Christmas 2017

For the 2017 Christmas season, we celebrated with the Samson family. The trend has been to celebrate the odd years as a family, and allow the even years for the other sides of each others families to have time with each other.

For Christie and I, it was good to be back with family over the holidays, as Christmas 2016 was spent just the 2 of us in Patagonia Argentina. Christie and I flew in from Hawaii. Dan and Carrie from D.C., Mom and Dad from Orange County, and Kevin, Val, and Violet were nearby in Sacramento.

We had a large 5+ bedroom house in Elk Grove, California (near Sacramento)

We had a special guest, thanks to Secret Santa --> Tim Kaine! Kevin was the lucky receipiant

We organized a "Top Chef" style, Dan and Carrie made pasta. Christie and I did a "Taste of Argentina" with salami, cheese, malbec, and steak. We also showed a video of a Buenos Aires walking tour.

We can't have a Samson Christmas without our wiffleball tradition!! Mom, Christie, and I won on a walk-off hit. We had the dream team!

All the running around from wiffleball meant for an early night!

Unfortunately we experienced a break-in, of the rental car while on our last day in San Francisco. It put a momentary damper, but we rallied, and had a final light dinner with appetizers and sent everyone off to the airport with a light buzz from some wine. The countdown has started, waiting for Christmas 2019