Snowmageddon

As Jason and I drove to work the other day, listening to the outrageous weather report on the radio, we wondered what it will be like when someday we move to an area that doesn't freak out when it snows. I'm pretty convinced that there are areas of the country where people actually drive, work, and go to school when it snows. Here? People usually refuse to leave their houses when the first few flakes fall. It is pretty difficult to explain to Idahoans who call our office that the Congressman's staff is all at home because it is snowing--as we tell our interns, it's not that you can't drive on snowy roads, it's that no one else on the road can.


But hey, since we're here, we might as well jump into the crazed-out-ness with both boots, right? I think calling this storm "Snowmageddon" is a bit ridiculous, but it is one of DC's biggest snow storms in recorded history. That's why there was no school in Arlington and the government shut down 4 hours early, even though the snow didn't start to stick to the roads until around 4:00 yesterday. That's also why Jason got up at 6:45 a.m. yesterday to go fight the crowds the grocery store because we were out of milk and the county had warned folks to be prepared to not go out for 3-5 days...we tried to go on Thursday, but the shelves were bare and the wait at checkout was nearly an hour. The weather folks around here have a bad habit of using "snow" and "blizzard" synonymously, but this time at least there were actual blizzard conditions.



For the record, we are not freaking out. We are suffering through a long weekend with a full pantry, a pile of fire logs, and stacks of things to do. This is seriously the best winter ever.

So far, we have:
* Watched it snow outside. A lot. Once it finally stopped this evening, we measured 18 inches. That's a lot of snow to fall in one day.

* Read Pride and Prejudice. Because sometimes January is just too much to bear, and Jane Austen is the only thing that gets me through. I sat by the fire last night until I finished it.

*Did yoga together. Jason did his first downward facing dog after breakfast this morning. I suspect it will also be his last.* Eaten split pea soup. What is a snow storm without soup? Our tummies are still warm from the yumminess of split pea soup. Mmmm...
* Baked. The breadmaker has proven once again that is is not just taking up space, making a batch of homemade bagels a snap. Maybe there's still time for cookies tonight.

* Planned the garden. Nearly 20 inches of snow covers my garden, but that isn't stopping me from picking out seeds and plants for planting this spring! My friend Deanna is planting her first garden this year, so we've been pouring over seed catalogs.

* Started the 2010 budget process. Dangerous to discuss the budget when we are stuck in the house together for three days, I know, but as this is our 6th budget process, we've managed to minimize the more intense...discussions. Besides, we're being gazelle-intense.
* Made snow cream. First time for both of us--we intended to do it during the last big storm, but we got distracted by packing and Christmas, etc. Yum!
Church has, unfortunately, already been canceled for tomorrow, and they're waiting until afternoon to see whether Monday will be another day off. I think a snowman is in order...

Brussel Sprouts (and other January doings)

In general, experience has proven that veggies taste best (and are cheapest) when you eat them during the season in which they are supposed to grow. This mentality works well for someone like me, who can get a bit obsessive about one thing (right now? Lord of the Rings, black bean tacos, and Mat Kearney) before suddenly wanting nothing to do with it for a while because I am so bored. I do well with seasons--remember how in love with fall I was a few months ago? Now nothing sounds better than spring.

When it comes to food, I feel perfectly comfortable gorging on one meal over and over while the star veggie is in season (spring = asparagus frittata and ginger chicken with snow peas, summer = chicken with haricot verts and feta-crusted tomatoes, fall = butternut squash pasta as often as Jason will let me make it) because by the time boredom sets in it's already time to move on. You notice, of course, what's missing from that otherwise steller menu. January, of course. Seriously, what grows in January?!? I'm not much of a veggie aficionado (I eat them, but I don't love them), and by the end of January I have seriously done about as much damage to sweet potatoes and squash as I can possibly stand.

