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December 31, 2005
Christmas 2005
Cookies with Santa: Pittsburgh, PA
My first Christmas this year took place in Pittsburgh with three of my siblings, their families and a cousin. The weekend was filled with eating, shopping, opening gifts, an uncles v. cousins snowball fight and a much anticipated photo shoot with Santa. (I kept my distance from the jolly fella, there would have been too much explaining to do.) On Sunday night, one of my adorable nieces curled up on my lap and fell asleep, I took advantage of the opportunity to catnap as well, which ended viciously with the flash on my sister's camera going off in my face.
Colorado or Bust
On Christmas Eve eve, I loaded up my little Hyundai for the 19 hour trip to Loveland, CO, and pulled out of town with a stereo system that would make any audiophile cringe. After many gallons of gas, four bottles of Gatorade and an overnight in Kansas, I arrived in Loveland in time for a game of "Sorry" with my 7 year old nieces, just ahead of Santa's sleigh. Christmas Day became a multi-cultural event for me as we spent it with some of their Spanish-speaking friends and relatives in Denver. Two days after Christmas an outing into Denver to tour the Hammond's Candies factory turned into a real adventure as we were involved in a traffic accident on a very busy Interstate. Fortunately, the accident was much less serious than it could have been. Although the other driver was experiencing back pain later that evening, and there were some sore muscles after the fact, none of us were seriously injured.
Wednesday provided perfect opportunity for photo shoots in Loveland's parks, and some of those pictures may appear here soon. (They would be here now, but my cd was held hostage by the machine at the King Sooper until after I left town, and I will have to wait for them to arrive by mail.) Thursday we were finally able to tour the candy factory, and then I headed east, much more aware of my personal bubble space on the Interstate. I think I'm fully recovered from the 2680 miles logged, and let me just add, it was worth every mile.
Posted by Anna at December 31, 2005 6:23 PM