Happy new years everyone! Here's a recap of our trip to Steamboat and New Years:

We flew into Steamboat, CO on December 24th. All of Emily's family was there, including her four sisters, some of their boyfriends (and the boyfriend's parents), her mom and step-dad, and her dad and step-mom. We all went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. The food was great (and I love Italian food), but the service was a bit slow. Sunday we woke up, ate a leisurely breakfast and all congregated at our place (Emily and I, three of her sisters, her mom and step-dad were all staying in a very large and very beautiful townhouse). Jenny and Todd brought plenty of food, which they cooked in the mid afternoon and kept us fed all day. We opened presents and played games for the rest of the day. Fun!

The next day Emily, Sara, Rob (Sara's boyfriend) and I went skiing. Emily had never been before, so she started out in the beginner lesson. Sara took an intermediate lesson while Rob and I went straight to the top of the mountain and flung ourselves off. No joke, Rob literally flung himself off, when his ski got caught and he careened off the mountain. Another skier had to lower their pole, so he could hold on and hoist himself back up. Meanwhile, Emily did not stand on two skis until her lesson was almost over. By then she was pissed off at the boring lesson. I met up with her and helped her ski down the bunny slope (which she did very well, and on two skis). That night we went to another Italian restaurant. Again the food was great.

The next day Jenny took Emily, Sara, Rob and I snowshoeing. None of us had ever been (I think) but we all had fun. At the top of the hill, Sara, Rob and I had a very dignified snowball fight. On the way down, I stopped to do flips off a large snow drift. We went into town for dinner (after searching everywhere for Kat, but that is a different story) and ate at a wonderful noodle house. I wish they had places like that in Orlando.

We took an early flight back here, but didn't get in until 10:30 pm. Time changes and layovers suck.

New Years was spent with Katie, Tanya and their boyfriends. We first ate chili at Katie's parent's house, then went to Katie's boyfriend's (whose name I can't remember now) house. We killed time playing Cranium and talking. New Years was fairly uneventful, but we had fun.