I’d celebrated Christmas with my parents all but two years of my life.

But with both Mom and Dad gone in 2025, joined my brother Rob and his wife Yvonne for the Yule in La Quinta, California. This was their 4th winter renting a beautiful place from Canadian friends.

Loved it!

The Mediterranean climate is perfect for year round cycling and hiking.

YES it’s a bit odd celebrating the traditional Great White North Christmas in a town at 20C.

The municipal park is nicely decorated for the holidays. We walked Charlie there once or twice a day.

Highlight for me was FREE COFFEE at City Hall !

This is ME awaiting my next free Latte. 😀

Actually the grub was pretty good at home with Rob doing much of the cooking and kitchen clean-up.

We only ate at a restaurant one time. Home cooking is the rule.

When we wanted an orange, we picked one off the tree in the back yard.

I spent a fair bit of time at the library.

La Quinta place names are mostly Spanish. There’s much recognition of the sacrifices of military. And the First Nations.

We had a hot tub about every second night.

California should probably just become the 11th Canadian Province. 😀

Consider me won over to the snowbird annual vacation.

We’ve also scheduled Christmas dinner for January 11th in Calgary.