time and space: Discombobulation: Christmas Review and a New Year

WHEN: December 22, 2010 - January 2, 2011
WHERE: Iowa, Minnesota

This is that unruly post, done in haste to capture the memories and events of Christmas before they are forgotten, as well as provide a segue into the new year. So, go ahead. Waste your time. Read on. :)

OK, hopefully it's not that bad, but I still have to admit that my current state in the blogosphere is one of discombobulation. I haven't had a blog post in over two weeks; so much has happened in the past two weeks; I have several posts in the line-up that I have no time for; we've been back from vacation for 5 days (and yet our suitcases are still half-full); we're still struggling to get our sleep patterns back in order; and all matter of planning, organization, and attention for the new year has been completely neglected so far on my part. Blogging is about the last thing I have time for.

To make matters worse, of all those Christmas memories, I am surprisingly devoid of pictures to show for them. This happens every Christmas. I spend all year taking thousands of pictures, then we go home to see family, where I should have all the more reason to take pictures. But my sisters and Stacie, with their cameras always at the ready, leave few moments where pictures are not being taken in mass quantity and (for the one time each year) I feel I can set my camera down and forget about taking pictures. It's delightful. And in the end, we usually all trade pictures, so I reap the benefits without the work. That's my photography philosophy during Christmas and it has served me well. I wonder if I could work that philosophy in to my day-to-day life??

Since I stopped taking pictures the day after Christmas, I only have half of our vacation recorded in pictures. This is typically the case. However, this year we had some "technical difficulties" and I was not able to get any pictures from the other cameras. All I have are my own. While I could spend more time I don't have, copying pictures from my family's blogs/Facebook/email (in a fit of redundancy), I will just offer the pictures from my camera and make this brief. Should you desire a more complete review of our vacation, read the much better-crafted posts from my sister-in-law (Christmas and New Years) or Stacie's Facebook album. And since most of you have already visited those references prior to reading this post, I think a "brief" summary on my part will be adequate, if not redundant. But then again, I already warned you about wasting your time here. :)

We didn't know why there was Kleenex hanging from the ceiling when we boarded our plane in Charleston. Then we took off and water started dripping on to Stacie's seat. Quality travel on a small, regional jet.

Our plane in Detroit. Much better!

I got to meet "Oliver", who was added to the family in October after our previous family dog, "Tigger", had to be put down. As you can see, he is a fluffy bundle of energy.

I also got to meet our first nephew, Carter. He's 2 1/2 months and almost bigger than his sister Ava ("Pagey") (20 months).

The big sister!

I followed Ava through the halls with my camera as she explored her surroundings.

This was after she broke off a wheel on her doll's stroller, running down the hall.

She was eager to help us pack...

...but tired once it was time to leave. We left town around the time of her afternoon nap but she was awake the entire 3.5-hour ride down, and the rest of the night.

We had over 10 inches of snow fall on Christmas Eve, so we wasted no time getting some of the only pictures Stace and I have in the snow. It hardly ever snowed when we were dating then it has snowed like crazy in the winters since we moved south. Go figure.

Sisters (without jackets)

Ferr and Ferr

[insert face]

Scarf Shoot 2010

I love candids. I'm not good at taking pictures of people but candids always seem to work.

Northeast Iowa received the most snow on Christmas Eve

(inches = water equivalent...we got more than 0.80 inches of snow!)

Snow cover on December 27

We had plenty of snow on the ground on Christmas, as did much of the country, but...

Snow cover on January 2

...it all melted away by New Year's!

Playing "1-2-3...throw the blanket on Pagey as she jumps to her back on the couch". Quite possibly her biggest thrill of the vacation. She would scream in excitement, jump after jump, as her hair became a mangled mess of static :)

Brushing our teeth together

Our sixth annual "Christmas morning kids couples on the couch" picture at Stacie's parents (2010)

Fifth annual (2009)

Fourth annual (2008)

Third annual (2007)

Second annual (2006) - we invited the parents this year :)

First annual (2005)

Stacie helping Pagey open her presents from us

Enjoying my time with "Carter Claus"

And Stacie's turn

Our first time at my parent's new house since helping them move in in April

Before opening presents

Everyone came over to my parents house for some fire and hot tubbing.

I don't know why it's taken me 28 winters (including 4 in college) to get a picture in the snow wearing beach garb. I had to do it before I got in the hot tub.

We had many a fire at my parents. One day I started a fire at 10am and kept it going until midnight. I like burning things :)

Philip & I - great friends since 3rd grade

Heavy fog the night before cast a frozen wonderland scene across town this morning

My parent's backyard

This is when I stopped taking pictures of our vacation. You'll have to go elsewhere for better coverage.

Watching Pagey in her bath the night before we left...

...and reading to her before she went to bed and we said goodbye.

Flying over the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities

I like aviation. I like maps. I present our flight paths.

That is the skyline of Chicago at the southern tip of Lake Michigan. After some "geographic magic" I performed the next day, I figured out we were about 125 miles from the skyline when I took this picture (see map below)! As clear as I could see the skyline, I would have never guessed we were that far away.

This poorly constructed map has no legend (good thing it's not for a grade) but it shows where the picture was taken in relation to the Chicago skyline. Orange = flight plan, turquoise = picture, pink = Chicago skyline.

Interesting geologic features and the iced-over Mississippi River in the frozen tundra of southeastern Minnesota/northwestern Wisconsin.

Pulling up to a de-icing station in Detroit before our flight took off

In the 24 years I lived in Iowa and the 4 Christmases we've flown back for since we moved, I have never even witnessed planes being de-iced, let alone one I was in. And, in my amateur opinion, we did not need the de-icing. We've flown through much worse winter conditions before. It wasn't even snowing! I care because I couldn't take pictures for the entire flight. If you've never been "de-iced", the solution they spray (as I witnessed) is a soapy mess that adheres to the plane like syrup and does not blow off even in the 500+ mph winds and 2 hours of flight. OK, I'm off that pathetic soapbox :)