Bienvenidos a Miami!

We headed home for a week to celebrate Christmas with the families. When Mama Sisti booked this flight months ago (she doesn't mess around), we really thought we would want to stay in the UK for Christmas, just to have a fun change. However, when the temperature dropped, Oxford emptied, and Henry's bike lock froze (so I couldn't even ride him!), we started to have a change of heart. It really didn't feel anything like Christmas around here without our families -- I needed mom's decorations, Christmas tree, hand-embroidered (by mom, of course) Vanessa-stocking, and cooking. So, needless to say, we were really excited to get back, visit with everyone, and celebrate Christmas Sisti-Snyder style.

On Wednesday, we did last-minute Christmas shopping (and laid out in the parking lot of Transmission King to catch some rays while dad was getting the car fixed) and played a ton of cards with the Sisti's (who I swear must have been practicing Spades while we were gone -- we lost every game. We, of course, attributed this to severe jetlag.) On Thursday, we spent Christmas Eve with the Sisti's. It was a blast playing with Kaitlyn and Ashley (my adorable, and shockingly energetic, nieces) and participating in the annual Yankee Swap Christmas Gift Exchange. Then on Christmas Day, the Snyders all came over for a day of opening stockings, eating, relaxing, eating, playing another Yankee Swap Gift Game, laughing, and, more eating. (If you knew how good Mama Sisti's food was, you'd understand.) Saturday was spent golfing and shopping and Sunday we visited with friends in Miami and Davie. All in all, it was a fabulous visit. We miss our families already.

The Sisti crew.

Me and the bro.

A few random highlights from the trip:

1. Watching my dad bust-a-move to Kanye West. Now I know where I get it from...

2. Watching Will laugh at the Walgreens "HINI shot" sign. Quote Will, "Look! Hiney shots! Hahaha..."

3. Watching the fam laugh at Man v. Wild when Bear Grylls made a sleeping bag out of an inside-out sheep, and called it a "sheeping bag."

4. Seeing an old family friend who said: "I remember when you used to dance on our pool table in your swimsuit." Some things never change.

5. Trying to get out of Heathrow 3 days before Christmas. We woke at 4am, left the dorm at 4:45, walked with luggage in the freezing dark cold to the 5:30am bus, took a two hour bus ride, and then stood in lines for two hours to catch a 10am plane. I have never seen 1,000 people queue for anything before, let alone to check-in for a flight. There were hoards of people. We must have gone through 9 security checkpoints, where we encountered: a lady so drunk next to us in line that she literally passed out, hitting the floor like a cut-down sequoia (airport staff put little gates around her so no one would step on her), a female guard who gave me a pat-down that I'm sure cannot be legal, a polish security officer (Vladimir) who had a crush on the V chatting me up about Poland and my little naked lady sculpture (who yes, made it home in one piece, head in tact), and finally, a security woman who took her job very seriously and interrogated Will about his aspirin for 30 minutes while I chuckled to myself (since he had just teased me about Vlad's crush, which by the way, had saved me 25 minutes of in-depth headache-medication inspection.)