I'll Be Home for Christmas

We have developed a Christmas tradition where the "holiday selfie" has become almost ceremonial. I must credit myself with being the driving force of this ridiculous tradition, but I suspect when we are much older, we will look upon these pictures as a true representation of happy times.

It has never been a question that I've had to wrestle with of wanting to come home for Christmas. I'm afraid that one year during high school as a family we ventured over to Hawaii and had sort of the most depressing Christmas ever. It was completely unnatural. No snow, Santa wearing surf shorts, and big luau buffets instead of experiencing a Christmas feast surrounded by loved ones, NO THANK YOU!

When my mom suggested the possibility of coming to Queens for Christmas I knew that I had to put my foot down. Don't get me wrong, I love New York, but a part of me knew that I had to come home to see my family and friends, experience the snow once again, and be surrounded by the familiar memories that I had grown up with.

The journey home was a definite schlepp. I'm afraid the I have become accustomed to a perpetual schlepp in NYC. You sort of have to live your life like a glamorous back packer who doesn't have easy access to a home base. At all times I make sure to have my 2 books, lap top, business cards, sunglasses, a water bottle, and a granola bar on me. I have learned how to live in a concise manner, and I'm afraid that my trip to Fairbanks led me to travel only with a carry-on bag, where I brought only the bare essentials.

The actual flight home was about 7 hours, but with the 4 hour time change that equals 11 hours, and then you have to figure in layover time.

When it was all said and done, the journey home ended up taking around 20 hours. In order to get to JFK this frugal individual did not take an Uber or a Cab, instead she took it upon herself to take the subway and the airtrain, so that in itself added 3 hours to the travel time.

Fortunately when I had finally made it on the plane, I was able to travel for approximately 4.5 hours until Seattle. Once I had made it to Seattle I realized that there was no question about it. I had missed my connection. I mean it wasn't even a close call, it was a blatant miss. I therefore made my way up to the Customer Service Counter and was expecting a nightmarish situation to take place, kind of like in Home Alone, but fortunately the girl was able to find a seat for me on the next flight. After that I found that I had about 3 hours to kill, so I decided to go to a Thai restaurant, and that's where this picture was taken.

When I finally arrived home I'm afraid that my dad was the only one who was willing to brave the late night hour that I arrived (2 AM) as well as the cold weather, it was -30 below. It was so freezing that the air seriously took my breath away.

I'm afraid to say that I did not take this photo, but from my GoogleSearch options, I found this one to be capable of providing my non-Alaskan audience a picture of what it looks like when it's -30 below, the same temperature that I experienced when I arrived. Going out for the first time brought back the memories of the extreme cold and why Alaskan's are a specific type of breed that knows how to endure these cold temperatures.

Once I had made it home, I was reunited with "the animals" Kit and Willie and also my dear, sweet mother. It was amazing to experience a wonderful house, with a full fridge, and a big bedroom downstairs. Life is good back in the 'Banks,

For Christmas I strive to buy thoughtful yet inexpensive gifts. My dad and I have this ongoing joke about his weight loss. I don't know if he considers it to be so much as a joke or a nag-fest, however, I was at Fish Eddys (one of my favorite stores in the city) and came upon this plate, and knew that it was destined to be in the kitchen of my father. I must say he did give off quite a chuckle when he opened this and being the mathematician/engineer gave him the ability to utilize this plate to its fullest potential.

He is quite the chip enthusiast and one day he proudly showed me his jenga-like configuration of Kettle chips stacked on this plate, most likely defeating the purpose of the healthy portion control that this plate promotes. Here is a photo of him proudly holding up his healthy stack of chips on his "portion controlled" pedestal.

After we had opened our presents and spent a little time loafing around the house, we went over to my Aunt Beverly and Uncle Clayton's house. In preparation for this adventure I took a Benedryl as a precaution for hanging out with their over-zealous dog named "Romeo." Here is a photo that captures a rare moment with Michael and me being separated by a dog who didn't want to miss an opportunity for some quality lovin'.

To continue on with the family merriment, we had a big family gathering the next night. Unfortunately at the time a flu was sweeping the town therefore all but one of my little cousins (kids of the cousins) were not there, but it still was a great celebration. At one point my phone was laying on the coffee table and my Uncle Duane started in with the shenanigans of taking a variety of weird selfies on my phone. Basically by the end of the night this game had taken off and virtually any phone that was left unattended became up for grabs. Here are some of the photos that were taken.

Throughout this party Atticus was really the only child present, except for a brief appearance made by the lovely Cadence wearing a beautiful new dress decked out in a trend-setting new cape!

Atticus is really an amazing child. He is very calm, courteous, and inquisitive. My brother Michael was like that as a child at one point in the evening Atticus and Michael played a game of cribbage. It was amazing for us to realize that two like-minds were coming together and collaborating. Here's a photo that captures this process of playing the game.

As you can tell from these photos, my mom has quite the safari theme going on with her furniture. I'm not really sure what the initial inspiration was that led to this outlandish decorative choice, but over time everyone has just decided to go along for the ride.

I must say having this animal theme really does make present giving a lot easier. If you happen to find anything that has an animal print, you can just give it to her.

The trait of being a truly unique decorator must have initially come from her mother (my Grandma Maggie). Just before I left town I made sure to pay my grandma a visit at the Pioneer Home. When talking to her I always state how gorgeous her nails are, and in this photo taken of us our conversation centered around the beautiful state of her nails.

I had a great visit, and Fairbanks will always serve as my hometown, but New York is now where I hang my hat and call home.