Because he had Thanksgiving off, he worked Christmas, so I went to Baltimore for the week to be with my family (unfortunately, my mom has all the pictures!). Before I left, we helped our neighbors Noah and Julia decorate their tree.
We also participated in a White Elephant party with the interns. We became the proud new owners of a bottle of wine, some chocolate, and a beautiful picture of the baby Jesus:
Adam's cousins were gracious enough to let us borrow their Tahoe house for New Year's. We drove up and marveled at the change of scenery, from the water to rolling green hills to the valley to the high elevation and pine trees covered in snow. This is a picture taken on my phone while we were driving:
The house was perfectly located and so spacious. We read books and watched TV, finished a puzzle, and attempted and failed to light a fire pretty much every night. It was incredibly relaxing and just what we needed to reconnect after a week apart and months of hectic schedules.
We also spent the first day skiing...my first time in probably 15 years, and Adam's first time in probably 10. We were very glad to have rented ski pants, as it was fuh-reeeeezing, and I ended up spending plenty of time on my butt. We started with a lesson, which built up our confidence, but it turns out that I'm pretty terrified of going down a steep slick hill on 2 wedges of metal. Adam spent some time laughing at me, and I promised to come back to Tahoe...as long as he didn't make me downhill ski.
(this picture is for scale--you can see how tall the piles of snow are next to me!)
The next day, we tried cross-country skiing (my first time, and Adam had maybe been once or twice before). It took a while to figure out, (I may have fallen within the 1st 10 minutes...twice...) but we really enjoyed it once we got the hang of things. We did one of the beginner trails and got lost in the beauty and serenity of the pines covered in snow. It was quiet and peaceful but also challenging. At one point, we couldn't figure out how to get up a steepish hill, and after slipping backwards several times, realized we had to go step-by-step sideways. Adam had the camera, so I'm in all of the pictures from the day.
We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home because we both had the rest of the week off (Adam's 2nd week-long vacation!), and we planned to have friends over and be as social as possible. The next morning, when I went into the kitchen to make breakfast, I noticed bits of the trail mix that Adam had opened the night before scattered on the shelf. When I asked him about it, he was confused, so I looked through the rest of our groceries. I noticed small holes in the wrappers, bits of chewed granola bar, etc.
Yup...we left for 3 days and mice moved in. UGH. It turns out that the community garden across the street was being completely removed, causing the mice to move into nearby buildings. We had to clean out e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. from the pantry and put what was salvageable in glass or thick plastic containers. Our loot (so sad!):
We recovered by lighting a fire and trying to relax after a fantastic week, despite coming home to new furry friends.
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