Birthmas in Julian 2017: Christmas and Boxing Days

After our llama-related adventures of the day before, we planned to just chill at the cottage for Christmas Day, and we very much enjoyed doing just that.  We all got moving around 8am or so, and we popped the breakfast casserole in the oven, so it could start doing its thing.  We also got the day jump-started with some adult beverages:

With fancy candied bacon!

Chris and Risa work on the

Christmas Kringle from Trader Joe's - 

that thing was delicious!

After breakfast, we gathered around the front room to open presents, and we spent most of the morning watching the parade of holiday movies on the Freeform channel - more A Christmas Story, Elf, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  And eating more food.  And drinking more drinks.

Eventually, we shifted to the dining room table, where we played Rummikub for a few hours and ate lunch - smoked turkey sandwiches made with the awesome gravy-miso-mayo recipe Chris discovered and leftover potatoes from last night.  Around 3 or so, I started to get a bit antsy from all the sitting around, so Chris and I headed to the nearby Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve for an hour or so of hiking.

Watch out!  Mountain lions!

There's always time for a selfie...

We ended up picking the Five Oaks Trail, which had a moderate rise in elevation (4200 to around 4300 over a mile or so) and offered views both to the coast and of downtown Julian.  Although our schedule made it necessary to turn back before we hit the highest point, we did grab some great shots while on the stroll:

That's a manzanita tree,

and they are so cool!

This was my first experience with them,

and their bark grows out both normal looking

(kind of like an oak tree)

along with a shiny red.

Lee, our llama guide, told us

that the tree inside is striped the same way.

So neat!

We returned from the hike refreshed and ready to get cleaned up and head out to Christmas dinner at Jeremy's on the Hill, about 10 minutes away from downtown.  Since we were the nicest-looking we'd be on this trip, we all grabbed some shots in front of our tree:

Jeremy's is one of the fancier spots in town, and its actual website is www.bestrestaurantinjulian.com.  With a claim like that, we figured it should be pretty good (despite not actually being in Julian proper, and despite also not being on a hill), and overall, it was.  Our food was all delicious, and although my steak was done far beyond my preference, it still tasted great, and we enjoyed our meal.  Dinner finished up and we headed home, but not before Risa snagged this great shot of the sign in the bathroom:

It's the equivalent of "a pox upon your house!"

"A flood upon your feet!"

I might start using that to smite people.

Back at the house, it was into comfy clothes once again.  Chris and I whipped up some chocolate fondue, while Risa shared her awesome recipe for making caramel sauce - are you ready?  I know this sounds strange, but you boil a can of Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours or so, and it becomes delicious caramel sauce.  I fully understand this sounds like me pranking you, my dear blog reader, but 1) I'd never do that and 2) I was equally skeptical, but it truly works.  It's a good thing she made two cans, as the chocolate fondue needed the addition of her caramel to be edible; when we picked up chocolate at the market, we had to choose between unsweet and semisweet chocolate, and since the recipe called for bittersweet, we ended up with un-.  It was very un- indeed, but the caramel saved it.

After enjoying our dessert and finishing out both North by Northwest and Dial "M" for Murder (TCM was showing a Hitchcock marathon - Rear Window was on before we headed to dinner), we called it a night and headed to bed.

The next morning, as is our normal (particularly when you're in bed by 10 each night), we were up and moving about by 7, and we popped the leftover breakfast casserole in the oven with some biscuits.  I believe this was also the moment - after three days of use - we finally discovered the strip of plastic coating the opening to the oven door that had been making the cottage smell horrible each time we fired up the stove.  Ta da!  After breakfast, we packed up the Rogue, finished cleaning up our mess in the cottage, and headed out of town, waving goodbye to Julian after a great stay.

We took a different way back home (the more direct route, I believe), so we ended up coming through Temecula.  Ready for some more food, we stopped at Black Market Brewing Company, where we enjoyed some of their house made pizza and brews.  Risa also had a glass of their iced tea, also made in house, and it was great, too!

We had quite the party with the tasters.

After that, it was back in the Rogue and back to Dad and Risa's house.  We unpacked the Rogue, packed up our items in the truck, wished everyone at the house goodbye (including Griffin and Lily), and headed back to the LBC.  By 2:30pm, we were reunited with our own mongrel and ready to settle in at home and enjoy the rest of the day.

We really enjoyed our holiday trip to Julian.  It was a great pick by Dad and Risa - Julian had just enough things to do and places to eat for us not to get bored, but it also allowed for plenty of relaxation time, which is something that doesn't always happen around the holidays.  Of course, the best part was spending time with the two of them!  Next time, we'll tackle that pound of pie!

Later!

Amy