Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Other than falling sick the evening of Christmas day mine was terrific. I had a great time with family - my trip home was wonderful. I miss my family and it was good to have quality time with them. One of the fun things we did was take my nephew around Christmas eve to look at the lights around the neighborhoods - he is so delightful. It was also fun to see him rip into the presents - at 2.5 years of age he's totally got the hang of it!! My mom managed to pull the wool over my head and surprise me with a new ipod nano - I was convinced she had forgotten that I had asked for one. I also got a neat GPS unit for hiking - I can't wait to put it to use!! I think for the first time pretty much everyone in the family got what they wanted for Christmas - and Christmas dinner was delicious as well. Thanks, mom, for finding that great new sweet potato recipe! It's time to get back to work in Oregon - but I'm already looking forward to my next trip home this summer.