Christmas 2006 in Shenandoah, PA

First things first. Holiday travel is not as bad as you might think. Christmas snuck up on me pretty unnoticed this year, so when I realized that I was going home to Pennsylvania in less than a day, I was real excited!

My flight departed PDX around 11:00PM the night before Christmas Eve and flew overnight to Newark, NJ. I was bummed that I wasn't flying into Philly, since Tom and I just saw "Rocky Balboa" and smiled at the Philadelphia flavor. But, it was only a 2 hour drive for my mom and dad from Shenandoah. I got zero sleep on the plane. As soon as I stepped onto the aircraft, I was smacked in the face by stifling warm air with hoagie stench wafting. Disgusting. Unfortunately for me, and of course, the hoagie-eater was sitting RIGHT next to me. After housing the stinky sub, the woman beside me spent the whole night doing crossword puzzles with light beaming in my eyes.

My mom and dad were waiting for me when my flight arrived. The drive back to Shenandoah was nice. We gabbed and stopped for some breakfast. :) When we got to Shenandoah, I was real excited to find that my little buddies had made me a welcome home banner with balloons and everything!


As soon as I got home, the holiday festivities were ON. My mom made a big shrimp dinner and we visited some family. We also enjoyed treats! Here's Damian working a sucker.

My sister, Melissa, made some boilo that made the rounds with us too. It's in her EYES.

Sierra got a little piggy that she carried around with her all Christmas Eve night. She ended up barfing on it while she was waiting for Santa Claus, so a short run for the new pig. I win the award for bravery, since I shared her little bed post-piggy-puke. That's love. ;)

My mom, Sierra and I pose in front of my mom's tree and Christmas village.

I got Sierra and Damian the cutest little Camelbak Skeeter's for hiking. The liked drinking out of my "tube" when I wore my pack this past summer. Now when they visit Oregon they will be well-hydrated. Sierra said, "I want chocolate milk in mine, auntie april." Yeah right. Sierra liked her pack so much that she wore it while she opened all of her other presents! :)

Tom's smiling Oregon t-shirt was a BIG hit. Sierra was near tears when she saw that we all had one and she didn't. Kid's sizes coming soon!

Damian loves anything with wheels.
Sierra tries her first wax soda bottle and decides she doesn't like it after her first swig.
The day after Christmas, I took my mom, dad and sister to see "Rocky Balboa" and then we went to the Montfort in Hazleton for some beers. It was a really GREAT time. :)

One of the things that was pretty cool about the drive from Newark to Shenandoah was catching my first view of the new wind mills that were installed on a mountain near my parent's house. We are authorized personnel, of course, so we scored a private tour with the Superintendent who is working on the wind farms in PA and has worked on other wind farms in Oregon and other places across the U.S. Really nice guy.

We actually just started driving down the "Private" road to check out the wind mills. Some dude in a pickup was flashing his lights at us, so we stopped. He said, "Can I help you ladies with something?" My mom said, "We sorta took a wrong turn." The dude said, "I haven't heard that one before. You here to see the wind mills? Would you like a tour?" We answered with a resounding,"HELL YES!" There are 13 wind mills on this hillside.

After our private tour of the windmills, outside and inside, we visited some more relatives and then decided to go bowl a game. We originally wanted to go snow-tubing, but there was NO SNOW because of the 60-degree weather PA has been having. Here's my mom getting her bowl on:

My mom and dad are real troopers who must REALLY love me. We had to leave for Newark International at 2:30AM. Ugh. The lines were much worse on the way home. The baggage check and security lines were LONG and SLOW-MOVING. I ran to the gate with a dude who was trying to make the same flight. We got there with 15 mintues to spare. Whew. I rested most of the way back to Oregon. I was really excited to see my good friend, Mount Hood.

Mount Hood makes me smile.
As we approached Portland, I could see the cloud cover blanketing the Oregon greens and blues.
I was definitely pooped, but excited to be back home. :) Tom's friend, Clarkie, visited Oregon over new years and he was arriving a few hours after me. I knew that I would have to get my party hat ON. :)