up north

After finding a pretty screaming deal on airline mile tickets, Melissa and I escaped the frigid wastelands of Utah for the balmy tropics of Alaska (where it was only -8 for a couple of days) over the Christmas holidays. It was awesome. Especially because nobody knew we were coming except my brother and his wife.

I've never seen my mom so excited about something. We were sleeping on the floor downstairs when she came in to check for something and accidentally flipped on the light. As she was trying to apologize profusely, I poked my head up and it took her a second to realize I wasn't my brother-in-law (who had mentioned sleeping over that night). Then she started saying things like 'how did you get here' and 'you're not Nick' in really high octaves while doing super fast jazz hands with skippy feet.

My sister was then next one to find out later that morning. While she was giving my mom a hug, I came up and sandwiched her from behind and started digging my chin into her back. Her only comment was 'I don't know who that is but it feels good so don't stop.' Then I bit her. When she turned around I got to hear another high pitched voice screaming something about how 'now it can be Christmas'.

My dad was the last person at the house to find out and had probably the least spectacular reaction (but still pretty spectacular considering my dad). As he followed my brother up the stairs talking about the social acceptance of wearing underwear as a towel (because being seen in a towel is apparently more acceptable than being seen in underwear, thus raising the question: would it be more appropriate to use your underwear as a towel rather than actually wearing them if you didn't have any other clothes?), I jumped out from behind the banister and tried to scare him. It took a second for him to react with a clutching of the heart and staggering halfway back down the stairs. As it turns out, the delay was due to him trying to figure out how my brother went from standing right in front of him to jumping out from behind the banister in a split second.

We hit my other two sisters and their families at a baby blessing later that morning by walking in through the side door after everyone had already taken their seats. My brother-in-law Ethan was the first to see us and commented: "Oh. My. Goodness." Then everyone else looked and another round of high voices and onslaught of hugs ensued followed by a general mobbing by the nieces and nephews.

Definitely worth it. Except for the permanent hearing loss.