I made it up to Portland. Whew.

Joy was good on the plane and in the airport. She got antsy here and there, for sure, but never barky. Never whiny. Only restless, which made me worried she needed to like poop or something. But, nope. It was just because she wanted me to hold her. She’s REALLY become attached to me holding her in the past couple months. I definitely want to make sure I don’t let that get out of hand, but on the plane once she’d stopped pawing asking to be let out and had kinda calmed down on her own…I took her out and held her. She looooved it. Went right to sleep. Sweet baby.

It’s a true Heinichen Christmas! The front door of my brother’s house was missing all day, because they (read: Scott, Addie and my Dad) took out the old one and are installing a new one! In rain and literal hail. If that isn’t a Heinichen Family Tradition right there, I don’t know what is. And here’s the thing: it’s hilarious, yes, and weird and “my family is so crazy” and I love selling that part of it…but it’s also one of the ways in which my family is incredibly wholesome. The reason why we do projects like that WHEN we do them is because we know the entire family will pitch in and we’ll have a good time getting the job done together. It’s absolutely an expression of love and support, even if it’s a weird one. Which is definitely is. And I love it.

So happy to be up with the fam. Sigh. Travel was remarkably easy. The cold weather up here didn’t bother me in the slightest, I was warm and comfortable in the clothes I’d chosen, all day. I got to pitch in a bit with the door stuff—though that’s mostly Scott and my Dad; those two just speak the same language sometimes, one that goes pretty much over my head.

I’m also running on four hours of sleep. For real. Ooof. Too much to do last night! I didn’t get all of it done, which I think I wrote about? I’ll actually have to check and make sure I even wrote an entry last night. But…now I’m here. Let the holidays commence.

Night night.