Christmas and such

I enjoyed a lovely 10 days at home in Granite Bay, CA this past Christmas season.

I took over 500 pictures.

yeah.

soooooo here are some. 

my time was filled with sister being home

 from Rome, lots of baby niece time,

and I threw in some wine and friends too.

1) Our Christmas Eve wine selection, 2) A Ruiz celebration is not complete without sangria! 3) Italian Cookies 4) MoreVino

family portrait, excluding mama and dog number two.

my niece is a boss.

First stop on the way home from the airport? IN 'N OUT of course.

mom's dress from the 80's and sister's head scarf hood

basically, festivus.

Reason why I love my family #1

Reason why I love my family #2

bear boy

Mama's homemade tamale's, beans, and rice for Christmas eve dinner!

 Cutest. Baby. Ever.

We also made Tiramisu. 

Some of my XMAS loot

I braided sister's hair

Me, on my first Christmas.

Tahoe

Lovers Leap

Picking Lemons in my backyard.

More to come of my brief visit to San Francisco and party pics?

I hope your Christmas and New Years was as happy as mine!

THANKSGIVING.. oh wait it's December 16th already? whoops.

Yes, I realize Thanksgiving was almost a month ago now,

but I am finally getting around to posting about it!

I had one of the best times I've had here in Portland yet

because my older brother, sister-in-law and 14-month year old niece

flew all the way from Sacramento to come spend the holiday with Zack and I!

I love them and we had a great time drinking beer around the city, shopping and 

even a visit to Multnomah Falls on a very blustery day!

I just love love love Autumn here.

Our mismatched plates. Can you tell it was our first Thanksgiving?

Seriously, look at the color of these leaves!!!

Flying home on Monday night for Christmas!!! So excited to see my fambam and BFFs!