Christmas Gathering 5: Oregon Coast

I should probably be writing a post on a reflection of my year, but instead I'm going to continue on with my Christmas journeys.

OK, if I'm honest, Christmas gathering number 5 was somewhat of a "mini vacation". My Father-in-law and his wife invited us to stay a couple nights with them at their time share in Lincoln City. This a a view of part of the room.

Here is the view from the room. It was beautiful and stormy. We hot-tubbed in the rain, and joked around about how there was probably not any guests vacationing that were not from the North West, because who in their right mind would visit the Oregon Coast in December? Only us crazy North Westerners!

We had dinner at the Chinook Winds Casino buffet.

A good portion of the next day was spent sitting through a time share presentation... it was long.

We went to a cute restaurant in Depot Bay for lunch afterward: Tidal Raves.

I had red curried bbq shrimp on top of cooked vegetables and a risotto cake, it was delicious. I also had a Two Towns "Naught and Nice" hard cider.

Joel had fish tacos and didn't appreciate me taking his picture while he was eating :P

This was the view from our window.

After lunch I FINALLY got to finish up my Christmas shopping at the outlet stores, but first we made a stop at one of my favorite stores, the Christmas Cottage. It is all sorts of wonderful as you can see. Filled with beautiful Christmas ornaments and decorations. We bought some ornaments for ourselves to commemorate the year as well as a few for gifts.

We woke up early the next day, on Christmas Eve, to have one last breakfast with Joel's Dad overlooking the beautiful ocean and then packed up, made one last quick stop at the outlet malls, then drove back down the highway to prep and pack before heading out again to our final Christmas destination.

It's been a heck of a year, as always. I started this blog, my husband I both finally finished school and got teaching and coaching jobs, and my brother and sister-in-law gave us our first nephew on my side of the family.
Here's to many more years of hectic holidays, babies, and traveling! Here's to new adventures :)

Happy Wednesday & Goodbye 2014!