I'm on Christmas holidays. The only decision I have to make is when should I play my Pick Up 4 card??? (my sister)/Walnuts and raisins are the reasons why I have trust issues (my brother)

Merry merry merry Christmas everyone and a very happy new year to each and every one of you!!!!

It was a Christmas to look forward to (not like any other Christmas is not something to look forward to) as my sisters were coming home this year so the trip home started off excited.  And then suddenly started going downhill very fast.  The day we all flew out was the day that the East Coast of Canada was getting slaughtered with the winter storm.  All of our flights were affected, even the West Coasters.  My flight day started off in Baltimore and was delayed I don't know how long right off the bat.  Panic started setting in as I didn't have a huge window of a layover in Minneapolis to make my next flight and after some checking on the interwebs, there was the one and only flight out of Minneapolis to Edmonton so I knew that if I missed that flight, I was going to be stranded in Minneapolis for the evening.  Not a thought I was really welcoming.  And then I thought to myself 'well it wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't have to run through an airport' and thankfully I wore some easy fast moving shoes.  

Flight to Minneapolis was full of turbulence and I thought that the flight was going to be enjoyable when the chick beside me started popping pills and then kindly told me that she suffers from lots of flight nausea.  And I am one of those people that if I see vomit, I will vomit myself.  Yay.  Thankfully she did not get sick at all during the flight so that was a good thing.  Also, Delta, you guys rock at providing snacks during the flight but you do not rock with the fact that you did not provide any in-flight entertainment (I would have taken anything really to kill off some of the time since I was actually getting bored reading....maybe I should have switched books or something).  Get to Minneapolis and check out where my flight is leaving from and start running to the terminal. At this time, we are not uber late getting into the airport but I was running to my terminal when they were calling for preboarding.  Or should have been.  Luckily, and crappily, that flight was delayed as well.  All in all, the pilot gave it all he got and we got into Edmonton about half an hour after our scheduled landing.  Not bad all in all.  And what was the funniest part was that I had beat my sisters who were supposed to land half an hour before my originally scheduled landing.  Apparently their plane was late departing where ever it was coming from so they were late out of the gate.  Thankfully my brother and wonderful sister in law were

patient and were warm in the truck while waiting for us.  Finally we made it out of the airport, into the truck and on the highway heading to our first stop, our brother's place.  The way my day broke down was waking up at 8am EST, leaving my house at 11:26 EST (courtesy of the wonderful and fantabulous Kalyn who drove me to the airport), got into Edmonton at 8:36 MST, stepped foot into my brothers place at 11:38pm MST and my head hit the pillow at 12:55am MST.  I was up for 19 hours that travelling day.  And I am pretty sure I looked like a walking zombie.  Definitely not as glamorous as my sister is when she travels.  

Here are some of the wonderful highlights that came out of the long trip from the airport to my brothers:

• my sister was in shock and awe to learn that nothing original comes out of my brothers mouth (ie - I'm kind of a big deal)
• my sister was reading off all the instrument levels to my other sister and wonderfully and very ineptly said "646 kilometers to the East".  We all kindly pointed out that that actually meant "646 kilometers to empty".  We talked about this afterward and she realizes that she has creative intelligence.  
• my sister was telling me about Siri and how smart she is.  But then we asked our brother something that maybe Siri didn't know and that is when we realized that we don't need Siri when we have our Brother.  

I love staying out at my brothers. I am pretty sure I say this every time I go out there but it is heaven.  So peaceful and quiet and relaxing.  My brother is not the type of person who has to be doing something all the time and is content just sitting, relaxing and doing nothing.  Something that I love.  Sadly he had to work the Monday we were there but Darce was kicking around to keep us company and it was a good day.  Just bummed around for a bit, ate some good food, relaxed.  I honestly can't remember what we did that first day at my brothers.  But in the afternoon we made our way into town to become the travelling gypsies that we were this Christmas season.  The first stop was to Mom's to tell her in person that we all arrived safe and well and to drop off the crock pot that she was needing for supper on Christmas day.  We popped in, I said hello to my kitty, had a nice little chat, guilted her into making perogies, and then made our merry way to my dad's.  Where we got assaulted by Hank.  

