A Tale of Two Cities

This month has me in a time warp, like I blink and another week has passed. So, we’re drinking every last drop of red and white that December gifts us with, swishing the cup around and tipping our heads back to slurp up the remnants.

We’ve been busy making our home a cozy retreat from the fierce cold that greeted us this weekend. Today especially. It’s been hat weather, while temperatures prance around the low single digits and a fresh coat of white blankets the outdoors, we’ve been bundled inside while presents get wrapped, kids get snuggled in front of the tree and candy canes are eaten as a mid-morning snack.  Peppermint for me, strawberry for Aliyah.

And yet just a couple short weeks ago, my littlest little and I were the ones prancing… and instead of a bed of snow, it was a bed of sand with the white crest of the ocean lapping at our feet. A seeming paradox of seasons, a paradox of two cities.

It’s almost absurd to share these photos now, since this trip so likely could have been taken last year just as easily as last month. It feels like forever ago. A virtual time warp I tell you.

What made our visit to the west coast so special was time spent with a friend I’d never met. And what was amazing to me is how surprised I was that I felt I knew Alysha so well even without having walked the beach together or sharing a cup of coffee. Oh, we’ve known each other through our blogs and emails, a text message exchanged here and there, but meeting face to face? This was different. Introducing our babies? It was new, and it was great.

I knew I would be meeting a sweet person with a sweet soul, a great mama and a good friend. But she surpassed my expectations.  We were comfortable, like an old sweatshirt… and to me, that’s the best feeling a friend can give.

Manhattan Beach gave a perfect backdrop for our kindred souls to connect. The Kettle restaurant, the perfect brunch to fill our bellies. And her sweet little girl? She was precious enough to let me be the one to take her feet fearlessly to the water for the first time, and then she wanted to escort her mama. I have a feeling they’ll be having many more beach trips in their future.

And Alysha, I love that this was only the beginning. The beginning of a good and fruitful friendship. There will be more visits, more trips, in our future. I’m certain of that.

Read Alysha’s account HERE.

We’re totally eating it up.

I have no idea what I’m doing here, I think trying to get Brayden to wave… like a gansta I guess.

I’m blessed to have met, in real life, an amazing new friend.