Our trip back to Arizona started off a little frightening. A few days before we left, my missionary brother video-called our sister Rachel from Asia to tell her about this crazy recurrent dream he has been having. In this dream, which he has experienced multiple times, three bad things occur:
1) He and his girlfriend of many years break up.
2) Either Rachel and I or our parents die in a plane crash.
3) He gets captured by the native police, beat up and thrown out of the country.
Shortly after the dreams started happening, he and his girlfriend broke up in real life. It seems part one of the dream had come to pass. As he finished telling Rachel the story, he started to hang up and said casually, "Drive safe!"
Rachel bit her lip nervously. "Actually........we're flying."
His eyes went wide.
Rachel of course relayed the conversation back to me. "Well," I laughed. "Let's just hope he doesn't have prophetic dreams!"
Our flight was going fine and dandy, I started watching Game of Thrones for the first time, and we had pretty much forgotten about our brother's dream. Then, as we started our decent, the plane started shuttering violently.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the flight attendant said quickly. "We've been instructed to tell everyone to locate their nearest exit!"
Oh. Crud. My brother actually had prophetic skills! I clutched onto my seat and started saying my just-in-case last prayers, telling myself to stay totally calm because death could not be all that bad. Then, the plane stabilized and we landed just fine!
It wouldn't be a real home vacation if there weren't puppies at the Lundgreen home. This litter was Cali's third, and though the last times she had eight and nine, this time she had to have an emergency C-section because there were only three, and they were HUGE. The boy was double the size of a normal puppy! Of course, it wasn't just the litter that we got to enjoy. My mom has two more dogs and our eighteen-year-old cat Jasmine, who looks like she gained another nine lives after getting groomed. The Urness and Samuelson families also have multiple animals including rescue dogs, cats, and a horse. Needless to say, I am excited for the day when I can be established enough to buy some kittens!
We had a little high school friend group reunion. Now that two of the friends have babies and others have spouses from other states, it was difficult to get together, but it was nonetheless fun to see old faces again!
The Urness and Wood families are the most festive I have ever met! The holidays are always a blast with them, because they are well-coordinated and creative. We had our annual hayride, bringing back memories of when Dallin and I were newly dating five years ago. We hooked up the trailer to the back of the truck and sang along to Christmas carols, stopping at neighbors houses and in front of Walmart. Some of our people even ran inside to announce, "Come outside for carolers!" Needless to say, the bystanders were not nearly as enthused as we were, which made it even funnier.
We also had a cooking competition between the siblings. We were given particular ingredients that we were required to use for each round, appetizer, main course and dessert. I have never seen all of us be more competitive. The parents were the judges.
As a last bit of comedy, please note Spotify's summary of my music choices this year!
