It's not very often that two consecutive posts are about trips home, that seems to be the case this time. I got rained out of a Florida testing trip earlier in December, and otherwise have not had any trips or particularly notable doings since October other than a bunch of braiding
After working through the 23rd in my case and the 24th in Sarah's, we spent Christmas morning in Pella and left for Sarah's Grandparents' midday to spend time with largely the same group that made the trek to Montana in July. We ate, played games, and exchanged white elephant gifts in the garage and had a good time.
Our flight out on Sunday evening missed some heavy snowstorms by less than a day, and we arrived with no trouble. We flew into Great Falls due to late ticket purchases, but weren't much inconvenienced.
Bozeman was first on the list Monday morning after a night at the ranch. Christmas is the only time of year I see Noah, Jean, Lydia, Emily and Sven, so I wanted to make the most of that. I am of course always glad to see Chris, Jim, and Grandma. This entailed good catching up time, wanderings around town, games, Star Wars, and good food. I wish I got to see them all more often.
Noticeably absent this trip were the usual house music session due to Tom and family being away, skiing for Sarah and I due to lack of time, and Alicia who spent Christmas in Florida with her fiance and his family. Coincidentally, had I gone to Florida, I'd have been within a half hour of them, but would have missed them by less than a week.
New Years was largely spent outside. Sarah and I sledded in the morning, skijored with Tim and Katy Peterson in the afternoon, and sparkler sledded with ACE in the evening. The Petersons and I had talked about skijoring (pulling a skier behind a horse) since before I moved to Iowa, but opportunities always seemed to literally melt away. This time around, the snow was perfect. With only women's boots handy, Katy and Sarah skied while I rode, and it was everything we imagined. No one even got hurt!
Sparkler sledding is exactly as it sounds; someone sat in a sled in Aaron and Court's driveway, and then was handed a lit sparkler to hold while sledding toward the street. Good thing this was the last night of the trip; who knows what we'd have been doing had we stayed!
Happy New Year!
