Dearest family and friends,
We have started back into real life after a great Christmas holiday. True to form, Dave worked until 8:30 pm the night before we flew to Utah (despite great effort to try to get off early). Luckily, Dave has a highly efficient wife who packed and cleaned and arranged parking at the airport so we were pretty much ready to go anyway. Also, true to form, instead of finishing our packing early and going to bed, Dave and I celebrated the beginning of Christmas Break by getting take-out nachos and salad, renting a few episodes of "24" and going to bed late.
Our trip to the airport and on the airplane was uneventful except for the announcement, 30 minutes into our flight, of some approaching violent turbulence that would make beverage service unsafe. After a few minor bumps, the announced turbulence never arrived and we had a smooth flight with NO DRINKS OR SNACKS, much to Jared's chagrin (for days he had been looking forward to being able to choose his own drink and get soda pop -a.k.a. "frizz" or "fizz"- and airplane crackers). Jared bore his disappointment with fortitude, but Camryn spent the last 30 minutes of the flight asking for juice. I finally asked a stewardess if she could please get her something and she agreed to quickly fill her sippy cup before we started our descent into Salt Lake. Despite the disappointment, the kids were both SO EXCITED to go to Grama Susan's house.
While in Utah we had several fabulous meals, courtesy of Jen, our gourmet chef-in-residence. We spent most of our time generally enjoying ourselves and visiting with relatives. The one downside of the trip was that Jared and I were hit with a fever and sore throat for a few days. We had a great Christmas celebration with lots of feasting, yummy treats and fun gifts all around. During the course of the week we finished the first season of 24 and I am now royally ticked off at the show writers. They could have at least ended a SEASON with some positive closure.
The day after Christmas I was starting to not feel too great, but Dave talked me into going skiing anyway. We had a fabulous time night skiing with Jen at Brighton, which I ended by going down my second black diamond slope, twice. Dave talked me into trying a black diamond with moguls and I was crazy enough to listen to him. (For the uninitiated skiier, moguls are basically large hard lumps of snow/ice dotted throughout the slope that you have to dodge as you ski down a slope that is way too steep to begin with. One does this because it is "more fun.") I started by expertly falling three consecutive times on the first three consecutive turns. After that, I did manage to make it down in one piece, so I tempted fate and tried the same slope again on our next time down. This time I got off to a better start and made it about a third of the way down before slipping and sliding 15 feet or so head first. I finally managed to right myself and get my skis in the right direction and made it the rest of the way, dignity partially intact. In other skiing notes, I also tried going down the half-pipe for my first time. Yes, I sailed up the sheer walls and got 3 feet of air on either side- okay I didn't get any air or even go up the walls, but I managed to make my way down it, gently turning whenever the walls started to rise, without looking very stupid or like I totally didn't know what I was doing (at least according to Jen).
Because of my black-diamond mogul adventure, I spent the next day hobbling around in a semi-crippled state. I then was hit full force by a sore throat and some holiday variety of fever/cold and spent the next few days mostly in bed or in non-strenuous activity. On Friday, Jen, Lisa and Dave were going to go skiing at Alta and I was planning on staying in bed and reading. But Dave warned me that this was my big chance to ski and suggested I could read in the lodge just as well as in bed, and I was, again, talked into going skiing. I had a great ski day, despite my less-than-perfect health and had a great time until our very last run. Near the top, we got hit by a bitterly cold wind and suddenly- for the first time that day- it occurred to me that I was freezing, hungry, tired, sick, my legs felt like jello and burned simultaneously and that I was going to die if I did not get warmth, food and a chair in a matter of minutes. Dogged determination and heroism sustained me to the end of that slope and up the rope tow and the sheer icy cliff that we had to scale to reach our car (okay- it helped that Dave carried my skis up the sheer icy cliff- what are husbands for?). After a warm drive home and a stop at Starbucks for Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Steamed Milk, I was restored to life after a narrow brush with fate. I suppose that I have finally proven myself reckless enough to deserve to be Dave's wife by skiiing while I was sick- twice in one week!
For New Year's Eve, we went to see an exhibit in the church art museum and froze whilst viewing the lights on Temple Square. Then Jen, Lisa and I concocted an amazing feast of guacamole, cereal crunch, raspberry floats, buffalo wings and brie bowl. I just have to insert here that these were no ordinary buffalo wings. I made Wingers wings (using our Wingers sauce that we got for Christmas) with real chicken wings from scratch: yes, I transformed raw pieces of chicken meat through laborious flouring, frying and baking into delectably delicious party munchies. Be impressed! Despite our late-night festivities, we managed to make our flight home the next morning.
Now that we are back at home, I was first hit by two days of complete and total overwhelm-ment (Ack! Dirty laundry and christmas presents everywhere, our christmas tree and ornaments are still sitting in our living room and Dave has to go to work again and Jared's bus comes at 7:30!). Luckily the panic soon subsided. Starting Wednesday, I was hit by a sudden wave of domesticity. I cleaned our house up and, strangely enough, it actually stayed a little bit clean. I swallowed all of my anti-craftsy principles, went to a scrapbooking party and did my very first real scrapbooking page- and enjoyed it. Thursday we had a lovely day, complete with preschool, shopping and a YMCA workout. I made a yummy unhealthy dinner (Penne with Sun-Dried Tomatoes) and actually did the dishes right afterward. Dave and I watched The Office and then replaced a light fixture, hung pictures and whacked our Christmas Tree into tiny pieces that would fit into our yard recycling bin. I was revelling in the domestic joys of keeping house (okay- maybe I've been hit with some strange sickness again). =] Or maybe this great few days has more to do with the fact that Dave has gotten home before 7:00pm every day this week! And it's Friday already!
Hope you all are doing well!
Love,
Karen
Quotes of the week:
Camryn: "Our new light looks like a spaceship."
.....
Camryn: "I'm sure glad that we live in this house."
...
Camryn: "I'm sure glad that you're my mommy!"
....
Jared: "In my world, you could keep doing what you want and never stop." (to go to the bathroom)
....
Jared: "In my world kids would do what they want all day long, but not grown-ups. They would still work."
Karen: "How exactly would this be different from what we have now?"
Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home. - Phyllis Diller
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