Gotta love the Hank greetings.  He makes you feel so loved.  Had some supper at Dad's, sat around and played some cards, drank a little and then called it a night.  The next day was Christmas Eve and we did some more bumming around.  Amanda and I played some crib, had some wonderful Gingerbread Latte's and she painted my nails to become Christmas nails.  Then made some perogies for our Christmas dinner and then played some more cards.  Lots of laughter and smiles and conversation was had by all.  

Christmas morning we made our way over to our mother's.  Said our hellos again and settled in for some good times before supper.  We played some mumbly-pegs but chinese gift exchange style and out of the game, I ended up with Chester.  Adeptly named Chester the Molester, which upped my need for him.  He is pretty awesome.       He makes this weird noise like he is talking or something - kind of like the minions from Despicable Me.  I just hope he doesn't make a noise when I am going through security at the airport as that could get quite awkward.  After mumbly-pegs, we had supper which was fantabulous.  So much good food.  And then some family photos were had.  Watched Muppets Family Christmas and then Just Go With It (couldn't decide what other Christmas movie to watch).  Then called it a night.  The next day had hobbit style breakfast - first breakfast was cinnamon rolls and then second breakfast was perogies.  Then my brother came into town to pick us up and haul us out to his place again for Boxing Day.  

Boxing Day had us lounging around again.  Adam and Nat decided to be countrymen and go shoot some guns, which I think Nat enjoyed immensely.  Had a lot of good food out there as well (notice a theme going on here) and then had a wonderfully enjoyable supper with smoked turkey.  I think smoked turkey needs to be on the menu every Christmas.  It was just too delicious to pass up.  I got to the point of needing to put on some stretchy pants it was that delicious.  After supper played some Uno where lots of laughs were had and since we are Canadian, we tend to apologize when we lay a Pick Up 4 on a person.  Or you have me, who wants people to hit people with chairs.  Both ends of the spectrum really with our family when it comes to cards.  It is a no-holds bar type of deal.  

I can't really put into words what this Christmas was like.  Being around family for a week is something that we don't get a lot of with all of us being all over the country, at least Western Canada and then me being down in DC.  Doesn't really allow for all of us to be in the same place at the same time unless super planned out, which we aren't really that good for.  One year I would like to depict our Christmas/family gatherings in pictures alone just so that you can get the full extent of what it is like.  I can tell you all about the laughter and smiles but you don't really understand it until you get to see it and experience it yourself.  

The new year is upon us.  2014.  Insane.  This year is going to be crazy scary I feel.  A milestone birthday is coming up which I am not looking forward to, going to be finishing my Masters, hopefully will be getting a job in my field and with that potentially doing another big move again.  I feel like this is a scary year because I know of everything that is on my plate for this year and other years, scary stuff has just popped up without me knowing about it.  I don't know if it is better or worse knowing what is coming up.  I have way more things to do in DC though that I need to get done before I leave so for surely this year, I am going to be busy seeing everything and experiencing everything the city has to offer.  

Tomorrow I fly out to DC again.  Apparently there are winter storms again that may affect my flights so this will be fun.  The jail is calling my name as well as school.  Goodbye family.  Goodbye snow.  Goodbye Canada.  It was fun. I will miss you all very much and was happy for this time that I got to spend with my family.  We truly are a crazy bunch.  Except for Darce.  She is quiet.  It is kind of amazing how her quietness mixes in so well with our family.  Keeps us grounded somewhat.  I am quite fortunate to have her as a sister-in-law as she is pretty kick ass, especially for dealing with my brother.  

I hope everyone had wonderful and happy holidays and I wish you all a very happy, laughter filled, smiled induced and prosperous New Year!!!!