Montage Tree Lighting • Laguna Beach

Monday night we attended the tree lighting at the Montage in Laguna Beach.  I love Laguna.  Anyone who knows me well has heard me say, “When I make my million I am going to plop it down in Laguna Beach.”  I love that little artist’s colony by the sea.  Our friends, Tom & Marla, invited us to attend the tree lighting ceremony with them.

First, I have to say it was possibly the best food of my life.  There were stations set up all around the grounds.  And, of course, we made our way to each and every one.  First was the perfect piece of crab meat on a bed of lemony risotto.  Second was the most amazing, mouth watering, buttery tender filet on a swirl of mashed potatoes, drizzled with gravy.  I hesitate to call it gravy but I can’t think of a word that means “gravy so good the angels were singing.”  According to Marla, I was moaning like Bill Murray in What About Bob.  This was followed by the perfect red tortilla soup with fresh corn and a carne asada taco, topped with fresh cilantro and red onion.  Can you hear the moaning?  We made our way upstairs to The Loft and had salted brownies along with a tiny little snack that included a small piece of brie topped with an almond, honey and the best raspberry of my life.  Then a young woman came up to us carrying a tray of velvety, creamy squash soup.  The savory warmth went down our throats and brought joy to our tummies.  The only down side to this was that each portion was the size of a 2 spoons.  I could have eaten a plate brimming to the top with all of the above.

Here are a few images I snapped as we made our way throughout the grounds.  Sorry I don’t have more photos of the food…I was too busy moaning…

Happy December 1st!!!

Here is the tortilla soup…

The decorations on an indoor tree…

The tree just as it was lit…

We were surprised, just as the tree was lit, snow machines began to blow snow onto all of us onlookers.
I raised my camera up high and snapped blindly, trying to snag some images of the people’s glee.

This is my favorite…little hands…reaching up to catch some magic…

Merry Christmas!