Back to life, back to reality...

This year's Christmas break flew by! Where did it go? I have no idea. This year was the first year I wasn't taking classes. Usually, when you're in college, classes finish up a week or so before schools let out, so things progressively slow toward the holidays but not this year. I'm done with classes! It was weird to work full steam ahead until 12/17 night when we packed up the dogs to the dog sitter and packed our own bags to head out first thing the next morning. We flew to Arkansas without a single hitch. Amazing! I know. We've had so much trouble traveling the last few years that we've just come to expect it.

In Arkansas, we got to spend some much needed time with friends and family. My sister and her husband made it in from Kentucky where she is now taking up residence and working as a surgical technician (much of my dad's family lives there, still), so we celebrated Christmas eve with my parents and sister. It was small and nice. Then we drove to Ricky's parents on Christmas Eve evening to spend the night and celebrate with Ricky's family on Christmas day.

Detour...Did I mention that it rained about 12 inches in less than 36 hours Christmas Eve and the day before? Oh, I didn't? Well, it did. And we found the remnants of a flood. The highway (67/167 near Redmond Road) was flooded. We didn't know it was flooded there (traffic was going really slowly prior to approaching the flooded area). There were no signs and once we came upon the water, we really just had to go through. When you're on a divided highway, there's nowhere to go with cars in front and behind you but forward. We did. It was scary. Probably 18 inches of water for a quarter mile or so. Believe me: I will NOT ever knowingly get in a car going through a flooded area. It was scary. We were fine, the cars kept moving, and we made it to Ricky's parents but it was not a preferable activity at all!..end detour!

We spent Christmas day with Ricky's family, and it was great. We enjoyed time with his parents, brothers (and Susan), Granny, and aunts. We went (Ricky's parents and brothers and wives) went to see Avatar. It was great. Really well done, and a good story...new version of Dances with Wolves but great. In addition to Christmas celebrations with family, we squeezed in several visits with friends.

We had lunch with Dinah, Mike, and Garrett (who I used to work with prior to coming to graduate school). We hung out with Kyle, Laura, & Abby on two occasions. We hung out with and got "shot" by John Newberry and Brittany (He's a photographer...I'll post some of those pics soon). We also met up with our friends Josh & Danica Smith (who also became a couple in Colorado summer of 2002). We made it to New Life Church, and Ricky learned the coveted salsa recipe plan from Kim Allen while I got to catch up on all the exciting things in the life of being a mom of an American Idol winner.

On New Years Eve, we traveled to Orlando. We made it after quite a bit of stress (our flight from Little Rock was delayed quite a bit, resulting in a connection that would've been missed but Southwest was gracious enough to hold our connection). We had an amazing king suite in Orlando and spent some really nice quality time with just me & Ricky. We watched new years eve fireworks from our balcony, worked out in the nice fitness center at the hotel, ate waaaay too much amazing food, visited Sea World, and laid around the hotel room watching football bowl games.

On Monday, I grudgingly came back to rainy Oregon and started back to work yesterday. Ricky is exploring the world of Professional Umpiring. It seems he's enjoying himself for the most part. It is pretty intense, though. They start at 8am and go until 5 or 6 everyday, eat dinner, do homework, and start it all again. The dogs are enjoying quality time with me, and I'm making the most of my time with just us.

Well, I hope you had a safe, relaxing, and fun Christmas break. It's crazy that it's a new year and that year is 2010. That marks the year of Ricky's 10 year high school reunion...and 10 years since we all stressed over the coming of 2000.

;-)