This week is the end of the semester here at UI, and though I’ve graduated, I still hold a student-level job; therefore I am allowed to be away from work for the entirety of break, if I want. I probably won’t be doing that, but either way, my “break” from work starts Saturday, and I’m pretty excited.
Last Christmas – Willy’s and my first Christmas together – was pretty interesting. Being that we had started dating in June and got engaged in December, he had not met any of my extended family or friends in Illinois. So we decided to take a nice big long trip criss-crossing the country, traveling by plane, train, AND automobile. Now in theory this sounds exciting… and it did end up being kind of fun. But here’s what we ended up doing travel-wise:
– Flew from Spokane, WA to St Louis, MO: to see my family/friends/hometown
– Flew from St Louis, MO to San Antonio, TX: to see my brother and his family
– Took the train to Salt Lake City, then drove to Twin Falls, ID: to see Willy’s family
Though we did enjoy traveling (except for the 3-day period on the train while both having colds), it ended up taking the WHOLE BREAK. No joke. And now that we’re married and have our own place, I’m already realizing that it’s a good thing for us to not run ourselves crazy trying to get everywhere… what’s the point of a huge long break if you’re exhausted by the end of it?
So this year we’re toning things down… sort of. By that I mean that we’ll be at home for longer periods at the beginning and end of the break. On the 23rd we’re planning to head down to Twin Falls for Christmas with Willy’s family. That’ll be about an eight-hour drive. We’ll spend around a week there, then drive down to Las Vegas (eight to ten hour drive), where my parents are living now. My brother, his wife and two little girls will be there then as well, so it should be very nice! Then we’ll head back to TF to spend probably a couple more days before heading back to Moscow.
So it should be a good break, and I’m looking forward to it. Meanwhile, I haven’t bought any Christmas presents yet, my husband stayed up all night working on a final project, we have a really big pot of soup in our fridge that is really kind of gross, and I have to bake almost nine dozen cookies by Saturday. But those are all stories for another time. 🙂
girl without a country 