All I want for Christmas is...hiking gear?!

Be careful what you wish for, they say, and boy are they right!

I was thinking that all I want for Christmas and the new year is to be able to spend time with my husband. Except...

that seems to include hiking!

How bad can it be...right? I mean, I love walking, and I love the outdoors. So we got hiking gear for Christmas. Korea is full of mountains. Big, beautiful mountains. And little teeny, tiny, old, bent-nearly-in-half Korean people climb the mountain every day for fun and exercise. If they can do it, surely I can!

So, we get all dressed up in our hiking clothes and head out. It's a beautiful walk (about one mile) to the trail that leads to the mountain. I'm all toasty and warm in my new clothes. No problem.

Then we get to the trail leading up the mountain. This is where I stop walking. J turns around and says, "yes?" I look at him and say, "that's right; mountains go UP, don't they?!"

I hate UP. And so do my thighs. They didn't like their Christmas present at all. But...we did it. We made it. Well, maybe we didn't go all the way to the top, but we definitely climbed, and I've got the pictures to prove it!!

It's Christmas

So, it's Christmas time again. I had to put up a tree. Maybe it's not as big and grand as the one we have in storage in the states, but it's here.

Oh, yeah...that strange thing in the foreground of the picture? That's Emma: the dog from he...aven. We were't able to go to America for Christmas, but our friends were. See, they have these two beautiful baby twin girls that they wanted to take and show off to all the family and have a big christening ceremony. There was just one problem--

yes, Emma. It was just going to be too much for our friends to travel to Kansas, California, and some other place I can't remember with twin two-month-old babies AND a dog. No problem, says I. We'd LOVE to watch Emma for you while you take your little ones and show them off!

All I can say is, Emma's going home! Emma's going home! In two more days! In two more days! Wecome home, Jackie and Vince. Really!!