I am back home in San Antonio! No pictures yet, just nice to be home. We had a smooth travel experience, with the only hitch being that the airlines lost Arianna’s car seat! After some assertive discussion, we obtained a loaner and got everyone home. Today, the car seat showed up. I offered to give back the loaner, but the guy said, “Nah, just keep it. They didn’t tell me to bring it back.” So, now we have an emergency backup for the future.

We got back to my parents house and were met by my brothers and their boys and special guests Paul and Lou Downey, who are RV’ing their way through a southwestern winter. Good thing they’re not in Spokane, which received a record 18″ of snow in one day last week. They’ve had to put up with particularly windy conditions here in Texas, which beats their RV sideways at night, and fog(also unusual here in TX), but they are glad they’re not buried in snow.

As is our tradition since I left for college, we came home to hugs and hellos, then headed to the kitchen to warm up dinner: enchiladas, beans and rice! The adults ate in the dining room, and the rowdy kids ate in the kitchen. After that, some of us got in the spare room and set up the guitar and bass, and started jamming. We got Aaron to whip out his fancy pedals and get to work on the bass, and then cousin Trevor joined him. They sound great!

Today, I am helping my folks set up the laptop I got them last year. We spent hours last night organizing pictures, and this morning I’m helping them learn more about what this thing can do and how to make it easier for them to use and find things.