Christmas 2009, Part 2: Actually Christmas 2009

When last I left off, we were about to leave for Utah. Driving back was a bit long, but not too bad as virtually all of the trip was on I-15. There were some pretty strong winds along the California-Nevada border, but we all made it through. Nick rode in the backseat, which was nice of him. Paul's dad also briefly drove the car which gave Paul and I no more than 4 hrs blocks of driving and was also very nice. Paul drove right through Vegas, which was very stressful for him but went off perfectly. I know he hates to drive--especially on freeways--but it just isn't feasible for me to drive such a long distance by myself. We learned that driving on unlit highways is scary, that it is apparently entirely reasonable to drive 70 miles in the snow until someone slides off the road (not us, thankfully), and that people in Utah will drive 90 mph with no space between cars even in the most rural of environments. I really don't understand this one. There's like five cars on the highway, why must we all be crowded together? We got in pretty late on the 23rd, so we pretty much just crashed. On the 24th we did last minute shopping and wrapping in the afternoon, then headed over to my parents' for a tasty dinner and unwrapping of presents. Then we returned to Paul's house for another dinner and various Christmas traditions, including reading "When the Red Ranger Came Calling," which is horrifically sad for a children's book and has no reason being read ever, much less Christmas. I secretly think Paul's dad forces us to read it every year just to see us cry (or at least me). After that, we all went to bed. In the morning, we opened presents with Paul's family. There was much rejoicing in books and CDs and DVDs and clothing and so on. In the afternoon, we went back to my parents' to eat Christmas dinner and see what my siblings had gotten from Santa. There was a fair amount of Rock Banding. Eventually, Paul and I returned to his parents' house and crashed again. You may note there is a lot of crashing going on. This is because multiple holiday excursions and visits and celebrations are very tiring.