Merry Christmas from Santa Barbara!

Christmas in Santa Barbara is a wonderful place to be, with sunshine and blue sky by day, and a festive feel by nightfall at 5pm.

Every tree trunk along State Street is snaked in white fairy lights, the shop windows and restaurants are decorated with class, style and an abundance of sparkles.

There is nothing tacky or over the top, this is a place of distinction and class. The atmosphere is happy, not hurried or overwhelming. There are no pushy shoppers or crowded streets, but there are plenty of smiles, groups of singers, trumpeters and festive balloon makers. Even the bronze statues are happy (well a good candy stick can do that!)…

It has been a really lovely place to be in the festive build up and that’s even without participating in any of the various events that have been listed in the local paper. We’ve simply enjoyed being together and sharing this time, first with our NZ friends at the beginning of the month and now with my dear parents visiting from England.

We’ve also had seasonal colds and coughs, to slow us down – but that’s to be expected, with temperatures reaching highs in the mid-twenties (degrees C) by day and dropping below ten at night. Pretty pleasant weather by all accounts here!

The final days building up to Christmas have been all about spending time together (sharing germs and swapping hankies!), drinking jolly good red wine (medicinal of course!) and wrapping presents in locked rooms. We are all very much looking forward to sharing Christmas Day with all the merriment that comes with family life, three excited children and wonderful Grandparents.

For me personally, having my parents here with us is the best present of all. I would have felt quite lost without them.

As it is, we feel as though our Christmas has been stretched out as we share, via the Internet, the celebrations of friends in New Zealand and Australia, and then wake Christmas morning to be 8 hours behind our UK family and friends. We shall be the last to celebrate this year, quite a novel feeling after over a decade of being the first in the world to get a visit from the man in the red suit 😉

So, Merry Christmas to all, wherever & however you are celebrating xx