{Seeking: Holiday Cheer.}

It feels like LA has finally made the switch to chillier temperatures along with the now much shorter sunlit days. Fall seems to have made its grand entrance, with nods to winter seeping through. I find myself breaking out warmer coats and turning the heat on in the evenings when I get home. It seems everywhere I go, every store I walk into – turkeys and pumpkins, red and green, greet me. Indeed, the holidays are a-coming!

I thought the best way to welcome this more festive time of year would be to cross-off a little something I’ve always wanted to do on my” LA bucket-list.” It’s no secret that I get my holiday cheer from The Grove. (Yes, you read that right, The Grove). I’ve always been a sucker for the bright decorations, Santa’s mansion (that thing couldn’t possibly pass for a “cottage” – it’s bigger than my apartment!) and the 100-foot tall REAL Christmas Tree. I’ve always wanted to go to the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, but usually when I think about it, it’s already happened! This year, I was on my game and made my wish come true…well, not exactly.

The Grove’s annual Tree Lighting Ceremony, dubbed the Rockefeller of the West Coast, took place on Sunday, November 17th, 2013.  After an early dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, my boyfriend and I walked over to The Grove to stake out a good spot and welcome the holidays with a free concert. I had my camera ready to take lots of pictures (because this was going to a great blog post!). I was ready to sing Christmas songs with this year’s performances by Toni Braxton, Babyface, Mary J, Blige, and CeeLo Green, among others.

Yeah, so I was there for about 5 minutes.

Though we expected the nearly 10,000 people making their way to the celebration, I wasn’t prepared for how they choose to set-up the venue. I was more than happy and prepared to be in the back (way in the back) because I was NOT going to spend my entire Sunday staked out for a free concert in a shopping center.  However, I wasn’t expecting them to have already put up Santa’s Mansion either.

If you’ve even been to the Grove, Santa’s “Mansion” sits right in the middle of the shopping plaza. Essentially, Santa’s Mansion blocked the ENTIRE view of the stage. The only way to see the show as on a monitor (that wasn’t very large or very high) to see the performances. Here’s photo proof, note the tiny ass monitor:

{note: tiny ass monitor, people everywhere and Santa’s mansion = no view of stage.}

In this moment, we had two choices. Stand in a crowd among thousands, not being able to see the action, but hearing it live (not a horrible option)….or go home and wait for the broadcast.

We chose the latter.

If I wanted to see a show on a tiny monitor, I could do that from the comfort of my couch…in my warm apartment…in my PJs. And thus begins and ends my tale of trying to grab a little holiday cheer.

The ceremony broadcasts in Los Angeles on KCAL-9, Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving Day) at 8:00 p.m. Check here for other listings.

I feel like it’s been a minute since I just said “hello” due to the film festival wrap-up as my post last Friday. Here are a few randoms on life lately. Have a great weekend!

{Wrapping my boyfriend’s b-day gift.}

{Where the magic happens. Especially on  Monday mornings @ Starbucks.}

{“Selfie:” officially a word in the dictionary as of this week AND Oxford’s word of the year!}