Christmas Time

Can you believe Christmas has come and gone already? Every year about early November, I can’t believe it’s Christmas time again. It’s crazy how fast the days, months, and years fly by. I’m spending the holidays in Idaho, which is always tough to be away from Family during this time of year. I’m very fortunate to have some great friends here that took me in and made me part of their families for Christmas.

I spent Christmas eve with M and her Family. We ate yummy pizza, drank some beers, and played some games. They had these reindeer antlers that I just loved and wore all night. You could bend and twist them in all directions. By the end of the night I forgot I was wearing them. Here’s a pic of M and I wearing our antlers. (Juan didn’t have any antlers to wear for the photo)

At about 10, M, her parents and I walked across the street to the Presbyterian church and attended a Carol Service. It was really beautiful. They had a brass band playing while everyone came in and found their space to sit. I’ve only really been to Catholic Masses, so this Carol service was very new to me. It was structured with short passages out of the Bible followed by a hymn. These were sung by all as well as a choir. It followed the story of Jesus’ arrival and had about 8-10 different passages. At the end they lit the advent wreath candles and then came down the aisle and lit all our little candles that we held. The church lights were dimmed and we closed with singing Silent Night in beautiful flickering candlelight glow. It was really nice and warm.

It was off to bed for a good nights rest waiting for Santa to come. In the morning the dogs joined me in bed for awhile, until it was time to really wake up and open some presents :) My parents spent the night at my sister’s house, so we joined each other over a Web cam and opened our presents. Sadly, the Post office has seemingly misplaced the package my folks sent to me. Hopefully it will show up soon. It was really nice being able to see each other open our gifts. Gosh, I love technology sometimes….ok most times :)

A few days before Christmas, my friend David sneaked into my house and left me presents so I would have a special morning. He even filled mine and my puppas stockings! It was really sweet of him and made my morning that much more special.

The rest of my day continued with lots of talk and love. I took my dogs for a long walk and then headed off to my friend Tara’s Dad’s house. She’s visiting from Arizona with her 2 boys for a week, so I was so glad to be able to spend time with them. Her boys are getting big and they are such sweethearts.

River had those cool sponge creatures that are in those little pills. You put them in water and they slowly grow. I hadn’t seen those in so long, it was cool to watch how excited he was to pull out the sponge and match it up on the paper to see what animal it was.
This is Tara and I in the kitchen. In fact, this might be the only picture I have of us which seems crazy. For those who don’t know, Tara was with me when I first moved to Idaho and was doing that stream survey work out in the woods of Idaho. She was the one that saved my Zoe when we got in the terrible car wreck where we rolled the Durango over and down the hillside. She kept Zoe from being ejected out of the car thank god.

I then made my way over to M’s house and had a great afternoon and evening. There was exchanging of gifts, great food, and an evening at one of their dear friend’s house for desert. I felt very welcomed by everyone and it was great to be surrounded by so much love on Christmas, especially with my family so far away. The Seamans have really shown me so much kindness since I’ve met them, and I feel very fortunate.

On Friday I’m headed off to McCall with friends to do some snowboarding, tubing, and cross-country skiing. We’ll then bring in the New Year and start 2008 together again, like so many recent years. It’s been snowing like crazy, so it should be really fun!! I have some new studded snow tires, that kick butt, so the drive shouldn’t be too bad.

Happy Holidays to everyone and have a safe New Year. I wish everyone a year filled with lots of love and peace.