Surprise!

I succeeded in surprising my entire family by flying home for Christmas on December 16!!! It was certainly the biggest surprise I've ever pulled off, thanks to my sister actually :-) And I don't think I'll be doing it again as it was a huge cause of stress to the point that I think it gave me my first gray hair. I have no problem keeping other people's secrets, but when it comes to my own (and especially if they are fun) I have a hard time.

My sister, Natalie, picked up me up at the airport along with my friend, Joni, and my brother and sister-in-law, Tim and Katrina, who were accidentally leaked the surprise two days before my arrival. My sister drove me to my parents' house and it was really fun to just ring the door bell and watch their reactions. They were very surprised! We then drove to a nearby hotel where my Turnbough relatives were staying, most of whom I'd not seen in nearly three years. I knocked on the door and watched them all go crazy at the sight of me too (although, that could've been because I looked a little scary after the trip). And finally we waited for my grandparents to arrive and they were also shocked. Sunday was the day we surprised the rest of my Crowson relatives when I arrived at church that morning. Since Christmas weekend will find us scattered throughout the country we had our Crowson family Christmas that Sunday, with all of us together for the first time in over four years. Now that's what I call special :-) I'll try to get a picture of us up soon.

Tomorrow my parents, sister, and I will make our way down to Georgia to spend Christmas with my Culpepper family (Mom's side). I haven't seen them since before I went to Japan and I think they will be surprised as well.

I'm starting to feel normal and hope the jet-lag will be gone by this weekend. There's no feeling like jet-lag (that doesn't mean it's good though). I was pretty incoherent the first day...talking about my 'week on the airplane' and hardly able to finish a sentence at all.

I will be in Nashville until January 9 when I return to Japan. So until then I may have very few (or no) entries on my blog, I'm not sure. Everybody needs a vacation, right? I hope you get one too and enjoy Christmas!!

**My apologies to any one of my friends who may find out through this blog that I am in Nashville right now. I hope no one's feelings will be hurt.