Lake Casitas, CA

My hubby's company shuts down every year for two weeks during the holidays. And every year he has big ambitions to do things around the house or on his hot rod but usually ends up kicking back watching tv and relaxing and *poof*, the time is gone. This year he said he wanted to do something with his time off and he wanted to rent an RV and go camping with the kids. I'll be honest, I pretty much freaked out when he said that. I like to do holiday baking and I try to make a Christmas gift or two, I don't buy bows for my gifts, I make my own. I love Christmas for so many reasons, but lets face it, leaving the house right before Christmas to go camping threw me over the deep end. I tried to remain calm though. After the shock of the idea, it started to sink in and I thought it might be fun to sit by a campfire with the kids or go for a ride on the lake in a little fishing boat.
Well, these are a few pictures of our trip. This was the view walking from the little overflow lake area to our campsite. Pretty gorgeous, huh? :o)

This is the dock that we tried fishing off of. "Tried" fishing because we didn't get one little nibble. Not one tug on any of the four lines we had in the water. Me, my hubby, my daughter Ashley and her boyfriend Dave went on Saturday after we checked in. We stayed out there a couple of hours. Richard had to put the worms on the hook because none of us could bear to cut one in half with our fingernail and then 'hook' him. Bleck! But you can see that the scenery was beautiful so there are worse things than not catching a fish. And besides, we had plenty of groceries. lol

This was the view towards the lake from the RV. Not too shabby a spot.

This is us fishing off the dock. See those short sleeves? It was around 73 degrees, sunshine, blue skies. A typical Southern California December day. My hubby's a pretty smart cookie to have us go camping before Christmas! We might have to make this an annual tradition.

And the baking? Well, here is my solution to that.
This is my sissy, Isabel in her gorgeous red kitchen. She lives about 15 minutes from the lake. When we talked on the phone about my dilemma, she said "Why don't you come over and we can bake together." She loves to bake but usually only makes pumpkin bread because she doesn't ever want to do it alone. It worked out perfectly. I tell you, it was all the best the both worlds. While sitting at the campsite playing dominoes one night, Isabel said, "Can you believe we're sitting here relaxing and having fun and there are people fighting crowds and parking at the shopping malls." Ahhhh, it's a wonder I'm not smarter since I'm surrounded by all these geniuses. :o)