Off to Southern California

On Sunday, December 21 (Alicia's birthday!) after all our Church activities, we went up to mom and dad Parkinson's to exchange gifts and say goodbye before our trip to California (to see Jesse, Alicia, Adrian, Arleen, and Brittney).
We're seasonally attired as we stand in front of the Parkinson hearth.
A close-up of the folks next to their beautifully ornamented tree.
A better perspective of the entire tree...
Gayle and Jared -- Later that night we had a mini-Christmas celebration with Jared, who had to stay in Logan to work over the holidays. After Gayle worked till 1:30 p.m. on Monday, the 22nd, we took off in our ancient Dodge Grand Caravan (1990, with over 217,000 miles), sans back seats, to points south. The intent is to bring back a bunch of Jesse and Alicia's stuff in advance of their move back up to Logan. We fought blizzard conditions in Sardine Canyon (white-out over several stretches of highway) and messy stuff all the way down to Cedar City, where we spent the night. We counted at least 21 cars that had slid off the highway during the trip down. There was even snow around St. George. And as we rolled through the high desert between Victorville and Little Rock, CA, I snapped several shots, including the one below, of the snow just outside and above LA.
This was taken from the side of Highway #18 - Palmdale Highway (before it merges with #138 - the Pearblossom Highway) en route to the #14 Freeway. This is looking southeast at the north slopes of the San Gabriel mountains. I believe that's Wrightwood in the background, with Mountain High ski resort above it (yes, they ski in LA). Once we got to Saugus, we kicked back a bit. I took a wonderful run around the field on the plateau (near Alta Knoll) atop Sutters Pointe, where we used to live. It was cool and partly cloudy, but the view was great. I saw lots of what appeared to be deer and rackoon tracks.