A New New Year's Tradition

I can hardly believe we've just welcomed 2009. This year for our New Year's celebration we went camping at a place called Costanoa. It is north of us by a short car ride. We didn't time it, but before there was a single piffle from our mini passengers we had arrived. Each of us happier than the next to start the adventure at hand. We had platform tents and electricity, and brought a space heater for the boys tent. There was also a restaurant on the campsite grounds which we went to our first night. It wasn't roughing it by any stretch of the imagination.

New Year's Eve night the campsite was full and the restaurant was booked so we had to make due with what we could produce ourselves, which was perfectly fine, and we mooched off our neighbors who had come far better prepared than we were for a party! The boys spent the evening playing flash light tag, coloring in their tent with their new friends and generally running around making noise and delighting in the joy freedom brings to the very young and not usually so free. Our next door neighbors were also from the Santa Cruz area and we are all going to try to make a tradition of New Year's Eve at Costanoa. They also invited us to their next bonfire on the beach (not yet a set date, but soon) which will be our first of many, I hope. I do like fire, and bonfires are usually big fires.

It was an all around good time. Though, it didn't make up for the fact that we missed our trip to Canada to visit Chris' dad and Marilyn and the rest of the northern branch of the clan. Perhaps the spring will give us an opportunity to go north in sure travel conditions.