Christmas in Cali

We celebrated our first Christmas in San Diego.

Despite the handful of times I cried—I've been a bit more emotional than I thought—over missing everyone back in KC, Mike and I had a great Christmas together.

For three days in row, the weather was fabulous and we took walks on the beach. It wasn't every day that I could do something like that in KC. Well, okay, really...it wasn't any day. So, standing there on the beach watching the waves rush to shore was quite an awesome thing. I think I love the ocean as much as I love chocolate. And I looooooovvvvvve chocolate!

As it turns out, Santa loves the ocean, too. We spied him hanging out at the Del Mar Lifeguard headquarters. And apparently, Santa doesn't just ride in a sleigh. Santa surfs!

Lost

I am such a slacker! Not only did I post absolutely zilch in November, but I just found this unposted entry from April. So, I figured if I post it now, it sort of makes up for something, right?

April's post:
Well, I finally finished reading Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes by Raymond Obstfeld, which took me a little over forever to finish it.

The book offered some good advice, especially the part on revising. For example, Obstfeld, author and teacher at Orange Coast College, suggested a five-step process in editing your work. In a nutshell (every time I say that phrase, I think of Austin Powers saying, "This is me in a nutshell."), you review scenes or chapters based on steps: step one is structure, step two is texture, step three is dialogue, step four is editing, and step five is blending.

I've tried, though, to look at scenes while trying to focus on one area such as dialogue or structure, but I always get sidetracked and start looking at everything again.

One of the final chapters in Obstfeld's book was—and doesn't it make sense—Final Chapters and Endings. Now I'm eating cookies by the box and sprouting gray hairs while worrying over the ending of my novel. I know it's wrong. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the response is. In the meantime, I'll keep coloring my hair. At this degree of fretting, I'm guaranteed to be a full gray head in the next two weeks.

By the way, since this post was from April, I can happily report that I did not go fully gray.