Day 114: Grandparents' House

Every year we go to my Grandparent's house to celebrate Christmas with everyone from my Mom's side of the family. But the coolest part of their house is my Grandpa's (Gramps) garage. He used to collect old Woody cars (how I got my nickname) but over the years he has had to sell them. He owned Clark Gable's '41 Packard and Amelia Erhart's '37 Cord a while back but he has had this one forever. 

This baby has all original parts including real woof for the side panels from 1946.

When Gramps started it up it sounds and smells like an old train. He modified the horn so it literally has bells and whistles. As he started and revved it, he looked like a little kid at the age of 84.

His garage looks like an old mans; A bunch of shit every but each object has its own specific purpose. Reminded me of Clint's garage in Grand Torino.

My Aunt told me a story of how when she met Gramps she thought he was John Wayne because he looks just like The Duke. This portrait hangs on his garage door.

Gramps also collects license plates. He has plates from all over the world and one from every state. It was fun watching the him buy the last state he didn't have a couple years ago in Hawaii.

"If you guys are thirsty keep drinking. I got some more Martinelli's in the garage."

Asides from the garage, their house is big and beautiful. Three stories in Costa Mesa this home has a great ocean view. A couple years ago Gramps gave the house to his three kids and says next year hes gonna have to start paying them rent. Some "insurance thing" he says.

My Mom, Aunt, and Uncle have never looked so young.

This is Gramp's train that he shows us every Christmas. He was a civil Engineer back in the day and helped build tracking satellites for NASA and the government so its cool to see him take his profession and make it a hobby that the kids can enjoy.

There is a family tree on the first floor/basement that takes up a whole wall. All of my forefathers look pretty scary though. One lookslike that old man from Home Alone with the snow shovel.

This is where the old man gets shit done. "God grant me patience and I want it right now."

Almost 60 years together...

When I walk by their refrigerator its like seeing my entire childhood as well as my cousins'.

Mexican Christmas Dinner

Day 113: Nutcrackers

One of my Mom's many obsessions come out during Christmas time when she puts her collection of nutcrackers on display. Some of them are pretty ordinary but others are fucking awesome. The fisherman one is the dopest but she recently just came up on an Abe Lincoln and a George Washington they weren't up at the time this picture was taken.

Day 112: Beginning of Christmas

There's no place like home for the Holidays...

Day 111: The End of Tahoe

Today is the last day of Tahoe and that can be seen by the tornado of shit that is my room. I had a great fucking time on this vacation but feel kinda bad for the cleaning lady who has to clean up four days worth of mess.

When I see icicles all I want to do is break them...

But it was Sarah's turn today.

Day 110: Tahoe Tourists

I thought everything looked cooler when it was snowing but it actually looks the coolest the day after. There was a picture similar to this one I took a couple days ago before it snowed but this one is far superior. To take advantage of the even more beautiful Tahoe, Sarah and I walked around and did touristy stuff.

Someone built a baby cub for this snow-covered mama bear.

Back in the day when many people were illiterate, tobacconists used wooden Indians similar to how barbers use the red and white barber poles to let customers know their professions. We ran into this "hang lose" chief on our stroll and took advantage of his laid back attitude and bad posture.

Right as we were taking pictures by the Indian we overheard this mean, old, man yelling at his sweet, old, wife  for standing their skies in front of each other. "What did I tell you! Stand the skis next to each other not in front Damnit!", he screamed as she cowered in fear. Its sad that the older generation doesn't accept that divorce is a viable option if you no longer love someone. But now she'll have to spend the rest of her life being yelled at by her grumpy, verbally abusive husband.

This picture says it all.

Boop-Oop-A-Doop

I was fucking stoked to see Jake and Elwood chillin' in the warm Tahoe sun as they people watched. Except for Jake's broken glasses, these statues were pretty legit. Even their hand tattoos were there.

So many trees...

Day 109: Sledding in a Winter Wonderland

It snowed today. A lot too. But not that hard clumpy snow that hurts when you walk outside. It was the light, soft kind that melts right when it touches your skin.

Sarah got really excited about it.

To take advantage of this wintery weather, we decided to go sledding. We could have gone at heavenly but it would have cost $30 just to get up the mountain so we decided to blaze our own trail. After a 5 minute drive, we arrived in this neighborhood and trekked up a grueling incline to get to the rest of our group.

Once we got there it was awesome. Everybody was sledding, throwing snowballs, and partying.

The snowball fight was the biggest one I have ever seen. 40+ people going to town. Half of us advanced up the mountain to get a better position while most of the girls stood there complaining as we rained snowballs upon them.

As we saw that more people were coming up the mountain, we all joined together to ambush them.

On my signal, unleash hell!

This snowman was clevagely blessed.

Armando = Fail

Its funny that they have this sign facing up the mountain so we could all read it on our way down.

The landscape was beautiful.