I'm ba-ack
Britney Spears weds childhood friend and US Weekly didn't give me any hint that it was going to happen? What has this world come to?

Ah, vacation. hmm.

The movies: LOTR: ROTK again (awesome, even though my sister found it way too violent). Cold Mountain (pretty damn bad, utterly predictable, melodramatic, and not nearly as good as the book, obviously). Fog of War (Great! And look carefully--the man in profile at the foot of the cuban missile crisis table pictures and then walking behind LBJ in a tape clip is my grandfather). Also saw Under the Sand, which was pretty awful, on DVD. And then with the cold war theme hangover we had to watch Thirteen Days even though it pretty much sucks (but if you listen carefully, when they are talking about firing everybody, bobby Kennedy (I think) says to JFK "leave Neat-ze and Gailbraith in charge...", which validates, Hollywood style, the trauma of my mother's 15th birthday).

The places: Boston, same as always. Aspen, great fun and lots more snow then usual (especially as I tried to leave yesterday. my sister and her husband ended up driving to Denver).

The holidays: Christmas, very traditional, lots of fun, fewer fights than usual (the "which church to go to" fight was solved, unexpectedly, by my brother-in-law who has joined the choir of my stepdad's church). New Year's: in the dead middle of the world. A Beautiful sleigh ride out at 8pm lasted just long enough--when we arrived the "I'm too damn cold" feeling was just beginning to hit. The food ranged from perfectly amazing (the appetizers) to so-so (my overcooked entree), but considering the inaccessibility of the place, that seemed reasonable. And of course there was plenty of wine and champagne and family.

I didn't write Christmas cards this year because I'm a terrible person. So if you are one of the many very lovely people who sent one, I am very sorry not to have responded. Next year.

Skiing was lots of fun. One celebrity sighting (Melanie Griffith), unless the person I told off about cutting the Cold Mountain line was indeed Roy Scheider as I'm afraid it may have been.
My youngest cousin (he's 18 and a freshmen at University of Denver) tore his ACL skiing on the first day, which is no fun. He had to have surgery on New Year's Eve. Double no fun.
My other 18-year-old cousin, actually the oldest son of my oldest cousin (i.e. my first-cousin-once-removed), dropped out of Vanderbilt and enlisted in the Marines--not ROTC, not OCS, straight up and off to basic training. Reasons why are fuzzy, he had gotten into the best frat and seemed to be making friends. His grandparents, my aunt and uncle, suspect there was a little too much partying in his life and he wanted to straighten out. No one thinks it had anything to do with the war or excessive patriotism, and everyone seems a little shocked.

Where is the snow? We were supposed to get 6 inches by morning, nothing doing so far. Sigh.

I still need to unpack and open mail. I was greeted (so sweetly) by flowers and a giant bear with a "welcome home" sign, courtesy of the boy. He'd also made cheesecake, which was in my fridge with a "don't eat me!" sign.

More later, I suppose.
- posted by Heidi @ 9:39 AM