So Friday night we tried out brussel sprouts for the first time in our adult lives. Jason and I both gave them a hard, skeptical look as they sat on our plates, looking for all the world like the bitter, mushy greens we knew brussel sprouts to be. Except that they weren't. They were quite tasty (in a green, vegetable sort of way, so don't get too excited). Per Bon Appetit's feature on them last month, I sauteed them in butter and then simmered them in chicken stock with herbs. You should have seen the surprise on Jason's face when he tasted them. He even ate my leftovers (let's be honest, even at 30 it's rare when I finish off all the vegetables on my plate). I think we're growing up.

Speaking of greens, kale is next on the list. Anyone have thoughts on kale? Like it? Have a way to fix it that doesn't leave salad haters (me) running? I'm mulling over the idea of joining a CSA this year, which is a bit daunting for someone who prefers ANY type of fruit over ANY type of vegetable, since I know at some point in the year we will be buried in leafy greens.

Hard to believe, but we're actually doing more than eating our veggies (but you get the drift that none if it is too exciting). Our past few weeks have been filled with:

Traveling: I love going to Idaho, but I have to confess that it'd be nice if the trips were a little more spread out--we were back in VA for two weeks after Christmas before I loaded up my carry on and flew back for the annual work tour of Idaho's Second Congressional District. It's a pretty long four days (though two dinners at the Sandpiper made it a little easier to swallow, and I do love staying in hotels). The silver lining came on Thursday night, when I headed up to McCall with my parents (are we noticing a trend here?) for the annual Bunn family weekend in the snow. While I missed having any time in Meridian, we had a blast up at the cabin--Jason was the only thing missing! It was really too cold at Christmas to do much outside, but the weather was warmer this time, so we went cross country skiing. So, so fun.

Waltzing: In an effort to make my 30th birthday as classy and grown-up an occasion as possible, Jason gave me a private ballroom dancing lesson. Between a busy schedule and a broken ankle, we only got around to doing it on Thursday night. I had a wonderful time--I think dancing is like floating. Jason...well, let's just say that Jason was a good sport.

Bussing: Jason has been getting re-acquainted with the bus and metro schedules in the morning since he started his new parking space-less job after New Year's. We're back to a "normal" schedule in the morning, where he is up before me...and I confess to loving it a little too much. It's been interesting to see how his Hill experience has impacted him so far. I miss having him around.

Organizing: Ah, organizing things. The sense of faux-control that an organized closet/pantry/bedroom gives me is exhilarating. Take, for instance, my new 4-week menu. Or the alphabetized DVD collection. Or the plan to tackle one room every weekend until our house is immaculate. This weekend's project was reorganizing the pantry and cleaning out the freezer. Somehow we ended up picking up the Spare Oom and spending an unplanned three hours organizing our disastrous office without giving more than lip service to the pantry or freezer. Oh, well, next week. The label maker has been busy.

A Finished Family Room

Tonight I put pictures in the frames in the family room and said, "Wha-la!" Apart from a teeny bit of woodwork on the banister, our family room is finished and beautiful!

Before:



After:The project included sheetrocking, putting in insulation (for which we are grateful, as it's freezing right now), painting, redoing the light fixtures, and putting in new carpet and baseboards. Most significantly, and unfortunately something you can't see well from the pictures, Jason and his dad moved the wall where the TV is back about two feet, adding a good chunk of space to the family room and allowing us to watch TV without feeling like we're sitting in the front row of the theater. We LOVE it. Jason did such a good job getting it all wired and finished up!

While I'm posting on the basement, here's a picture of the library (which is notoriously hard to photograph), painted a crackly orange that I love. vastly prefer to the old color. Jason, how do I love the, let me count the ways: 1. repainting a room we'd already painted. 2...

A New Decade

Remember 1990? How much we talked about the turning of the decade? This time around, I totally forgot that we were launching into a new decade. I suspect that turning millennia last time around--and our wildly unfounded Y2K fears--sort of overshadowed any future decade-turning.

