Christmas in Lincoln

Started: 2026-01-06 19:56:03

Submitted: 2026-01-06 22:23:22

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Heading to Nebraska for Christmas

For Christmas we planned an ambitious travel itinerary starting with visiting my brother Willy in Lincoln, Nebraska for Christmas; then dropping by my sister who moved to Kansas City this year and just had a baby; then flying to Colorado to go skiing at Winter Park; and finally taking the California Zephyr overnight train all the way home. (This plan was nearly derailed by some job-involved shenanigans but in the end I decided to stick with the planned travel rather than rearrange my schedule to meet someone else's whims.)

We flew from SFO to Omaha on Christmas Eve, as a storm blew in from the Pacific Ocean bringing wind and rain to the Bay Area and snow to the Sierras. The power blipped a few times overnight, and as drove to the airport the roads were littered with leaves and small branches that had been blown off the trees. (None of the debris were large enough to affect our travel.) As we arrived at SFO long-term parking the staff were directing vehicles to park in every available paved spot, at the end of aisles and along the roadways and in not-spaces that were painted off, any available space where a vehicle could park even if it wasn't formally a space.

After we took off from SFO the flight crew announced that we should expect turbulence until we passed Denver (two hours into the three-hour flight). This turned out to be correct; the air was bumpy enough that the cabin crew stayed seated for most of the flight, and only as we were in the air above Colorado did they step out into the aisle to take drink orders and serve them (Southwest-style, rather than rolling the drink cart down the aisle). I turned on my most calming playlist while the plane bounced around me. (It might not have helped that I was sitting in at the very back of the ERJ-175 regional jet, so the ride was bumpier for me than it was closer to the center of gravity of the plane.) On our way across Colorado we flew over Rocky Mountain National Park; I spotted the Never Summer Mountains and the Mummy Range (and noticed a distressing lack of snow over the Mummies; it looked like one could traverse most of the ridges without ever touching snow). As soon as we passed the Rockies (and flew over Fort Collins, where I spotted the campus of Colorado State University) the air settled down and we enjoyed the last hour of the flight in relative calm.

Plume rising through the clouds above Walter Scott Jr. power station

The skies were clear and calm over most of Nebraska, giving me the opportunity to see the Platte river and I-80 as they traversed the state. As we approached Omaha low clouds appeared to block my view of the city. (I checked the GPS app on my phone as we descended through the top of the cloud layer and it read 2300 feet.) We looped over Iowa to approach the airport's longest runway from the south-east and I noticed a plume rising from the general area of a power plant outside Council Bluffs, across the road from the Google datacenter complex that hosts the VM that hosts this blog. I recorded the location as we passed the plume and confirmed later that I took this picture just as we were passing the power plant.

My brother's house in Lincoln is not large enough to accommodate my entire family as guests, so we stayed in an Airbnb that happened to be around the corner in his neighborhood, in a house that was also built in 1925 that looked very much like his house except that it had been updated differently in the last hundred years (and, as he kept pointing out, the roofline was different).

We arrived in Lincoln in time to dress for Christmas Eve dinner, at Willy's request, in formal attire. (I wear a suit rarely enough that it kind of feels like dress-up. But I still know how to wear a tie properly, not dangling down by my knees.)

Christmas Day

We returned to Willy's house on Christmas morning to open stockings and eat breakfast, then open Christmas presents. (We observed our nuclear family Christmas on Sunday, which happened to be the solstice, eating cheese fondue then opening presents within the family. I ordered the presents I gave well in advance of our Christmas observed but they barely arrived in time for our celebration.) As is usually in my family, the adults drew names for Christmas presents, and I drew my sister-in-law Vero. I ordered her gift well in advance but it didn't arrive at my house until Christmas Eve, after we left for the airport, so I had to provide an additional gift (a Santa Cruz Skateboards logo water bottle, which I could buy locally) and mail the gift once we returned home to collect it.

(I was worried about our luggage as the kids kept opening gifts, because we would have to carry everything around with us for another week-and-a-half; but we arrived in Lincoln with half of one of our suitcases dedicated to gifts for my niece Harriet so we were able to exchange the volume for the gifts we received and it all worked out in the end.)

Calvin leads the Christmas walk to the park

After opening presents we walked down to the nearby park, which was completely empty on Christmas afternoon. The day was overcast so we couldn't tell if the sun was properly unconquered.

BART and Caltrain holiday sweaters

I wore my BART holiday sweater and my father put on his coordinating Caltrain holiday sweater so we stood next to each other to replicate Milbrae station, the only place where these two systems meet. (We wore the sweaters corresponding to the heavy rail systems we rode to commute to our office jobs in SoMa.)

Cooking, eating, and cleaning up after Christmas dinner took much of the rest of the day, followed by the bedtime routine for my toddler niece. We returned to our Airbnb around the corner after spending a cozy Christmas with my family.