| | I left Vilnius in the middle of December, and came to stay with Nick in England for a week before our big trip to the States. First we were in Oxford for a couple days, where I got to catch up with some of his friends. One couple was having a Christmas party, and we drove down with a few of Nick's colleagues. The party was a lot of fun, with wonderful food and drink, plus the excitement of a Christmas quiz. While usually these things are quite Anglo-centric, there was a question about 'Black Friday' that I was able to answer confidently. Nick and I ended up winning, mostly because he's really good at general knowledge. The following day we headed off to Nick's parents' in Essex. It was just like last Christmas, except his parents had renovated the house a great deal. They built a conservatory (aka a sun room), turned a massive bathroom and hallway into a bedroom with an en suite toilet for me and Nick, redid the kitchen, and built an en suite with a shower in the master bedroom. Last time I was there they were in the middle of doing the kitchen, which meant lunch was usually prepared in the living room, where the microwave was. While we were in Essex, we did our Christmas shopping in Colchester (the closest city), which included buying tons of English Christmas goodies: quality street sweets, Christmas puddings, mince pies, etc. We made it over to see Nick's grandmother one evening, and were spoiled with early Christmas gifts. She's a very thoughtful woman, and even remembered that I'm a sudoku addict and bought me a little electronic sudoku machine. As always, we were taken care of very well by Nick's folks, and overfed.
We flew off to New York a few days before Christmas. It was a treat to get to make the seven-hour flight with Nick sitting next to me. Usually we do this alone on our way to see each other. We got in mid-afternoon, but spent an hour at JFK while I sorted out my phone. Finally I got a temporary number set up. If only we had the European system of interchangeable SIM cards: getting a new number is cheap, and so is pre-pay calling. We made our way into the city, where we stayed with my friends Bryan and Celia. They had a work party that night, so we couldn't do dinner. Nick and I walked across the park to Pio Pio (I can't set foot in Manhattan without getting some of their delicious chicken and tostones) for a nice dinner. We got a cab home (with "help" from a crazy homeless man who had a whistle), and tried to stay awake as long as we could. We passed out watching TV around 9:30 or so, which was actually good because we had a 4:30 am shuttle to catch our early flight to Salt Lake. The traveling went very, very smoothly. We were really lucky to miss the bad weather; it literally would have been impossible the next day. In Salt Lake, my dad met us at the airport. We were staying at my sister Kellie's house, along with my other sister Erin and her baby, since all the roommates were out of town and this way we wouldn't necessarily feel like we were putting anyone out. Besides, there aren't really any extra beds at my dad's house anymore.
We had a good visit, although there was the usual amount of sisterly bickering. Nick and I went skiing with Kellie one day, which was a lot of fun. For me at least; Nick spent most of the day learning how to get back up after falling. We babysat for Erin a couple mornings so that she could go climb at a rock-climbing gym with Kellie.
 
My friend Katie was in town for the holidays too, so we met up for dinner one night. Even though it was freezing, we went over to see the Christmas lights at the Temple. We got there too late to see the big statue of Christ, but it was still worth going for Nick to see. We also got to see my good friends the Lees. Vicki made us some amazing Chinese food (as usual), which was a wonderful treat. I made a little Christmas dinner on the 24th, and then we went to one of my step-sisters' for Christmas breakfast after opening presents at my dad and Julie's house.
Nick and I went to do some post-Christmas shopping. I'd already come down with a pretty bad cold and cough, but was suddenly hit with a pretty bad stomach bug. I was so sick I couldn't even drive all the way to my dad's house, where we were going to spend the evening. Instead I made everyone head back to Salt Lake, and had someone else do the driving. I finally felt better a few hours later, but it was pretty brutal.
 
We took a little trip down to Las Vegas to visit my grandma, who was really not doing well with her cancer at the time. She has since passed away, so it was really good that we got to see her one last time. On our way back from Vegas we stopped at Zion. It was cold and getting dark, but it was still worth the trouble. We were back in Salt Lake for New Year's Eve, but I was still feeling really bad from my cold. I was pretty sure it was a sinus infection, plus bronchitis, and decided to see a doctor for some antibiotics. I had to go to the emergency room because there was nothing closer. The antibiotics helped, but I'd already gotten Nick sick. Both of us were so tired and feeling so lousy, we went to sleep at 11:30. The next evening we flew back to New York and stayed with Celia & Bryan again. We took an overnight red-eye flight. We spent a couple hours at JFK (again!) waiting for traffic to die down. We rented a car because we had to go sort things out with my dogs. I'd arranged with a friend from high school in Las Vegas, but we had to pick them up from Brooklyn and then take them to the airport. After spending a day in the city running errands and doing a little last-minute shopping, we went and got the dogs and took them to a vet to get the paperwork for flying. It was pretty emotional for me and the girls: when we tried to leave for dinner later, they were crying so loud we had to turn around and order in. A neighbor had even stuck her head out to make sure no one was hurting the dogs. The next morning was a scramble to get to the post office and to JFK in time for the dogs' flight. Unfortunately, there was a big cold snap and it was below the temperature that's OK for the dogs to sit in the cargo area before the flight. So Nick and I turned around and drove back to Manhattan, and left the dogs with my friends. I'm so lucky to have such good friends who are so reliable. Celia eventually drove them to her parents' in Maryland, since she felt bad putting the dogs on a plane. I guess all's well that ends well. Nick and I even made our flight that same afternoon with time to kill!
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| | Posted 2/25/2008 12:18 PM - 27 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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