So far, 2010 has been pretty spectacular. We started it off with a make-your-own-pizza party here with a bunch of friends, and since then we have pretty much spent it in sweats. To date this year we have slept in, watched movies, and read January magazines. I honestly don't know how I am going to go back to work on Monday.

I'm having a bit of a hard time letting go of Christmas this year. Last year the tree was down by the end of New Year's Day and I was ready to wipe my hands of the whole thing, but this year it is still hanging on, dropping needles onto the rug, and I just can't seem to be too bothered. And can someone find a reason for me to leave my twinkle lights up for a while longer? January needs twinkle lights, don't you think? Something to balance out the piles of dirty snow and frigid, hopelessly short days?

There are nice things about January, though. Like organizing things. Tonight I went to Target on a mission to get my cleaning supplies and bathroom cabinets organized, and I feel a bit better about January now. And, with no projects in the queue (pictures of the finished family room coming soon), we can spend our weekends hibernating the winter away. Not bad things by any stretch of the imagination.

Christmas in the Mountains

We made it without (major) incident to Idaho, in spite of the snow (v. thankful for a long layover and a tortured decision months ago to fly out of Dulles instead of Reagan National, which didn't reopen on Sunday). From the moment we arrived, Christmas was in full swing, fat goose and all. We celebrated with the Idaho gang of Bunns, had lunch with Alison and Amanda, and did a lot of grocery shopping and packing before heading up to the mountains first thing on Wednesday.

This is about as good a picture of the three boys together that we could get.

The snow in McCall was sparkly and the weather was frigid--we woke up to -6 (Fahrenheit) some days, and it never got above freezing the entire time we were there (somehow, -6 didn't keep us from sliding out to the hot tub in the mornings, where our hair frosted over). Because of the snow, we weren't able to drive all the way to the cabin and had to snowmobile in--I stupidly neglected to put my goggles on before the snowmobile took off and literally thought my nose would be frostbit by the time we got there!

Sledding is 15 times more fun when you can hitch a ride back up the mountain from Cole and Papa.

Long train!

The cold kept us inside for a couple of days, where we played games, ate an obscene amount of food, watched hours of special features from Lord of the Rings, and played Guitar Hero incessantly. On Saturday, though, we all bundled up for some sledding and snowmobiling--our first time down the hill, Shaanti and I almost hit a tree and ended up laughing so hard we fogged up our goggles. Good, good times, especially when they end with hot chocolate and apple pie by the roaring fire!

I especially love how Shaanti's small child is clinging to her leg...completely ignored...

Christmas Eve and Christmas were great fun, too. Auntie Fay, Uncle Charley, Katie, David, and their friend Jeannette spend the week with us. We had our traditional Christmas Eve seafood feast on Thursday night, which gets better every time (Jenny and Chad's coconut shrimp took the cake this year).

Uncle Charley, Auntie Fay, and Jeannette

The Feast

Mom gave us each this year's ornament and a Bible verse she had for us, and Jason read the Christmas story from Luke. Dad read The Littlest Angel before we opened our stockings (Santa comes early at the Johnsons'), and on Christmas morning, Cole was overjoyed to find that Santa had brought him the bow and arrow for which he'd been fervently asking.

Mason's ornament and verse

Someone is definitely going to get their eye poked out.

Here were a couple more of my favorite moments: Cole opening his prize from Santa, and Mason...well, being Mason. "Maam!" is his favorite word.

Cole sang us a lovely song called "We're at Granny's Cabin for Christmas," and I think the sentiment was shared across the board. After a wonderful week together, we headed back to an almost-snowless DC, where our last week off is going far too quickly! As Dad said, it's nice when you look forward to something so much and it is exactly what you hoped it would be, and that's how I feel about our Christmas in the mountains.

Into every situation, a "little" snow must fall

...but the fire is so delightful...

