The Visit

In this post I mentioned we had a special friend visiting us. I finally have time to post some pictures from her visit. Gigi, a former student and friend of mine from when I lived in Macau, came to visit us for 2 weeks in December. Gigi has made it a tradition of seeing us every 2 years. She came in 2005 for our wedding and 2007 during summertime. This visit was her first winter experience and first Christmas in the US. What a great time we had sharing our traditions with her.

Can you imagine the delight and joy of seeing snow fall from the sky for the first time? I see it all the time in my international students, and Gigi was no different in her excitement. This is the first snowfall we had.

We tried to cram a lot into 2 weeks, especially since she was battling major jet lag the first week. We went sledding twice. The second time being much more icier and scarier (I had to abandon my sled otherwise I would have hit a tree!).

We even had Scott join us the first time- complete with his work shoes and clothing!

After the first initial snowfall, we didn't get much more significant snowfall, which was disappointing. We did, however, have a lot of frost in the mornings. This was a beautiful sight on the trees.

We took a trip to see the elk feeding ground and get up close with these animals.

This definitely is not a sight you see in the crowded city of Macau.

We were able to celebrate some of Advent and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Gigi. She had her own stocking and we ate Christmas cookies and made a gingerbread house.

We tried out the new snowshoes Scott and I got for Christmas.

We went skiing as well.

Gigi did exceptionally well for having never skied before.

We did a lot of shopping- all 3 of us! We ate a lot of food- Gigi loves Mexican food. But most of all, we had a lot of fun. Those 2 weeks flew by. And to think I was worried there wouldn't be enough to do. We found plenty to keep us busy, and those times that we didn't feel like doing anything were spent chatting and catching up.

It was such a great visit and Gigi is such a special friend to us. There aren't many people that travel halfway around the world to visit us. We can't even get some of our family members to visit us as much as Gigi has! Here's to hoping we see her again in another 2 years- to 2011!