It's snowing!

I love a good storm. I am too much of an optimist to fully acknowledge that this might mean a delay to some of our plans. Right now, I'm just in love with the snow. It is white, fluffy, and not very cold here.

Perfect.

I think last night brought us ~6". We are in a lull in the storm, and snug inside getting ready for Christmas Eve Dinner, so it is easy to have warm fuzzy thoughts about our weather situation. All of that might change if family can't make it here to help eat the 13 lb turkey and 4 lb of Christmas cookies. And a change could be in store if the storm picks back up tonight and tomorrow like they are predicting.

Until then, we'll keep getting ready for What's Next.

So far, that has meant washing the dog (Izzy was a bit, well, filthy. Not good for guests ad petting, which just seems to be part of Christmas) planning When We Start What with the cooking, putting the final touches on the wrappings for gifts, shoveling the steps, changing out the shower curtain (it was time. 'nuf said), and making sure we can get to church for the family program at 4, I think E will come, too.

Next up: a fresh snow Stomp. Walk seems too normal. Ski and run are going to be hard until the groomers and plows catch up with the new snowfall........ I must admit, my hopes and wishes for new snow did not account for the possibility that new snow would mean a change to training. I'm trying to stay flexible, but too much snow to ski was not what I had considered. Ah well, I still love all the white stuff!

Merry Christmas!

Vacation

Hello blog. Long time, no see. Sorry 'bout that......

E and I are in MN on vacation. We are splitting the time between our two families, which are about 3 h apart by car. We start with the Rydholms then move on to the Hofstads. All has gone well so far. The drive was loooooong, but uneventful. The roads were dry until Des Moines, then just wet not icy. The winds were either absent or steady, no gusts. The stops were few and brief. The only slight disappointment was lunch (we normally pack food but did not get to that in time so we ended up at a Hardees. I used to crave their burgers (mushroom and swiss!) as a kid, but I have much higher standards now and was just.... disappointed. Nothing was bad, it just wasn't good. And the fries were cold.)

Since our arrival, we have been busy skiing (Murphy-Hanrehan! My first time! What a neat set of trails. Snow is good, but bring the rock skis), running, shopping, cooking/eating, even went to a movie (The Blind Side, good stuff). Last night we cooked up some dinner and headed to my sister and brother-in-law's house. It is neat for me to see my little sister all grown up, and it was a fun time to sit and visit some in person.

Today will be a run, some visiting with E's dad and Bonnie, and prep for Christmas Eve dinner, which we are cooking. It will be turkey, mashed potatoes, Fiona's green beans, and fresh, made from scratch biscuits. Today we start the turkey brine, but are trying a dry brine for the first time. Oh, and waiting for the biggest snow-storm of the past 30 years to hit. That might be a kink in our plans of travel to the Hofstads on Christmas day, but we do have the snow tires on, you never know what'll happen. We'll try and turn a new leaf with the blog and be better with updates for 2010. Or at least during this vacation. Maybe even post a few photos.

Merry Christmas, everyone!