I'm sitting by the fire with my third mug of Twinings Christmas tea, and I think it is snowing even harder than it was when we got up this morning and Jason shoveled the driveway. I know it's a good idea to get ahead of the snow as much as you can, but shoveling seems a bit like an exercise in futility right now--when we measured it then with a 12 inch ruler, it was almost completely covered, and I think six more inches have fallen since then!

It's really the nicest kind of day to be snowed in (you know, apart from the fact that we're supposed to be flying out tomorrow afternoon...). The only plan we had to cancel was lunch with Dawn, which is rescheduled for when we get back. Otherwise we've been drinking warm beverages and listening to Christmas music and opening our Christmas presents from each other (there's already enough to pack for Idaho without lugging our gifts from each other there and back again). It's a white Christmas after all!
I think, to celebrate, we will go ahead and watch White Christmas and eat Thai food at home (since we most certainly can't follow through with our plans to go out to our favorite Thai place). Then we'll pack up all our bags and keep our fingers crossed that, unlike many of our friends who were forced to abandon their travel plans for the holiday, we make it off the ground tomorrow!

Resurfacing

It seems a little ironic to post a blog titled "resurfacing" when we are about to be buried in snow. Wednesday it was "chance of snow," yesterday the prediction was 5 inches, and now that the flakes are falling, there's been a run on the grocery stores and tomorrow's flights to the West Coast have already been cancelled. I'm all for bundling up and hunkering down tomorrow...just as long as OUR west-bound flight can get off the ground on Sunday afternoon!

I do feel like I've resurfaced into my life, though. For the past three weeks I've been working on a term paper. Between cranking out the novel-sized paper and a mad rush to write innumerable constituent letters before leaving the office for two weeks, I feel like I've spent nearly every waking in front of a computer! Tonight Jason and I came home, and I immediately turned the Christmas tree lights and curled up on the chair with both the November (which was sadly neglected) and December issues of Bon Appetit. Seriously, it feels like I'm waking up to the world around me again, where apparently all my plants have died from lack of attention and I don't remember where things are in my kitchen.

This is where Christmas begins. The presents are under the tree, the Christmas letters are in the mail (finally!), and the only thing standing between me and seven glorious days in the mountains with my family (which my sibs and I have literally been talking about since September) is a quiet day with a crackling fire and 24 hours of snow. I know it is going to be a nightmare to make it to Boise in any semblance of on-timeness, but until then...ahhhhh.

Jason with Mr. Lewis, Ranking Member of the Appropriations Committee

As my semester came to an end, so did Jason's year on the Hill --today was his last day in his fellowship, and in January he goes back to the State Department. I can hardly believe that his time there is over. I will now admit that I approached our year of work cohabitation with some trepidation, but it has turned out to be such a blessing. Jason had a great experience with the Appropriations Committee, both personally and professionally. In addition, Jason's presence made my transition to my new responsibilities so much smoother than it could have been, and it was really nice to speak the same language for a year. He's really looking forward to starting his new job, but I know I will miss having him on my side of the city--and not only so that he can bring me my lunch when I leave it on the counter in the morning!

on top of the dome

Before he left, my Chief of Staff offered to take him on a tour of the Capitol Dome. So, I know that I've reported at least twice on this blog about my trips up to the top of the dome (this was my fourth), but really, it's a pretty swank tour that is hardly available to anyone, and Jason had never been before. Very cool, and a good way to end the week.

It's snowing out the window while I'm sitting here typing. Jason just braved the weather to head off to play hockey, and I think I might finish reading about Thanksgiving side-dishes before settling in for the night. It's going to be a white day tomorrow!

The Run-up to Christmas

If last weekend was as gentle as a soft snowfall, this weekend was a frenzied flurry of activity! We rushed home from work on Friday night to get gussied up and head to the Gambills for dinner with them and the Kings before heading downtown to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre. Tilly made some delicious vegetable lasagne, and we brought dessert--fresh ginger cake with caramelized pears, a recipe I discovered in Molly Wizenberg's book A Homemade Life, which I read over Thanksgiving. It was definitely a team effort to get it all put together in time, and it was a rousing success. Yay.

