California |ˌkaləˈfôrnyə| a state in the western US, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean; population 36,756,666 (est. 2008); capital, Sacramento; statehood, Sept. 9, 1850 (31).
This year we spent the Christmas holiday with our entire extended family in sunny LA, California!
Traveling with the whole family can be pretty challenging when trying to book so many rooms and hotels—so when we travel with more than 20 people I always find it easiest to just use group travel services rather than booking so many parties separately. We rented a nice VRBO house that was big enough for everyone to be in one place and used Instcart (great, easy to use delivery service!) to have all of our groceries delivered—this made it feel more like Christmas to have the whole family under one roof and was way more fun than staying in a hotel.
When we’re in LA, we always go to Disneyland and Universal Studios in Hollywood. But we’ve never gone to the parks with this many people, so we decided to use a VIP Tour Guide this trip—and I highly recommend doing this with a large group! You can get one guide for 10 people and you’ll get to skip all the lines. It can be a little costly, but it is definitely worth the experience when the whole family can pitch in. The kids always love our time at Disney—and so do we!
I always love visiting LA because there is so much to do and the weather is always perfect. Of course, Field took advantage of the weather by playing golf at a few courses—Bel-Air Country Club was his favorite this trip. While Field golfed I got my Barry’s workout fix in and took some CorePower Yoga classes too. Working out is such a stress reliever for me and I feel so much better when I get that time in—especially on vacation!
We took the whole family to Westfield Century City Mall and then had Javier’s for lunch. I love the atmosphere here and they had great service and food. We also went to a few basketball games while we were in town. We cheered on our Mavs at the Lakers vs. Mavs game—the Lakers won, but it was still a great game. We also took the whole family to the Lakers vs. Clippers game and it was incredible to watch two of the best teams in the NBA this season—definitely a highlight of the trip for a lot of us!
This was such a great Christmas holiday and I’m so glad the whole family was able to join us on this vacation. It’s so much fun watching the kids grow up with their cousins, knowing they’ll remember trips like these for the rest of their lives. And so will I.
Merry Christmas from us to you—it’s going to be a beautiful New Year!
XO-
Sabrina
