And 2007 is almost over...

We're back from our Christmas in South Dakota, which was wonderful, cold and white (with the perfect snowflakes falling outside the windows while we opened presents). There's lots to tell, so I'll get right to it...

We had some excitement getting there, with our flight being canceled on the 23rd (which, unfortunately I didn't check before we drove to the airport...hope I've learned my lesson on that one). We left for the airport the next morning at 4 am, get there in plenty of time, the flight is not canceled, the plane is there...and then we board the plane, there's brake maintenance that needs done (1 hour), we fly to Minneapolis and there's another plane already at our gate so we have to wait (12 minutes).

Our next flight is leaving in about 5 minutes (so we start running...from Concourse F to concourse A...and believe me, John and I are not in the kind of shape that distance requires). Luckily once we get to concourse A, our flight has been delayed (What a relief! We will make it home!).

We are ten minutes from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but there is fog and only 1/4 mile visibility, so we'll be circling for 20 minutes to see if it gets better (needs to be 1/2 mile) and if it doesn't, we'll have to fly to Sioux City, Iowa (70 miles South) to refuel and try it again (UGH!!!!). So I spend the next fifteen minutes staring at the clouds/fog willing them to thin out, trying to figure out if they look any thinner, and I guess it does get thinner (it actually never looked any different to me) because we start our descent and land in Sioux Falls. My Dad is there (yay!) but our luggage is not (booo!!)

Long story short (or, long story a little less long) we went back and checked that afternoon, but still no luggage. It actually showed up Christmas morning--the airline had delivered it to my parents' next door neighbor's and they brought it over, complete with about an inch of powdery snow on top...I was going to include a picture of me bringing my snowy luggage into the house (grinning from ear to ear) but it turns out that one was on my Dad's camera (oops!)so....anyway

Christmas was wonderful...had the big surprise of finding a Nintendo Wii next to our stockings...John and I had totally given up on getting one for Christmas (who knew they'd be so hard to find??) but there it was! It turns out my parents (er...I mean, Santa) can do anything! Everyone enjoyed playing it for the rest of our visit...I'm an especially big fan of the fishing game and the one where you're riding a cow and trying to knock over scarecrows. There were lots of other nice gifts, too...cooking stuff for John, Fiestaware, a really warm robe, and DVDs for me. Then John helped my Mom finish up Christmas dinner (using his new food mill to mash/mill the potatoes)




The other big news (on top of getting our luggage AND a Nintendo Wii) is...

I got my wedding dress!!!

I, of course, can't post pictures or describe it because John reads my blog...but it's beautiful! I found it at a place in Sioux Falls, and I'll pick it up in May when I got back for my Mom and sister's graduations. My sister has about 45 pictures of it on her camera though, so I'll be glad to email out pictures of it once she sends them to me.

I also wanted to include the link that has pictures of the location...it'll be at a park outside of Lancaster, which has a little lake and a lodge looking over it next to a forest...it's so pretty...you can see pictures of the park and building here...