Welcome to SoCal. I'll Be Your Tour Guide.

We had quite the eventful week over here.  Not that things have slowed down since they left, but my cousin and his fiancee from Finland spent about 9 days with us.  They visited last winter, about 3 days before I had the baby.  I was huge and boring, but they still had so much fun, they made a return trip!  Since they saw all the big tourist-y things last year, this year was a little more low key (but a lot more fun for me since I got to participate.  And a big thank you to Tati for all her help baby-sitting!!)

We ate out, shopped, visited Old Town Pasadena, put together Blessing Bags (more on that later), played miniature golf, hung out in Downtown L.A., went to a Cirque Du Soleil show, and ate & shopped some more They also got to attend a Conan taping and a Ducks game while I sneaked over to Disneyland to feel some holiday cheer.

Then we polished off the week with a fabulous trip to San Francisco - where we shopped, ate, went to Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghiradelli Square, and just drove around the city.  Posted a bunch of pics on Facebook if you wanna see.  Only to return home and throw Stevie's 1st birthday party the next day. (More on that later, as well.)

Did I say it was more low-key than last year?  OK maybe not.

But such a great, fun time.

And as much as playing hostess/tour guide wears me out, I just love it.  I think I'm kind of awesome at it.  You should never leave Southern California feeling disappointed.  Especially when I'm the one showing you around.