December 2009

December was a superb month - mainly because three of the four weeks were spent on holiday. More importantly, work just happened to be at a stage where I could really get away and not have to think about it whilst on holiday. I didn't even bring my computer with me! It was amazing.

The first week of December was really spent slacking off at work and just waiting around for my holiday to start, and picking up a few presents for folks back home. Most of the buying I saved for home as: a) I wouldn't have to haul it across an ocean, and b) it would be cheaper in the States. By the way, I can't remember if I ever mentioned this one in my earlier translations, but "dear" = "expensive" in Britain.

I left London on 12 December, with the slightest feeling of dread about my upcoming traveling. In the next few weeks I was going to be crossing all of the Midwest in the dead of winter - that's just asking for snowstorms and delayed flights. I miraculously made it to Ohio without a hitch, and woke up to my sister's homemade sign on the bedroom door saying "Welcome Home Heather!" She's so thoughtful and precious. Also on the way home I saw Sarah Jessica Parker (actress from Sex and the City) - she had been on my flight from London to JFK! I didn't even realise until I was standing right next to her at the baggage claim, so cool! I arrived home late on a Saturday night, so the first thing we did was go to church the next morning, and after church we had lunch - at a Mexican place! It was sooooo good, I savoured every bite.

James went to New Zealand for Christmas, as his parents live there for 6 months of the year the family spends alternating Christmases in England and NZ. Life of luxury! He stopped to be with me in Kansas City for a week on his way back across the world, more on that trip later....

A few evenings later my entire family plus our exchange student from Austria, Clemens, went to a medical society dinner for my dad. It was all planned to have kids there as well, and they had rented three of those bouncy castles (indoors of course). By the end of the evening we were all in the castles, acting like kids. One of them was set up as an obstacle course where you could race another person, American Gladiators style, so my brothers and I kept racing each other. It was so much fun! And good exercise too. We went to the party with my dad's partner in his medical practice and his family, but before we went they came over a little early b/c his partner had bought a new pistol and he wanted to try it out with some target practice. My parents' house is perfect since they live on some acreage so it's not dangerous. So my dad got out his pistol as well and they both put on the headphones and stood out in the backyard having target practice. This may seem like a normal thing in America, but having lived in Britain for the last year I realised how shocked a Brit would be to see such a thing happening! I told James about it on Skype that evening and he was laughing - nervously.

Luckily, I got there just in time to see my sister's band/choir concert, and also her dance recital! This is her first year in band and choir, and she sounded great. Well, they sounded great I guess b/c I could hear only her. Her dance recital was great as always too, for her performance she was the only one who turned up! Fortunately they found another girl who knew the dance so she didn't have to do it by herself.

It was pretty low key at home for the first few days, I was good and went to work out 3-4 times a week. It's amazing how nice it is to work out when you actually have time to do it! My mom and I went to a few yoga classes too. My family also found this awesome new gym that had recently opened. They have this room that is full of games that keep you active - like dance dance revolution, the Wii, a climbing wall, etc. The best bit was this giant light-up board - one on the floor, one on the wall. There were different games you could play on these boards, for example, in dodgeball a ball of light bounces around the board and everyone has to avoid it. We went there a few times and stayed for hours without even noticing. Even my brothers liked it and they never like anything except video games!

It also snowed while I was at home, big fluffy flakes. My sister, dad and I spent the morning sledding, having snowball fights and building snowmen. So fun! Of course it mostly melted by the time Christmas rolled around, so we didn't have a white Christmas. But it was fun anyway.

My brother Matt arrived from Phoenix a few days before Christmas, and mom, Grandma and I went up to Columbus a few hours before to do some shopping! I went to all the stores I had been missing in London - J Crew, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret. Matt arrived right on time with his two little dogs - Dachshund and Chihuahua mix. They were so cute! At first they were quite scared of everyone else and just followed Matt everywhere, but by the time he left they were much more independent. Matt was the last of the kids to come home, and my mom was very pleased to have all of her chicks back in the nest.

Christmas itself was great - for Christmas eve we went up to my grandma's and had a massive meal with my aunt and uncles and cousin, and some friends of the family came over to catch up. My parents overdid themselves again and everyone got gobs of presents. My favourite present was from my grandma and was a framed picture of my great great grandparents. I also got a set of legos! I will admit that I still love legos and usually I just steal whatever legos my siblings get and build them first. But they are growing up and not asking for them anymore, so this was the first year that I actually got them myself again! It was a very grown up set though - a model of the Guggenheim museum in NYC.

A few days after Christmas the whole fam all went up to the zoo in Columbus. They always decorate the entire place with thousands of lights - it's amazing to see. It was below freezing though, so we would just hurry from one indoor exhibit to another.

I was to leave Ohio for KC on 27 December, but of course a horrible snowstorm was blowing through the Midwest and my flight was canceled. Apparently my flight was the only one that was canceled too. But then again if I had made it to Chicago (connecting city) I probably wouldn't have made it out. They did end up booking me on a later flight, but that one was canceled in the end as well. I ended up hitching a ride with my uncle, who randomly and very conveniently happened to be driving from Ohio to KC that very night. He works as a welder and the closest work he's been able to find in the last few months is all the way in KC, working on a new power plant. So we drove all night and I got to KC at about 4 am. James was already there of course, since he had come from NZ through LA he hadn't hit any of the snow. We were staying with my friend Matt Myers, who was so kind and picked him up at the airport and entertained him while I wasn't there. He took him to Taco Bell for dinner, of all places to introduce James to American cuisine. I was not pleased. :)

Ok this is getting to be a rather long entry to I will write about Kansas City and South Dakota in another one.

Lots of love to all,
Heather xoxo