The Fortune's: The Fortunes' Christmas Vacation

For my New Year's wish I am praying for Global Warming. We received 18 inches of snow the weekend before leaving for Oregon, a ridiculous amount of snow for Southern Maryland. Madison and I spent Saturday morning shoveling the first 10 inches of snow and then Sunday morning shoveling 8 more inches.

We obviously survived the plane trip with no event as dramatic as the one above, but I am not anxious to repeat the trip. We spent the night before flying out at a nearby hotel. Spending the night by the airport seemed like a good idea when we bought our plane tickets, especially since we got the room as part of a park n' fly package, making the room free. Of course, as soon as we got there I questioned the wisdom. First, snow plows trapped traveler's cars with large mounds of icy snow. If a new snow fell while we were gone, our car would also be trapped. Secondly, there was no visible security, so I can only hope OnStar can find our car in Mexico when we find our Acadia stolen. But regardless of the parking situation, the worst part of the night was my sleeping situation, sleeping in a bed with Kate. I should have remembered from our night in Charlottesville that trying to sleep in a room with Kate did not work, and this night was no different. After Kate's short tirade in her portable crib, I reluctantly put her in the spare bed with me. As Shelly and Madison cuddled, I enjoyed Kate rubbing my chin, poking my eyes, and kicking my head. I eventually gave up on sleeping and sat in the bathroom and worked for most the night. The next morning I swore to Shelly, I would not get a room with Kate any time soon, and I was skeptical of the day's travel.

Christmas . . .what can I say? If you go to large family functions for the holidays, then you know the pain. Of course, we come out here for the family get-togethers and would not miss them for the world, even with the accompanying chaos.

On the 30th, Shelly and I visited Bonnie, Peter, and the boys in Corvallis, OR. I am not sure what people do in Corvallis, other than work for the university, but downtown is a yuppy's paradise. High end shops and coffee shops line the streets of downtown. We enjoyed catching up with everyone, and it continuously amazes Shelly how grown-up the boys have become. Of course, I think the boys cannot believe Shelly is a mom. On a side note, Phillip and Nick, Call me when you are ready to open your organic brewery and restaurant.

New Years was fun enough. All day on New Year's Eve Shelly's mom made Greek Pita bread. If you ever had pita bread, you know it is a real treat, and Shelly's parent make it in a secret recipe way -you know the type of recipe: a shot glass of this ingredients, the seed from a cherry pit from a tree that only grows in Greece, no set amount of flour just enough until it feels right, and a bowl big enough to give Kate a bath in. One of the fun traditions of Greek pita bread is that Shelly's family always hides a quarter in each loaf. When you divide the loaf, if your section has the quarter you will receive good luck for the new year. We ate half a dozen loafs of bread in the days after the New Year, and I think everyone got a quarter but me.

New Year's eve night we watched a movie. At 1130 (Pacific Time), the movie ended, I was about to go to bed, when Shelly's parents asked if I wanted to watch the ball drop. The ball drop? Didn't that happen 2.5 hours ago? Perhaps there was a West Coast ball (I couldn't honestly remember from living in San Diego). No, they just replay the New York Square footage, and pretend it's live -the video even says "live". I think next time I will rather go to bed at 1130.

And on the eleventh day, God said, "Let there be light."

The rain finally stopped, the clouds broke, and the sun has finally revealed itself. Of course, I am writing this blog in the car, as Shelly drives us to Portland for the night and back into the rainy weather. Oh well, regardless of the weather, a night without kids is a beautiful day.

Shelly and I had a great time in Portland! After stopping at the local outlet mall to buy Madison and Shelly new coats, we made our way to Jaimie and Taylor's house. (I will take this sentence to compliment Jaimie and Tay on the gorgeous job they did on their house and new garage.) We enjoyed catching up and drinking Jaimie and Taylor's home brews. We also enjoyed giving Reilly -Jaimie and Shelly's dog in college- a good scratch. Before we left, Jaimie and Taylor drove us around the outer parts of Portland, which only confirmed my impression that Portland, minus the weather, is a great place to live. Ironically, Portland's weather this morning was sunny and Shelly is driving us back into overcast and rainy weather.

(Shelly's brother has Plenty of stuffed animals for the girls to play with)

17 days after arriving at Shelly's parents house, it was finally time for us to return home. Thursday morning early -4:15 early- we loaded up the car and Pennie drove us to the Eugene airport. After the Christmas Day terrorist attempt, I was a little concerned on how long it would take to move through security, but one benefit of a small airport was that very few flights leave early in the morning and security was a breeze. Our first leg, an hour-and-a-half flight on a puddle jumper to Salt Lake City, was difficult, and I worried it was a precursor for the rest of the day. The man by Kate and I completely spilled over into our seat. He had a large over coat in our lap, which Kate used as napkin during breakfast, and he thought nothing of using my bag as a footstool. Worse, Kate did not sleep until the final twenty minutes of the flight. All I could think was, "Great she will sleep now and never sleep on our long leg to BWI. When we landed we did have enough time to get a cup of coffee, which made the morning somewhat more bearable, however I was still was dreading the 4.5 hour flight across the country. We were last to board the plane and as we made our way to our seats at the very back, I had a moment of hope. The row next to us appeared to be empty. "Oh please God, let whoever is supposed to sit in these seats miss their flight!" When the stewardess reported the cabin door closed, I could not help let out a small cheer, which made some people turn to look at me. I wanted to explain how a row for my 20 month old was a good thing for everyone on the flight, that she might not scream and fuss the whole flight like she did coming out, and that they might be able to read their books or take naps in peace, but I just smiled moved kate and myself to the three unoccupied seats. For the first hour, Kate climbed all over and under her two seats, and except taking a cookie she found under one of the seats, she was relatively easy. Tired, she finally crawled into my lap, and slept for the remainder of the flight. I concluded God rewarded me for spending 17 days with my in-laws by by leaving those three seats for Kate and I.