This Christmas I was invited to Chicago, by Aaron and TJ. TJ is Jack’s (my mother’s husband) daughter and I have met them in the past. So, Friday, I flew out of Bangor, Maine. I packed only one suit case full of cloths and gifts and had my high school backpack as a carry on. I got up at 6:30 in the morning, before the sun had rose, Chris, my neighbor gave me a ride to Bangor International Airport. BIA is a small airport, but was actually quit full, due to Christmas only two days away. I got on the plane and could not look out the window like I normally do due to overcast, so, I took out a new book, Left Behind (the first book) and started to read it. I could not help but think as I was reading it that, What if Christ came back at this very moment as I’m reading this book, and only my cloths and book were left in my seat, and the person beside me happened to pick up the book and have the answers right in her hand, assuming she was not saved.

After an hour and half, I arrived at Detroit, Michigan. The airport is enormous! I read that it is a major airport and I quickly found out that the statement was true. I arrived in the “A” section for the airport and needed to get to the “B” section, which was probably a half of mile from where I was. I quickly headed down the moving walkway, which is very neat, and descended down a flight of escalators which brought me into a tunnel under one of the runways. The tunnel was illuminated with black lights which made the jog a little more pleasant. The airport also had an Amtrak, trees and birds inside. After 10 minutes of traversing through the airport, I made it to my destination and got on the jet. I arrived to O’Hare an hour later. O’Hare is very large though I was not as impressed as I was with Detroit. After finding my way to the security gate, mom greeted me and we were off to the luggage area and than to the car. The drive from O’Hare to Oswego, a suburb of Chicago took almost an hour due to heavy traffic. We stopped at Boston Market and had a bite to eat; sales tax is 9% which is pretty high compared to Maine’s 5%. After, we headed towards their housing development, which I must say is very impressive. It was good to see Aaron and his family again. Their kids are great; I had a really good time with them. I think that spending time with them has changed my mind about having children of my own, with the right woman of course That night mom, Aaron, Josiah and I went to see “The Chronicles of Narnia”, We all really enjoyed the movie.

Saturday, we headed towards the city. The weather was overcast and a little rainy, but we still walked the streets. We walked down Miracle Mile, Marshal Fields and Sears Tower. Marshal Fields has a restaurant called “The Walnut Room”, which is supposed to be a really nice place to eat, but the wait time was 3 hours- we decided to leave and eat at the Navy Pier which was interesting, it was a Jazz club, although the musicians were not playing. The Sears Tower was really interesting to see. We watched a five minute video on Chicago’s history and than headed up to the top of the building. When we got up to the top we were not so pleasantly surprised at the zero visibility. If you pressed your face to the glass you could see down to the bottom. Chicago is nice, but its way too busy and parking is extremely expensive to park! I like the suburbs of Chicago more. That night we attended a Christmas service at their local church.

Sunday, which was Christmas, we got up early, due to the kids. We started out by reading the Christmas event and asked the kids questions about Christ’s birth. It’s such a nice feeling to hear kids answer the questions and be excited about Jesus. Shortly after we all opened our stalkings and presents. Mom and Jack got me some really nice gifts. One of my favorites is a hand carved wooden duck and a recipe book named “A man, a can, a plan”. We spent the day hanging around the house playing with our gifts, talking, etc. I called Dad and wished him a Merry Christmas.

Monday, Aaron and I went to see “King Kong” by Peter Jackson. What an amazing movie! I was a bit upset that Kong died in the end; I had never seen the original movie or the other iterations.

Tuesday marked the end of my visit and I headed home to Bangor, Maine. I already miss everyone, especially my Mom. I am looking for a job in Lynchburg, Virginia. I have been for a few months now, I really like that area, and it’s not too far from Mom.

My Dad and Karen visited me yesterday. We cooked a dinner, nothing fancy, just a simple chicken, potatoes and squash dinner, after we exchanged gifts. Dad wanted to try to play Call of Duty 2 on my Xbox 360, the last game he played was when the NES system first came out 10+ years ago. He had a good time, but needed a little more time to get used to the analog controller sticks. After, we talked for awhile and than left for the night.

Today, I went to Church and than headed to Dexter and had lunch at my grandparents. I took a few photos of their tiger cat that has hind legs that resembles a rabbit. After, we headed to Ripley to my Aunt Sandy’s camp that is on Ripley Pond. Every year each of the family members hosts a Christmas party at their home. We had a good time playing Yankee Swap and talking to each other. After a few hours I headed home for the night.

Today we climb Peaks of Otter (Sharp Top) which you can see from Mom’s porch. The hike took about an hour and half. It’s about 3,500 feet up. 3,000 feet up there’s a ledge named Buzzards Edge. I went out and there are huge rocks you can climb up on and look for miles and miles. I met a few guys there, they attend Liberty University. We talked for a few minutes. After, I met up with Mom and Jack at the top of the Sharp Top. What an amazingly beautiful view. You can look in a complete circle. There are some rocks that you can climb up on and I did, Mom was nervous but took some pretty neat photos of me. There’s a camp on top as well that people use to camp out at night. I’d love to do that sometime. We had a snack and headed back down. I wanted Mom to get a photo of me on Buzzards Edge. I climbed down too far and got stuck…. I finally was able to get out.

We headed down and went home to rest. Vacation is over… Time to go home. I know I’m going to miss Mom, Jack , Bugsy and Virginia. I am really considering moving down to VA.

Another sunny and clear Saturday! Maine has really had a great summer this year. I went up to Dad’s camp again. We went 4-wheeling with about 7 other people. We rode for about 60 miles. I got to see Big Spenser up close… what an enormous mountain. I don’t know why, but I love mountains. I plan on climbing it this fall. After awhile of Dad driving, I took my turn. We stopped at a bog to eat and rest. All of the sudden two F-22 Raptors come flying up over the mountain ridge. The military practices up north a lot. It was really neat to see them and really loud! We took off and came to some muddy trails, I decided to get a little muddy so tore up the trails. Dad like it, we both had a great time getting soaked in mud. By the time we got back to the truck, I was completely soaked in mud!

We hung out around the camp fire again. Dad and I found a bunch of things to burn. We both have a fascination with fire. The sun was starting to sit and was casting a purple / blue light over Roach Pond and Big Spenser. I took some photos of it. I left after it got dark and saw two moose crossing the road.

Happy fourth of July! What perfect weather today! Grammy and Grandpa had a cookout at their house in Dexter… a lot of the family went including mom and Jack. Mike went too. I did not bring my fireworks that Jack had bought for me in VA due to a $5000 fine the police had issued. The cookout was fun. After, mom, Jack and I went to Franky and Ann-marie’s new house on the lake. It’s beautiful, it sits on a little hill a mile into the woods right above the lake.

After, I went home and played on the computer for awhile. Then around 8:30 I went downtime to meet Mike, a college friend and watched Bangor’s fireworks show. It was pretty good. I forgot to mention that mom, Jack, Grammy and Grandpa and I went to Dexter’s fireworks show Saturday night. After Bangor’s show, I was stuck in traffic for ~40 minutes.

Still having the nice weather and am enjoying it! I wish I could go to Bar Harbor, I just don’t like going by myself. Today is the day Mom and Jack come up to Maine to visit!

I got home from work and Mom and Jack came over for supper. We had Kentucky Fried Chicken takeout. We talked for a hour or so and Jack left to visit some family. Mom and I went shopping for some plant pots for my new Aloe Vera plant she bought me. I bought some soil and a two nice pots.

We got home and watched some Stargate SG-1. After, Mom and Jack went home for the night.