As my dad says, "There's no rest for the wicked, and the righteous don't need it."
At 6am the morning after the marathon, we got ourselves out of bed and to the airport to get to Santorini. Needless to say, I was moving very slowly that morning.
Just a short plane ride and a few hours later we were arriving at our hotel:
Pantelia Suites in Fira.
This place was so unbelievable. I really couldn't recommend it enough.
And of course the weather was amazing, so we enjoyed the porch for a little while.
And this is what we saw when we looked out from our porch. The land form in the photo that resembles an island is actually a caldera, or a volcano. I'm pretty sure that there was an eruption in the 1950's, so it is still quite active.
And then wen went exploring around town. Please note the English signs - this place is a huge tourist trap, but one worth the visit.
And the views did not disappoint. I love how the town was built down the side of the cliff instead of where there is flat land. I guess that is the coolest thing about traveling; just learning that people around the world think differently than you do or your culture does.
We learned quickly that one of the best things about our hotel was the breakfast that was included in our room rate. We pretty much got to eat whatever we wanted - and as much of it as we wanted.
Us girls thought this photo was quite hilarious - Aaron looked like he was at the spa out on the porch eating his breakfast.
And Brooke was quite excited about our plate of fruit.
Our second full day in Santorini, we rented ATVs and rode all over the island. It was quite the adventure since I was the navigator and our map wasn't quite to scale. :) But we saw the entire island and below are the photos from the day.
A cathedral in Pyrgos.
Someone's Grandma.
Yours truly.
The beach in Perissa.
Group shot on the ATVs with the Aegean Sea in the background. It was super windy that day, so there was no way I was going out on the beach.
On our way to the beach we passed a bunch of windmills, so we went back to check them out.
And at the end of the road there was this awesome church overlooking the island.
Brooke had the guts to climb to the top of one of the windmills even though I'm pretty sure it is ready to crumble any second. But apparently Brooke was quite happy about making it to the top of the windmill in one piece. Please click on this photo to see it as large as possible. Brooke, you are welcome.
Oia is at the northern tip of the island and it took us about an hour to get there on our little ATVs.
We wanted to go up there to watch the sunset since it is on the western side of the island. My impression of Santorini was that most of it looked like the little towns on the cliff, but below is a good view of what it really looked like there. Terraced land with blue domed churches, everywhere. So beautiful.
And below is the town of Oia - pronounced "ee-ya."
We still weren't sure if this was the best place to watch the sunset, so we rode to some small beaches to see if we could get a better view. We came around the corner to find this opening in the side of a hill - and just before the boys decided to get off their ATVs and go inside, this donkey walked out and scared us all. We lovingly refer to this place as the "ass cave."
Oia turned out to be the perfect place to watch the sunset, so here is a photo I took trying to capture it. The next day we found out that Beyonce was in Oia that night. If you can spot her in this photo, I will give you lots of money. But I can guarantee that she is in one of the buildings pictured below. I wish I were kidding - the entire next day we were looking around for anyone who resembled Beyonce.
And it was quite windy. Luckily Uzi found someone to block the wind.
We scheduled a volcano and hot springs tour for the next morning and when we got down to the water, found out that the water was too choppy and the tour had been cancelled. And it was 6 euros to take the cable car back up the side of the mountain, or 5 euros to take a donkey. I thought that this was one of the funnest things we did on the entire trip.
If this didn't initiate me into the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, then I don't know what could. Uzi and I almost traded jeans right there on the side of the mountain.
It rained for a while that afternoon & evening, so we didn't do much after that except for play cards and watch the lightening for a while. Well, except for take a walk around our the staircases by our hotel.
This is when Brian almost fell through the wall. Please note the hole on the right by the pole - that is where the ceiling fell through.
Me & Uzi
Oh, Santorini, we loved you. Maybe one day we'll go back in the summer so we can lay out at the beach and avoid the wind.
(I was going to include "1 Hott British Ex-Boyfriend" on the card, but decided against it at the last minute.) I truly am grateful for the wonderful year that I had - if I counted up the laughs against the tears, it would be a million to one ratio. I count myself very fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life. Thanks for being a part of that.
And almost as full as your heart is right now, staring at these awesome photos of me.
And cookie decorating
And cable car caroling in the rain.
And in Chicago, I celebrated by standing in front of Christmas trees in every hotel I went into. My boss took more photos when we were together on Monday and Tuesday, but these are from Wednesday when I was by myself.
The Hard Rock Hotel Chicago
The Four Seasons Chicago
And the Embassy Suites Lakefront Chicago.
And one of me trying the same thing on 2 seconds later.
I love their Twelve Days of Christmas routine so much, that here it is, folks.
Due to recent events, I'm trying to fill my weekends up as much as possible with people who I know just love me. This last weekend was PERFECT for that and for that, I am extremely grateful. 
We played a lot of cards at night in our hotel room, and watched the boys do silly things. For example, in the below photo, Aaron climbed up into this little cubby above Kristy and I's bed. The next day the guys jumped down onto the roof of someone's house and Brian almost fell through a wall. Good times.
