a Portland Christmas.

The holiday rotations have begun and I'm happy to report that I survived a Christmas sans my family. It was in fact the first Christmas I've ever spent without my parents, but then again they were off galavanting around the east coast in search of a new Christmas experience themselves. I was doing pretty well until a couple of Micah's aunts asked me how I was doing being away from family and that's when I had to take a bit of a breather to recollect myself. But, all in all I had a great time. There was lots of family and food and friends, as well as caroling a number of Christmas songs for added cheer. I heard family secrets and laughed at memories long past. And above all I was inducted into the family "out-law" support group.

And I spent time with Sammy. Don't be fooled by the picture's distortion of his body weight; he is one of the fattest cats I've ever met.

Christmas morning, the immediate family opened presents around the tree. I got the added bonus of unwrapping a birthday present!

After the gifts, it was on to bigger planning for the day's family (Micah's mom's side) get together. First let me explain that Micah's mom has 5 siblings, and all but one are married and have kids. There aren't any great grandchildren in the picture, but I'm going to go out on a ledge and say 24 people all under one roof was enough for me to handle! 24 people is a lot of people, and devising table plans to fit everyone was quite challenging. However, I must boast that Micah was the one to geographically arrange things so everyone would fit in the living room/dining room area. I should have taken a picture of everyone eating, because it was a sight to behold.

Nana and Papa. How cute is he in that red vest!

Micah's cousins Rachel and Ally, and me.

And here's the whole gang, minus Aunt Denise who was taking the photo.

I must ad that I was pretty happy when I found out there was an after party with wine involved after all the festivities. It was a nice way to unwind from all the Christmas cheer. (:

The following day was Christmas with Micah's dad's side of the family. I had done this one once before in 2007, so I had an idea of what to expect. His side isn't as big, but we still had a show of 16 people! The Rice family does Christmas at Uncle Mike and Aunt Sandy's farm southeast of Portland. They own lots of horses and Wilbur the pig, along with chickens and goats that have increasing risen in population size since the last time I was there.

Fortunately, before the big event, Micah and I were able to slip away to hang out with Robert and Vanessa.

We got Stumptown coffee, which as I've previously mentioned should be on the top 10 things to do in Portland. Then, we grabbed Thai food that not only made me want to decide at that very moment never to return to Denver, but beat out most yellow curries that I'd had in San Francisco.

On to Mike and Sandy's. We ate tacos and toured the barn (petting goats and horses and avoiding large piles of stuff they'd left behind). We opened presents and I hung out with Lucky the dog.

Micah and I.

Newest addition Anson.

Lucky the dog.

Micah's parents.

Crystal, Micah, Me, and Tana.

I have no pictures from Sunday, but it was a bit more relaxing. Church, Chinese food, visit with Nana, and Sherlock Holmes movie. I had no expectations for the movie, since I really had heard little about it. It was entertaining, scary at times, but entertaining nonetheless.

Monday, Micah and I got a chance to hang out with Kelly, who is a real life Portland hipster and has been friends with Micah since they were 2 (or so). We got sushi, which was on my to-do list, and visited Stumptown again. I'm happy to report that we got some beans to take home with us. Then, we drove around and around and around Portland. Kelly's a great tour guide, ready and willing to point out every favorite spot and give a story to go along with it.

I did see something that reminded me of the rockies.

Tuesday was supposed to be our last day in Portland. Our flight was scheduled for 5:55 pm. Micah and I were able to visit Nana and Papa one last time. Nana has been dealing with an array of health problems, so it was good to be able to spend some extra time with them her and for the family to be all together again.

Crystal, Me, Micah, Nana, Charlie, Karen, and Tana.

The siblings plus me at lunch.

Afterwards, we braved the beginning snow to Papa's house.

Papa is from Macedonia and still retains the cutest of accents. He's in the beginning stages of alzheimer's. While he holds on to his long term memory, his short term is slipping. I can't imagine what it is like for him to have to rely more and more on those around him, while his wife's health remains in limbo. But, he has a joy about him. His smile makes me smile. He cracks jokes and it is so very obvious the love that his family has for him.

The family filled Christmas vacation does not end there. Unfortunately, the unpredicted snow continued to fall and made getting to the airport a disaster. Seriously, there were cars all over the place, out of lanes, making their own lanes, trapped, spinning, and stuck. In fact, there was a bus trying to pass (going up a hill) a broken down bus and it just kept sliding into oncoming traffic. It was terrifying! And once we made it to the airport 25 minutes before the flight, we ran like mad to make it to our gate only to find out it was going to be delayed so long that we would miss our connecting flight in Vegas. After all the stress, we ended up in an airport bar before getting picked up by Micah's aunt and uncle. My glass of wine was a welcome relief! Oh well, staying another night in Portland was much better than the thought of being sprawled out for the night in the Las Vegas airport. And, we did make it home. Save and sound and SICK (with colds).

Happy New Year's EVE!