The play was just wonderful. This was our third time to see the Christmas ghost story at Ford's Theatre, and I tell you, nothing puts you in the mood for Christmas like Dickens. The play was peppered with Christmas carols, and when we walked out I was fully expecting snow and English jollyness. Instead it was just bitingly cold, but we were warm and joyful inside.

Saturday morning the girls from Book Club came over for Christmas tea and brunch. Book Club has possibly been my favorite thing about 2009. I love-surrounded-by-hearts it. This month we read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I adored.

And in case we hadn't spent enough time together, our Sunday school class had our Christmas party on Sunday night. Last year's party was so much fun that I basically decided to recreate it--we had a soup bar (I ate, like, four bowls of soup, mmm) and played Loaded Questions. Tasty and hilarious. We seriously like the people in our Sunday school class. I can't believe it took me eight years here to discover them.

And now Christmas is a week and a half away. More importantly, it is only a few days until we head to Idaho. I keep thinking there is another week in here somewhere, and I am constantly surprised when I realize that at this time next week we will be buried in snow at the cabin. Until then, I am frantically writing constituent mail and making never ending edits to my now 34-page term paper (which is finally due on Thursday, or I might go a wee bit crazy) and trying to get the Christmas cards out before New Year's (or, more accurately, Jason has been forced to take over the whole production). So tired. Ah, Christmastime. God bless us, every one.

One Year Old!

Okay, so in my fervor to find the end of my term paper (don't worry folks, this one will resurface soon as the first draft of my thesis), I neglected to post a happy birthday to Mason on time. I did get to talk to him on the phone, however. He is very chatty. I wonder where he gets that (big brother, big brother...). I can't wait to see him in all his big-boy cuteness oh-so-soon!

Snow!

(Erm, this post is a week late... I blame computer problems. And school.)

I know the title looks like I'm exclaiming "snow!" but really I am trying to sing the song "Snow" from White Christmas...but once you get past all the "snows," the title line is totally filled up and it's not anymore recognizable than it was with just one word. But that was the song I was singing around the kitchen on Saturday when we woke up to big, puffy flakes of snow coming down.

Somehow, it officially feels like Christmas now. The rush to get to the end of the year--especially since classes go right up until the week before Christmas this semester--made me feel like Christmas was coming almost against my will. Plus, the weather was in the 70s, so every time I tried to play Christmas music I got that jarring feeling of listening to Christmas music in August. But the snow--and the down coat and warm boots--has sort of made everything fall into place.

We had such a delightful weekend. A relaxing weekend is, unfortunately, an unusual event, but somehow we managed to have no plans the entire weekend except a little Christmas party on Saturday evening. In fact, I got up in the morning, padded downstairs to work on the grocery list, then decided I wasn't read to get up yet and crawled back in bed! We had breakfast in front of the Christmas tree, built a blazing fire, and pretty much watched the snow come down.

After our party, Jason and I went to Carlyle in Shirlington for a late dinner. It was the first date we'd had in a while, and we got to sit upstairs near a window. The street in Shirlington is lined with trees that are full of twinkle lights, and from the top floor the twinkling trees fill the picture windows. It was a perfect place to celebrate the snow.

Plus, our house looks really cute dressed in snow. We had spent the previous Saturday (wearing short sleeves and sunglasses) putting lights up on our house, and it has been sooooooo worth the frustration--Monday night I had a long day at work and came home sort of discouraged, but Jason had turned on the lights and I pulled into a wintry fairyland when I turned into the driveway. I think more people need wintry fairylands in their lives. Next weekend is packed with activity--of the basically two full weekends between getting home from Thanksgiving and leaving for Christmas, we apparently decided to take one off and then have three Christmas parties the next--but I'm now going into it feeling all festive and Joy to the World-y, so yay for snow!

Happy Birthday, Justin!

