Christmas in Idaho

For the first half of my Christmas to New Years break, I went back home to visit with family and friends for a few days. I planned this trip way too late, so to keep ticket prices reasonable, I flew in on Christmas Eve, but I got there with enough time for dinner and some friends to visit. No more than 20 minutes after I arrived, my buddy and his family showed up with a bottle of wine to say hello.

I'll be honest, I love Christmas. Oh, sorry, that's not a manly thing to say... I should complain about awkward family gatherings and annoying festive atmosphere everywhere, right? Well guess what, I like Christmas lights, Trans Siberian Orchestra rocks, fancy liquor, wine, and beer is everywhere, and oh by the way I actually enjoy time with my family (contrary to what most TV Sitcoms would want you to think). I also like getting gifts for people, they may not always be a hit but who complains about getting free stuff?

Christmas. Look at those delicious cookies and then tell me you hate the holidays.

We had a fake tree for the first year ever, but I actually liked it. Look at that picture below, you are lying if you think you can tell its fake. With a high ceiling like that, a tree from a lot would cost over $100, so normally we grab a cheap permit and head into the forest to cut down our own tree. The plastic one is pretty nice though, and just think of all those happy trees that we won't kill... Bob Ross would be proud.

"Thanks for getting all those damn boxes out of my way."

Awesome, useful, not over the top, nor influenced by commercials! Sweet!

After Christmas festivities, I spent some time hanging out with friends from the High School years. Got to see a surprising number of people in the 3 days I was home. Everyone seems to be carving out a pretty awesome life for themselves! One of the nights, a case of beer spawned an idea to go shooting the next day, and we followed through with it. Had a great time out with a couple shotguns trying to hit clays. My buddy who lives in NYC put it best:

"When in Idaho..."

I don't know what it was exactly, but the clays seemed difficult to hit today. I nailed my first shot (first ever from a proper shotgun) but we were all pretty low percentage for most of the day.

Olen (above) pulled an amazing George Costanza and ended after one of his hits... I on the other hand went like 0 for 10 and the very end of the day.

Dan with the double barrel.

After the shotgun rounds, we took out Dan's handgun (I forget the model) and we shot some ground targets. Definitely a fun way to spend a day since things like snowboarding were out of the question. I left a couple days after Christmas down to South Lake Tahoe for snowboarding, New Years, casinos, and the Snowglobe Music Festival. (More on that soon)