Snowed in...again.

I have one of the steepest driveways into my garage that you can imagine. On other days, I was certain that it was a heated slope, but this morning proved otherwise. As I wait for maintenance to scoop and gravel, I figured I'd fill you in on my Christmas happenings.

I left straight from work on Tuesday evening to avoid the weather that would sweep across the Midwest on Wednesday. I don't love driving in the dark, but my iPod kept me good company and there wasn't much for blowing snow except for a patch between Worthington and Sheldon. I got home and hunkered down for what was going to be a very white Christmas.

The snow came late Wednesday evening and didn't stop until Saturday morning. Unfortunately, this meant that our two great aunts wouldn't be coming for Christmas dinner and, like many other churches in the area, our Christmas Eve service was cancelled. Luckily, Dad and I had ventured out to stock up on movies, so we filled the void with a 2009 great, Up. For the rest of those snowy days we played games like Farkel and Ninety-Nine or Bust, Jenna and I took turns reading Unlikely Disciple, watched a lot of The Office, Jenna baked a fabulous cake, we ate peanut brittle and fudge, sledded down the driveway, attempted to make snow angels in four feet of snow, and took walks around our snowy and virtually motionless town. Our tradition of Christmas Day Evening with the Carlson's survived, so with good wine and soup we played a rousing game of Telephone Pictionary and Apples to Apples. Even though Christmas was certainly unusual this year, it gave us quality time with family (something you can never have too much of).

With cabin fever looming, I was able to set up dinners and coffee for the next week with some of the most fabulous OC people. I got to spend time with with my closest friends from high school, have coffee with a high school co-worker on break from law school, meet with a friend who got engaged over break, have lunch with a college roommate on break from Duke, get supper with a friend back to start student teaching, and get breakfast with friend in town from Madison. For New Year's I ventured down to Omaha for a 2007-2008 RA Reunion. We filled our time with shopping, cooking, laughing and celebrating the new year with other Northwestern friends. I also got to see LJ for a couple hours before she headed to Lincoln when we ran into another dear friend unexpectedly at DSW. All in all, I look back on break and think I could have gotten a lot more done (there are many applications to be filled out for grad school), but the social emphasis was just what I needed. Being surrounded by people you love and taking time to talk about life and encourage one another is one of the best Christmas presents I could receive and a fabulous way to start 2010.

So Cheers! to 2010, may you be full of exciting adventures, joyful reunions and unexpected blessings.

...but please, stop with all the snow.