Dave and I thought we'd try something different this year. Because both of the kids are married, we usually celebrate holidays with them every-other-year. Christmas 2006 was "our" year. Wanting to make this year special, we all put our heads together and decided to go away on vacation instead of celebrating Christmas together at home. And to make it REALLY special, we decided to invite both sets of grandparents! (And it probably goes without saying that the record rains in November made a December trip to the desert sound even better!)To make a long story short, we rented two houses in sunny Palm Desert, California and proceeded to plan activities that all three generations could enjoy. Here are a few pictures from our Christmas in the Desert vacation!
Grandma T. and Erik reading by the pool on Christmas morning:
Because we ALL have way too much "stuff," we decided not to exchange Christmas gifts among ourselves this year. However, we did decide to do a fun "book exchange" utilizing the rules from your typical white elephant gift exchange. What a hoot!! We each ended up with a book to read by the pool that had previously been a favorite of one of our special loved ones. 
Two of my favorites from the Living Desert Museum: We visited Palm Desert's Living Desert Museum the day after Christmas. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting the Palm Springs area. Great, natural wildlife and plant exhibits; a terrific model train display; a fantastic stage show!
Palm Springs Air Museum: Because the museum was full of World War II era aircraft and memorabilia, the four grandparents truly enjoyed this outing.
Joshua Tree National Park: This is a photo of Kara & Dusty and Krista & Erik at Keys Overview at Joshua Tree National Park. While in the park, we also took a short hike to Barker Dam. Weather was terrific and the scenery beautiful!
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway:
It had snowed up on the mountain the day before we went up on the tram. We had a blast looking down at the desert thousands of feet below while treading carefully on snow and ice up above.
