Phoenix Pre-Christmas Celebration

Hello from chilly Cleveland! It's kind of weird to be blogging from home, about Phoenix, while Rob is still in Phoenix, but I am trying to not get so behind on updates. Last weekend, after my ridiculous amount of portfolio grading, I was able to relax a bit and start truly getting in the Christmas spirit. My mom had sent us a fantastic pre-Christmas care package, with an evergreen scented candle and a gingerbread house kit, among other delightful surprises. Rob got a bit frustrated with me when we were building the house because I was too impatient and didn't want to wait for the frosting to harden to keep the house together before I started decorating. Despite my lil kid impatience, our house turned out quite well. Here are a few pictures.

Intense concentration from us both.

Let's compare. Above is my messing job of frosting the windows and below is Rob's. Impatience/terrible artistic skills on my half. I'm a lil embarrassed.

The finished product!

Our Christmas present to each other this year was a night flight to look at Christmas lights. Rob had done a night flight two years ago during his training, and thought I would really like to see the lights from a helicopter. Unfortunately, there weren't quite as many houses with lights up this year. I still had a great time in the helicopter and loved seeing the lights that were there. We were even able to find our apartment by using the car dealership across the street and the lights around our door as landmarks. I tried to take a few pictures, but it was hard in the dark to get them to turn out. Nevertheless, here they are.

 

The diagonal strand of lights in the picture above is the highway...I'm pretty sure. And in the picture below, I thought it was cool how the blue LED lights stood out.

Our last piece of Christmas celebration before I headed home was Zoo Lights! The electric company that puts on Zoo Lights sent out bogo admission coups for Wednesdays, so we headed to the Phoenix Zoo (with the rest of Phoenix it seemed like!). After waiting in a long line, we were finally able to see the lights. I had never been to Zoo Lights before (in Phoenix or Cleveland) and was a little disappointed that they had roped off part of the zoo rather than covering the entire thing with lights. Still, it was really cool to see them all...I was quite impressed.

flamingos! Rob's Aunt Sue's favorite :)

giraffes are my favorite animal :)

pretty lit up trees :)

cactus! lit up desert landscape :)

and penguins :)

Rob and I went out to dinner at Oregano's, one of our favorite Phoenix restaurants. We sat out on the back patio, under the heaters (Rob was sweating!) and had Chicago style pizza and pizzookie for dessert (my absolute favorite!). Then, I took a red-eye flight home. It left Phoenix at 12:30 am and landed in Cleveland at 6:15. Not the greatest night of sleep ever, but it was great to be done with school for the semester and home. The entire family picked me up and we had breakfast at Einstein's. I napped a bit, visited with Grandma, Grandpa, Cindy and John, went to church with Mom, Adam's basketball game and the Morini's annual Christmas party. Busy, busy! We were up early again today to celebrate Christmas in Lancaster. It had been quite some time since I had seen everyone in Lancaster, and it was great to catch up with them all. It will be a busy week, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone and Rob coming into town on Thursday morning :) See many of you soon! Love, Sarah (and Rob too!)