Thanksgiving this year took us to visit Mom, Dad, Justin, Grammy and Grandmom in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Mom surprised us with a gathering of friends from MVNU one evening. Paul and Ruth Mayle, who I haven't seen since graduation, led a Spring Break trip to Hungary my senior year, a trip that played an important role in my decision to study foreign policy. It was also good to see Eric and Crystal Browning, especially their kids who have grown so much since I last saw them (it doesn't seem that long ago that Crystal was pregnant with William). Family friends and close neighbors, the Woods, also stopped by. They told us of their plans to visit their kids in Kurdistan (in northern Iraq) for the holidays -- including a stopover in a place we recently visited. I always enjoy introducing Missy to the people and places that played a role in my formative years. It made me start planning in my head a trip to Hungary for Missy.

Turkey Day met all the standards I remember from growing up -- roasted turkey, delicious rolls, mashed potatoes, all smothered in gravy. Mom also made me a raspberry pie (one of my favorites) for dessert. After lunch, a few of us fled to the basement to watch a movie -- and I finally got to see one of Clint Eastwood's great films from last year. We planned to head to the movie theater that evening -- but between the rainy weather and long lines, we decided to abandon that idea.


After a stop at Walmart to pick-up a few items on Black Friday (we keep a running list for Walmart, since we don't have a store nearby), we headed east to Millersburg, OH -- the self-professed center of Ohio Amish country. We stopped at a Amish furniture store -- completely powered with natural gas (no electricity), and then toured a Victorian home decorated for Christmas. We also stopped by the Smuckers factory and, Missy's favorite, Lehman's non-electric supply store, which provides merchandise for the Amish...and anyone else interested in canning, using kerosene, or planting a garden (I'm afraid Missy is considering taking up canning next year in addition to planting a garden. Yikes.). It was quite a day.


Every few years, Thanksgiving is close in date to my brother Justin's birthday -- so this year we were present to celebrate his 26th. He had his favorite -- ice cream cake! -- and we all relived the good ole days as we looked through family photos and shared a few laughs. Just can also be a bit expressive in his reaction to gifts. This photo is priceless. Happy halfway to 52, Justin! We're looking forward to your potential visit in 2010!


P.S. There was also an impromptu talent show -- enjoy!

November

In the phase of my life when all I wanted to be was Anne Shirley, I struggled a bit with the idea that Anne thought November was the worst month of the year. I couldn't disagree more. The leaves are almost as pretty on the ground as in the trees (and with Jason's new leaf blower, not a bit of a problem), there's that nice nip in the air, the panic of not having finished my Christmas shopping hasn't hit yet, and all we can talk about is food. Yummm... Plus, to add to the niceness, the weather this month has been just about perfect.

So, apart from randomly heading to Asia Minor, what have we been doing this month? Well, we've been:

Hay Wagoning with our friends from church, all bundled up and armed with hot dogs and s'mores stuff. Mmm. Serious good times.

Rocking out with the David Crowder Band at GW on Tuesday. We are serious DCB grouppies and knew every single song they sang. What is better, it was like an awesome fabulous worship session, which you can get a teeny taste of by watching this video.

Turkeying up by hosting a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner with friends. It just seemed like a shame to let my china and cute turkey plates gather dust for one more year. I made some pretty amazing stuffing and my first batch of cranberry sauce, and our southern friends gave us a crash course in dumplings and the difference between stuffing and dressing (apparently the latter has cornbread?).

Lacing up my new running shoes. Not to go running, of course, but to make sure they were the ones I wanted to buy (they are very pink...). The sore knees and achy hips that resulted from my old shoes made me feel older than 30. Besides, I just joined a workout competition with Kaylyn (think am losing already), and our office is planning to sign up for the Cherry Blossom 5K. In, um, April. Gotta get ready...

And tomorrow we're off to Ohio to spend Thanksgiving with Jason's family. Let the season of celebration begin!