There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

Yup, just returned back to Budapest after an amazing two and a half weeks at home in Colorado. While I was home and in the two days I've been back, a lot of people asked me if it was weird going home...or weird coming back. I've thought about it, and really...it was not so weird for me. At all. I really could not have asked for a better time at home, and I was equally happy about coming back here for another six glorious months. I really think that much of this attitude of mine can be attributed to a couple things: 1) I don't want to "toot my own horn" (what the heck...TOOT! TOOT!), but I think I am quite lighthearted and am enthused (sometimes too) easily. Going from place to place isn't such a bother. And, 2) something that makes all of this easier is that no matter how you leave a place, some things just never change. How wonderful. Here are some things I realized haven't changed since I've been gone from home (and I hope never do):

• Maggie will ALWAYS come greet me at the door happily, and with her tail wagging so much it seems she might fall over. I wish having her nose in my butt at these times would change, but alas, it has not. Oh well...
• Mom will always straighten up my room for me before I get home...even if I tell her not to. Her amazing spaghetti also tastes the same every time...THANK THE LORD.
• Dad still falls asleep in his chair before 9pm, without fail. He also will always say "So, wanna wake up at 5am with me to walk the dog?"...maybe someday I'll actually say yes.
• A Chipotle burrito still has such an effect on me that I actually get depressed when I see the last bite go.
• Katie (yup, she's almost 20 years old, people!) still wakes me up before the sun usually does on Christmas morning...I also hope this one NEVER changes, even when we're 80 and eating chocolate cake for breakfast. :-)
• That dang drainpipe on the side of our house (right outside my room) STILL makes the most horrible sound ever heard by human ears when there's anything more than a breeze outside.
• Camp people (or as my dad lovingly puts it, "that cult you are apart of") are still the greatest people this world has seen in my eyes.
• Hannah still wears her fluffy pink marshmallow jacket everywhere...I think she's owned it since I've known her...and I hope she wears it until she can wear it no more.
• The mountains of Colorado...they remain as the most beautiful and comforting sight to me.
• Quite possibly my favorite thing...even after being gone for any amount of time, there are those friends who see you, and everything just falls back into place as if you'd never left. Just wonderful.

Everything is still pretty much the same here in Budapest as well, thankfully (aside from the price of my metro pass increasing to 9,000 ft. Darn it!). My kids happily greeted me this morning as they always did, and of course...my bus passed and then left the bus stop while I was still waiting to cross the street, as usual. :-)