Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Man…I remember being a kid, and how freaking exciting Christmas Eve was. Even when I knew Santa wasn’t real, it was the most amazing night. We’d all get our PJs and watch a movie together as a family, and then it was off to bed. In my mind as a kid, I stayed up so late tossing and turning…but in reality I know it wasn’t really like that. I was probably asleep within an hour or so.

My parents, in true Heinichen family style, always waited till that last minute to wrap presents. Now that we’re all adults, they told me one year they literally stayed up all night wrapping presents and finished JUST in time for all us kids to wake up and come out for presents. They said they were falling asleep watching us unwrap. That, ladies and gents, is true parenting.

WE HAD A WHITE CHRISTMAS!

It snowed today. Like a good two inches! I went out and galavanted in the powdery snow powder. I…don’t think I’ve ever actually done that before. It was amazing. It’s so soft and it looks like sugar. It’s so sparkly, and crunchy, and it sticks to everything. It’s really quite incredible, freshly fallen snow. The cold and icy ness hasn’t fucked it up yet.

So, yeah. That was a first. I’ve never had a white christmas before, and I’ve never walked around in powder. I can see why that’s such a magical thing for skiers. It’s awesome stuff.

Anywho, we did gifts today, since it wasn’t going to to be possible tomorrow with Lena, Seth, and Henri. We went through all our secret Santas, got to see Henri playing with some of his gifts, and then we all went out to dinner after that at a Thai place just down the street from them. It was really good! I got yellow curry with chicken and it was gd delicious.

Oh, and it was SUPER exciting getting out of the restaurant because, while it was beautiful, sparkly powder on our way into the restaurant, it basically frozen-rained the entire time we were in there eating, which mean…the concrete ramp out of the front door of the restaurant had completely iced over! And Addie, then Liz, then ME came through and all fell on our asses. My fall was the dumbest of them all, because I’d seen Addie fall and then Liz fall trying to help her…and I still went in to try and help. Really smart move. But, none of us got seriously hurt. Thank baby jesus.

Then we went home and Scott drove the parents back to their hotel. We stayed with Addie and then Scott when he got home for a while longer, and then we came back to our place and packed up all of our shit for our flight out tomorrow.

This trip really has flown by. I wish I hadn’t got a cold in the middle of it. I’m definitely still not over that crap completely, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was last year. It’s been a very successful trip. I love my family.

Good night…and I hope Santa visits you all with gifts galore. Shoutout to all the parents out there making dreams come true.

This photo of Liz and the pups is before the snow even really started. It REALLY snowed for a while. It was beautiful.