Home again

I slept on the plane.  I took some benedryll and was out.  OUT out.  Even though I sat next to Iro on the plane and Iro is the main character in the PCC night show right now.  His face is on tour-buses.  Really nice, beautiful man.  Still slept.  Didn't even care.
Getting to the airport took time.  Carpooling plans I'd made had to be changed, people were counting on me...
you know what I've found?
I am the only thing that I know always works.  
Well, that and faith.

Anyway.  I was freezing.  As we were close to landing I switched seats with Iro so that he could see Vegas from the window.  That's one of my favorite sites.  I love landing in Vegas at night. Same with Honolulu, I can see the outline of the island in light, it's really cool.  I was wearing a coat and sweatpants and the longest sleeves I had...but I was still going to freeze.
I helped Iro and Andrew (both Tahitians going to visit Utah for Christmas) find their way to baggage claim and as we came down the escalator my brother and baby sister were waiting at the bottom and they saw me first.  They pointed and called out, my dad found me right after that.  They almost blocked the end of the escalator.
So I was back.  And it was lovely.  And everyone looks a little older, a little bigger, a little taller, a little whiter, maybe a bit more tired, but very happy.  And so was I.  The first thing my sister said to me was "You're little".  HA!  Yup.  that happens.

Is it just me, or do I look REMARKABLY like my father?

We had exciting things planned for the week.  We did our traditional Santa train up in Henderson.  My brother loved trains when he was little and so we found this and it's free and you meet Santa, and it's short.  So here are some pictures from that.

And there is another train.  It's a real steam engine that has been restored and it has some cool historical background.  And it's also really really cold.
My cousins came and met us there.
Then we all went to the cactus garden.
Because we live in a desert.
When you live in a desert you don't have forests.
And the chocolate factory has a variety of cacti.
And so you decorate cacti for Christmas.
 And you sell chocolate and give a chocolate tour.
Christmas and Chocolate go hand in hand.

I. was. freezing.  They forgot to tell me about the 'leggings under your pants' rule of winter. 

And it was beautiful.  And there was hot chocolate.  And there was Christmas music.  Christmas decorations.  Christmas shopping.  Christmas spirit.  Christmas greetings.  I loved it.

But there were unplanned things too- like sitting next to Sister Montenegro at the Bonanza combined performing arts concert, getting lunch with Kathy, going shopping, getting to catch up with our local Navy, talking story with Memaw.  Later in the week I got to sing with my sisters and the Jackson girls + Hallie in church. It was really cool to see people coming back from their various walks of life.  The girls who got married, the girls visiting from school, the guys who are back from their missions....so many.  But I felt like the prodigal child of the ward.  I'm pretty sure more people in my homeward knew what I was doing than people in my school.   And everywhere I turned I was greeted with a 'Oh, we are so glad you're back and safe' exclamation and a hug.  I was simply surrounded by love.  Sister Hales was so proud of me.  Sister Adams came and thanked me for the card I'd sent her when her husband died.  Sister Thorne and Sister Johnson exclaimed that it was awesome to have most of the girls back.  Sister Yoss talked to me for a bit and was on the verge of tears when she talked about how hard it must have been for the kids to see me go.
There were more, but I'm going to stop there because I hadn't really thought about it that way.  I figured it was hardest for me to leave them.
Coming from Sister Yoss, that spoke volumes.  Volumes on mountain tops.  Not only about me but about her and the ladies in my ward, and how much they value their ward family.

Kathy dyed my hair back to where it looks like my usual.  Everyone said that I looked like a natural brunette when I went over to the dark side (probably because my father is dark-haired and I have his eyebrows).  But now that I'm blond again everyone seems to have come to the conclusion that I look more like me.  It took a long time, and a lot of odd in-between colors, but she got it back.  My neighbors are like 3rd grandparents I suppose.  Shopping, lunches, haircuts, our performances, David made me soup (and it was the best!), talking story, memories of us as wee troublemakers... I could adopt them.

I visited my high school to hit up some of my teachers.  I went to the gym with mom.  I did some calking on the garage walls.  I missed some steps, but I tried to keep my bases covered.  There's rarely a dull moment with the crowd at my house.