Enough

The good news is that travelling from Salt Lake City to Williamsburg last week only took 28 hours. Last year it took roughly 48. After a last-minute flight cancelation on Thursday night, I spent the night in the Minneapolis airport, scrounging a few hours of sleep in a brightly lit corner of the airport between two loud moving walkways and a cold window. But I was back in Williamsburg the next evening after a short detour through Boston.

Maybe next year I can leave SLC and arrive in Williamsburg on the same day.

Delta wins hands down, by the way, for customer service in the event of a canceled flight. Granted, it probably helped that Delta only had a few cancelled flights to deal with instead of the dozens that occurred last year. But handing out cushions, blankets, and pillows, along with rapid and informative rebooking and an “Our apologies for the inconvenience” goodie bag made for a reasonably comfortable night (for an airport, I mean).

Not quite 5-star accommodations, but maybe 4-star for an airport.
The pillow was only a little larger than the sandwich I shared with
Mom at Grove Deli earlier in the day.

Goodie bag from Delta. (The book it's propped on is Words of Radiance,
by Brandon Sanderson; I made a lot of progress on that book while I
was stuck in the airport.)

Tiny tube of toothpaste out of my goodie bag,
with a regular size tube for comparison. It
felt really good to brush my teeth after waking
up in the Minneapolis airport.

The holidays were fun and relaxing. I saw more movies and did more shopping than I usually do in an entire year.

Highlights:

• Watching the annual Bacchus Elementary Christmas Singing assembly (with many of the same songs and poems I learned when I was there . . . “AntieFlo” by Jack Prelutsky, anyone?) and spending the rest of the day with my mom.
• Going for a bike ride with my dad (in 23 degree weather) and helping him find some good-looking sunglasses (in a much warmer mall).
• Running with my brother (who is, as usual, in much better shape than I am).
• A late night grocery store visit with my sister (just like old times).
• Myriad games in the church gym with my whole family: basketball, “500” - played with a football, Frisbee, soccer, volleyball. We even did a ladder and a 60-second drill, reminiscent of high school basketball – because why wouldn’t you revert to basketball conditioning drills after not doing anything remotely similar for over a decade?
• Making chocolate frosted sugar cookies with my niece (with sprinkles).
• Board games (Tsuro was the most unique; Play Nine was easy to pick up and pleasantly diverting).
• Monopolizing a table at Village Inn for an evening of catching up and laughing with friends (thank you for your patience, Mr. Waiter).

Above all, I was just glad to spend time with my family. I had one of my most pleasant Christmases ever because it was laid back and simple and spent with the people I miss the most.

Dad & Mom, at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

The aftermath of presents. We got a late start this year
because my brother accidentally left his phone on silent
after we went to see Into the Woods the night before (and
thus didn't hear any texts, alarms, or phone calls to wake
him up as he slept in late the next morning).

It was 23 degrees when we went for a ride.
Dad very kindly gave me his huge, poofy gloves
halfway through the ride. They made a huge
difference (literally).

Skilled baker in the making. (The cookies were delectable.)

My niece brought her new doll jeep (which she is sitting
on in this picture) up to the church for our fun-day in the
gym. As she ran, pushing it up the sidewalk over ice and
snow, I wondered if she was going to slip and fall. That
meant, of course, that I was the one who slipped and fell over.

Lego Dude.

After three weeks, it was hard to come back to Williamsburg.

But come back I did.

The other good news is I’m now halfway through law school (assuming I didn’t fail my classes last semester – I’m still waiting for some grades to be posted).

I miss my family (and yes, I miss being in a state with mountains and appropriately cold winter temperatures). But three weeks enjoying the strength of my home and family was enough to keep me going for next semester. So, onward and upward I go.

Since my grandpa died, my aunt has been collecting and cataloging his artwork.
One night, her family was hosting a family pizza party when a man knocked on the door
and handed this statue to her. He told her he had received this statue from my grandpa
back in the 1970s, but he felt inspired to give it to our family. It was one the family
didn't have. What a generous gift and blessing.

* * *

One final tidbit from last semester:

If you get stir crazy in the early hours of the morning after nearly a straight week of working on a paper and staring at your computer, it’s useful to have a long apartment to run back and forth in.

Sitting in front of Grandpa's statues at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.