Christmas in Phoenix
January 2, 2005 -- The week after Christmas, we ventured out to Phoenix for a third Christmas session (the first with the visiting Simpsons, the second solo). We drove out on the 29th, leaving at about 6:00. We took our chance finding a window between the formidable storms that plagued SoCal all month. We actually had a fantastic drive, with only brief rain near Palm Springs and a fog patch outside of Phoenix. We particularly enjoyed watching the full moon rise over the mountains in Palm Springs, illuminating the burgeoning casino community and silhouetting the wind turbines that stood dark sentinel over the valley. The Palo Verde nuclear plant and its ominous steam columns rising in the midnight desert were among Drew's little fascinations.

Our three and a half days in the Valley of the Sun were entirely dedicated to family time. As evidenced by the photos below, the Mehl cousins were fully immersed in the joy of being kids together. It did us all good to see them catch up and continue to foster their growing bonds. Emelie and Jillian were particularly fond of each other, usually seen tiptoeing after each other on some unknown quest or giggling softly to themselves. Sydney enjoyed being the oldest cousin (apart from Megan's time on Thursday) cemented by her roll as "babysitter" on Friday night.

Activities included (but were certainly not limited to) Christmas gifts and a bounce house at Papa and Grandma's, driving cars and playing games at CrackerJax, wild west fun at Rawhide on New Year's Day night, and brunch including the Curtises on Sunday. More memorable were the quiet moments and subtle nuances of the cousins' evolving relationships and all-too-rare time to just be kids together.

Drew and Lori also got time to catch up with the grown-ups, and get more exposure to the dramatically expanding Phoenix Metro area. North Scottsdale (and the whole north side for that matter) has grown at an unbelievable rate. What used to be the middle of the desert and inhabited solely by jackrabbits and scorpions is now crawled by moviegoers and stripmall shoppers. A little sad, a little exciting, but definitely nostalgic.

This trip was also the first major road test of the new digital camera. Have a look below at the pick of the litter.