Tahoe for our
honeymoon. They seriously have the BEST scones. And I'm not even a scone fan. I think it may be the cream they serve it with that makes them over the top delicious. After breakfast we walked over to the Capitol building and just happened to catch the beginning of the Sacramento Santa Run. We didn't plan it that way, but our trip wound up being a very festive, jolly getaway.
After we'd seen the thousands of Santas on their way we wandered around the Capitol building for a bit, and since it was open and we were freezing we wandered around inside as well checking out all the Christmas decorations they'd added since our last visit.
All the museum rooms had Christmas trees and decorations, as well as hundreds of wreaths with California bears hung on the halls, and poinsettias tucked into every corner. It was really beautiful. Once we were nice and warm we decided to brave the below 40 degree weather (I know some of you are laughing, but that's freezing for us!) and check out the gardens, hunt down some coffee, and then head back to pack up and check out before heading on the next part of our adventure.
After we checked out we headed to Sac State to wander around Joe's old stomping grounds. We saw the school newspaper office, where he worked as a journalism student. We also came across the cutest performance of about a dozen kids playing those huge Japanese drums, that were almost as big as they were. It was graduation weekend, so there were tons of people taking photos in their caps and gowns.
After a pit stop at the book store we hit the road again, this time for Dixon, where Joe had an internship at the tiny local newspaper. It was fun checking out all of Joe's old landmarks as we drove through the tiny town. Afterward we stopped for lunch in Davis, followed by a cupcake, and then it was back home to our babies.
We loved having a little kid-free time, but we also loved being reunited even more. Ez ran up and gave me a big hug when we walked through the door and kept telling me "Moppy, sit down!" Declan couldn't care less and wouldn't even look our way because Mickey was on TV. It's nice to feel missed ;)
Thanks to the grandparents and uncles for watching the kiddos!
