Ahhh it’s back to the daily grind. After finally having almost 2 weeks off for the holidays I feel renewed and fresh…but somehow sitting at my desk and staring at the computer I know this feeling won’t last long. So here is my recap of how I spent my holiday break. (warning this is a long post…not Jarod long, but close)

I promised myself that I wouldn’t do much work over the break and focus on relaxing and having fun. My Christmas was one of the best ever. I spent Christmas eve day and early evening in San Diego with D’s family and after an amazing dinner and drinks we headed over to my mom’s house for even more food and unwrapping of presents. Somehow my mom every year still gets me socks and underwear. Christmas day is when the real fun happened. D and I sat by my tree and opened presents…and I was surprised (somewhat) with what I got: Wii fit and slip cover, a Tomlinson jersey, and a ticket to the Chargers vs. the Donkeys (Broncos)! I was super excited as this was my first (yes first) time to attend a NFL game and this was the decisive game for both teams to make the Playoffs. It was also time to get redemption against the team that was handed a win by a blind referee earlier in the season.

“D” does the Warrior pose

Going in sequential order…Most of Christmas was spent playing Wii Fit (much needed after all the holiday eating I’ve done) and then heading to my brother’s place to hang out with the rest of the family and watch the Lakers beat Boston! Like I said the best Christmas ever!

Lakers ended the Celtics 19-game win streak and beat them so bad that they lost the next day too…

The day after Christmas everyone got together and we went out to iLounge with DJ Reflex. Possibly the most fun I’ve had at that place.

Reflex spins for Kanye so I figured it appropriate to throw-up the “ROC”.

Saturday night was spent watching the UFC fight with some friends…Blog Re-cap

On Sunday we headed out to San Diego for the game. I booked a room at the Hyatt in Downtown so we didn’t have to make the long journey back home after the night game and so I could get completely drunk along with all the other fans.

View from the hotel…we could see the parade that went on the next day from the window too.

After figuring out the trolley system to get to the stadium. I find out that the seats were pretty damn good. Field Level near the 20 yard line.

It was a packed Qualcomm Stadium

Told you these were good seats

Ahh yeah…

LT broke a record or two that evening and scored 3 TD’s.

After destroying the Donkey’s the Chargers headed into the Playoffs as the AFC West Champs! (spoiler we then went on to beat the Colts last Sunday in overtime!)

The next afternoon was spent in Downtown SD just enjoying the clear weather and shopping around. For dinner I took D and her mom out to one of my favorite restaurants there. The place is called “Candelas” and it’s Mexican Seafood. So good. If you go I highly recommend the 4-cheese soup and the Chilean Sea Bass.

Close to the restaurant we walked by the most modern dry cleaners I have ever seen.

Skipping ahead a few days it was time to celebrate the New Year and what better way to do it than with close friends at our local club Sutra. Sutra has begun their re-model and opened an entirely new area for the evening. Lots of drinking, dancing, and more drinking! The only way to start the New Year.

Gotta love the go-gos

My New Year’s Kiss

I have the funniest video of this drunk guy afterhours being an idiot, but I can not show it as I made a promise not to. If he does manage to piss the right person off again and I get allowed to show it (and he will) I will be sure to post it up for all to see. Teaser: I’ve never seen a grown man cry like that.

For the New Year one of my goals has been to experience life and everything to the fullest. Rather than always drinking and partying (which will still happen) I will manage to also find some culture and experience new things. So in keeping up with my resolution D and I headed out to the Huntington Garden in Pasadena. This place is pretty amazing and despite the cold weather the scenery is just beautiful. Plus with all the walking it was great exercise.

So peaceful and relaxing

Never having traveled to Japan or China it was nice to check out the themed gardens.

The bamboo forest

Dinner in Downtown Pasadena was at a Tapas bar called Bar Celona. Great food and atmosphere and really good happy hour!

With the quality of snow here in Southern California lately I’ve tried to go as much as possible. Snowboarding gets expensive, but so worth it. So to end the holidays we hit up Bear Mountain for some snowboarding action.

Let’s end this long ass blog with an advisory. Don’t get caught in the snow un-prepared, or drive like a jackass, or try to make your sedan a rally car.

Happy New Year everyone!