Living in Long Beach

My cousin Scott (aka Ford) came down to Long Beach to spend Christmas with me. As soon as it got dark, we made the trek to Naples (it’s about a mile from me) to see all the holiday lights by the canals. As usual, some of the homes went all out with a crazy amount of lights. Many homes had several decorated trees. I forgot my tripod and just took very quick pictures as we walked by the homes. However, there are a few that turned out okay so I thought I’d share them with you…    Although this one was very pretty, it reminds me of a display window for a shop.  This one had lots of fake snow in their display. I guess that’s the closest thing to snow that  Long Beach will ever see!!   This one had several disco balls and disco Christmas music   playing and a bubble machine. Steve Rubell would be so proud. Of course, there were lots of animals. Pictured above are some polar bears (that remind me of the coca ...

Last night, I took pictures of the doors on my wing. Some of them are really festive. Can you guess which one is mine? If you guessed this one , then you win!

I am grateful for all my friends this year.

I am so lucky that I picked Tamara for our Secret Santa gift exchange. Why am I so lucky? Because she (smartly) loves HK!! Here she is in her main gift from me... And thanks to Denise, I am looking forward to sitting in a movie theater with smooth feet!

Who knew that a one foot tree could be so much trouble?? For starters, all the mini ornaments have been picked off by Stormy. So now it only has lights and garland. However, the two strands of lights are very old. Remember the kind where if one light didn't work then the whole strand would not work? Well, that's what I am dealing with. Which means that EVERY time Stormy knocks the tree over, I have to figure out which bulb has to be tightened in each strand so it will be lit again. I have now moved the tree to the spare room with the door shut. So I am not getting much enjoyment out of it. I put the tree on a timer so that at least passerbys on Bellflower would see my holiday cheer for five hours a night. I went outside to take pictures. I could tell people passing by thought I was nuts. Turns out the tree was too low to see because of the "fencing" around my "deck." So I went inside and moved the tree up. I took another picture so you can see how feeble it ...

I love this time of year when I get to reconnect with people whom I haven't called back in ages!! This year I feel so lucky to have received a LOT of Christmas cards. It makes getting the mail every day so much fun. I am running out of room to display them all; if I come up with something creative, I'll be sure to share... I got two cards from my dear friend Susan in Las Vegas (whom I miss so much). Not only a really cute Christmas Santa card, but this one from her 3-Day Cancer Walk that I had to share with you all..

Christmas cookies LBC style... UPDATE: Cookie slide show here!!

The beautiful tree along with the piped-in Christmas music convinced me to do some Christmas shopping (for others!) this warm evening at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Joy to the World.

Just found these pictures on my computer of when the parental units visited my unit for Christmas last year. I put all of these on Shutterfly in case anyone wants to order. The last few pictures are of us on the pier in Santa Monica.