Northern California Nesties
CarFar
member
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Alternative x mas
So I'm thinking of trying to do something " different" for Christmas. My mom and in laws would both be in on whatever it is. I only have 4 days off so kinda close is good. Since hubs and I are only children and this christmas will (hopefully) be our last child free Christmas, we thought doing something different would be fun. We can also just host at our house, but it seems so blah with no children 
Re: Alternative x mas
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You're looking for somewhere different to spend it? Or non-traditional activities? I'm a bit unsure of exactly what you're going for.
Personally, I've been really wanting to rent a cabin in Tahoe or somewhere woodsy and snowy and hole up with some friends. Seems like that would be fun with mom/in-laws too for a few days.
If you want to do something completely different you could exchange gifts based on some sort of theme.
Again, more details needed on how you want this to be different and what is the "typical" stuff you want to stay away from.
I'll help ya brainstorm.
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I think the main thing is that we'd rather spend money on an "experience' this year rather than just exchanging gifts/ "Stuff" I mean DH and I are old enough to buy anything we want ourselves, and we're both only children so we're the only ones our parents really buy anything for, so it just seems a bit silly to do a gift exchange and everything at this stage in our live. As much as I appreciate the gifts, to be honest we're both pretty spoiled and we really don't NEED anytthing they can give us. I'd rather spend time with our parents in some sort of new setting, or doing some new activity or something. Does that make sense ? I mean I
One that that we WILL require is a place to cook a good holiday meal, or a place to go our for one.
Yeah, I like WO Tahoe idea. I suppose you could do Disneyland at Xmas, some people rave about it but I've never been. That's about 6 hrs away from you.
There are some ideas here: http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/places/xmas.html (not all would need to involve kids)
And here: http://events.sfgate.com/search?holiday=christmas&st=event
This would be cool, too, IMO: http://www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco/jazzclub/artist/show/1038
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I had a very memorable 'alternative' Christmas. We stayed at the Empress hotel in Victoria BC, Canada.
I think Christmas at a fancy hotel in SF could be the same sort of thing. The hotel was all decorated and even hung stockings on our doors Christmas morning.
You could make it a service Christmas and go help at a shelter
Super random thoughts:
You could track down where some Christmas faires are going on and make a trip centered around that.
You could go carolling.
You could do a fancy night of box seats at the Nutcracker on Christmas eve, a nice dinner, and a night at a decorated hotel (like BB mentioned)
Go to Boston:
During the festive season, Boston, Massachusetts, lays on the New England charm thick, with snow-dusted cobblestone roads, locals feasting on roasted lobster instead of Christmas turkey and candlelight carols at the Trinity Church.
http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/10-great-places-to-spend-christmas/3
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/top-10-places-spend-your-christmas-810201
Or here: http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/10-great-places-to-spend-christmas/4
Or here: http://www.leavenworth.org/modules/pages/?pageid=266&path=26%7C266
Women don't want to hear what men think,
women want to hear what they think, in a deeper voice
Tea Time for Lulu
Christmas in Yosemite! That would probably cost an arm and a leg and take a year of planning.
I've always wanted to rent a cabin/house in the mountains where there's snow and have Christmas there.
Speaking of that New England Christmas idea my mom and I totally want to spend Christmas on PEI one year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iei32AUJfc&feature=player_embedded
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i have to agree, with you on this one!!
We are headed to disneyland this year for x-mas, dd & dh have off until the 9th of jan so we are going to spend a week in disney & then had to legoland for a couple days
Actually, this is what we are doing ! There was (suprisingly) tickets and rooms left for the bracebridge dinner at the awahnee. It is not super cheap, but if we aren't doing presents or anything, I think this is a good way to spend that money we've saved for that
Also it's my birthday the day before, so it's really two special occasions. 
A cruise woudl've been fun, but I don't have enough time off 
Also hubs went to school in Boston and we spend every second or so winter at his Aunt's ski house in Vermont, so we've done the beautiful new england X mas, which is AWESOME, but probably not diffrerent enough for him. LOL I thinkYosemite will be amazing. the Il's have been talking about wanting to visit it, so I'm looking forward to it.
I would do a Christmas in the mountains too. Maybe rent a cabin in Sonora or Tahoe (Tahoe might be over popular for Christmas time though).
On the other hand, you could always rent a beach house in Santa Barbara or more south to get an anti-Christmas-y vibe (sunshine and palm trees vs. snow and pine trees)
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