Christmas

Some of my favorite moments from my Christmas vacation:

-Hearing Michael's story about throwing a grenade
-Hiking in the mountains covered in snow
-opening Christmas presents
-watching Michael play endlessly on his new iTouch
-Watching Chris put Neela up on his shoulders because the snow was too deep for her to keep up


-picking out the fabric for my new bag.
-late night whispering in the loft
-finishing Three Cups of Tea on the plane to Arizona
-Starting Mountains Beyond Mountains on the plane to Arizona
-"the big reveal"
- meeting Anna, Jerry, Kyra, and Gavin
-hiking squaw peak with Chris and Kyra. It was such a steep climb. And minus the make-out couple at the top.... it was a fantastic view.

-Dinner with the Waluk's: Shrimp stirfry, jasmine rice. chocolate pudding that Gavin mixed up. Yum.
-hiking Picachu peak. 4.2 miles rountrip, 1780 elevation gain, 4 hours or so hiking. Hand-over hand climbing with cable assistance,
-a day at the Park with Kyra and Gavin, climbing on all the kids playground equipment. (why do they always put those metal "buttons" inside the plastic slides. You will always get shocked!)
-naptime at the Ellis' place
-New Year's Eve at the Ellis household: Surf and Turf (Lobster tail and steak- yum), green beans and almonds, boiled new potatoes, yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies, margaritas, wine, beer, board games boys against girls (so sad- girls lost), watching Bob act out: Shake your Booty, seeing Mary Kate draw Donald Trump, Helio-Cat
-New Years Day skydiving at Arizona Skydiving Center. the largest skydiving center in the world. Feeling great about my Tandem buddy Joe, suiting up, skydiving "class" (a 10 minute video), signing my life away, watching Lori, Chris' Mom, suit up and practice her exiting technique, getting tons of pictures taken by Lori's incredible support group that showed up. Last minute cancellation of skydiving trip due to wind. Rescheduled for tomorrow.

-In and Out for lunch. (YUM! totally not overrated at all. worth it, although not nearly as fast as I had been lead to believe by the "IN and OUT' title.)
-Waluk reminiscing party back at the Parent's house. Tons of photos to look through, memorabilia to sort through. Had dreams of young Waluk for days afterward.
-Skydiving again, bright and early, 9 o'clock am. Suited up with complete flight suit. New Tandem guy, Matt, (not as cool as Joe). Loaded up on the plane (stomach in my throat). Climbed to 13,000 feet elevation. watched single jumpers jump out, watched Lori jump out, watched Chris jump out, having serious second thoughts, put my toes on the edge of the plane, cried out "oh shit" and got pushed out of a plane. Fell fast, hard to breathe, very cold air, couldn't remember anything I was suppose to do from "skydiving school", parachute deployed, jerked up (thank you for super tight harness), hard to believe that I am hanging from a parachute over the Arizona skyline. swallowed hard against stomach contents that wanted to come back out into the world, "had some fun" coming down in parachute (lots of twists and turns), picked out Picacho Peak on the Arizona skyline, informed my Tandem diver the joys of hiking in Arizona, watched Chris land (1st to land), waved at Lori in the parachute next to me (they brought us really close together, landed (2nd to land), kissed the ground (metaphorically), unhitched from the chute, ran over to chris for a hug and "thank-god-we-made-it" kiss, ran over to Lori to congradulate her on diving out of a plane, couldn't wipe the ridiculous grin off my face.

-Lunch with the Waluk's
-Naptime at the Ellis's
-Dinner with the Waluk's at Chicago Pizza. Super Yummy. Brocolli Spinach pizza.
-taken to the airport.
-Suffered through red-eye flight from AZ to Atlanta. Slept the 2 hour layover in Atlanta airport, boarded plane from Atlanta to Raleigh, got sick after landing in Raleigh, handed stewardess used airsick bag (always super embarrassing),
-Thank you to Hugh for picking us up.
-Slept all afternoon.