We Made it to Glacier Point - Now we just have to make it backNow that we had sold our home in New Jersey and were temporarily living in our motorhome in Petaluma, California, I was in a panic as to what to do to make Christmas special for us and the boys. This would be the first Christmas in their entire lives that would not be spent in our old home in New Jersey.

Christmas is not something the Gaidus family takes lightly. We even have an annual “Fezziwig” contest, where we award each other points during the month prior to Christmas for festive behavior – and deduct points for Scrooge-like behavior.

I considered airbnb’s in various locations, but nothing seemed quite right. Then it hit me – what could be more festive than Christmas in Yosemite? We are always happy, or in this case Merry, in Yosemite!! Plus, it had snowed a lot there recently, making both downhill and cross country skiing a possibility.

An internet search revealed that there were still rooms available in Yosemite Lodge, so I quickly ran the idea by the family to make sure there were no objections. As I expected, there were none, so I booked a room that would fit the four of us for December 25th and 26th. Two lift tickets to the Badger Pass downhill ski area in the Park were included with the price of the room.

We spent Christmas Eve in Andrew’s apartment in San Francisco, cooking our traditional kale, pork butt, and pinkelwurst feast, a regional dish from Bremen, Germany that Herb’s mom had made since he was born. The obtaining of the pinkelwurst for this dish had been quite a challenge. After calling practically every German deli and butcher in the Bay Area, the only place we found that made a true Bremer Pinkelwurst was Dittmer’s Gourmet Meats and Wurst-Haus, an hour and 45 minutes away near Palo Alto.

I told Herb it would be and fun and probably worth some Fezziwig points, so he agreed it would be worth the long drive. Dittmer’s was great and actually quite sentimental. All the specialty German candies and cookies Omi (Herb’s Mom) used to put in our stockings were right there on the shelves. The boys would be so surprised.

Thanks to Dittmer’s, our Christmas Eve dinner was a great success – best batch yet! After dinner, we opened our gifts (another German tradition). Also, that way we could get an early start in the morning.