holiday rewind.

Look who's finally decided to come back to life. ;)

After a much longer than anticipated blogitty hiatus, I am finally back in action...Recharged and rejuvenated in '09. Truly, I've been alive and well this whole time. Just seemed to have kicked the blogging routine and for awhile and then forgot where to even begin again...I've been so distracted by all of the big changes and lengthy to-do's of the New Year. So sorry this is old news! We had a most Merry Christmas and I hope you did too.

Since we both worked Christmas Eve, we set out a bit late for our Christmas vacation to the perilous snowed-in-over-and-above Washington state to visit Jeff's fam in Spokane for 5 days. We had a completely dreadful time getting there, so I'll try to summarize: 1. I was traveling on zero sleep (gotta love the night shift) and so super uncomfortable, 2. we were delayed+canceled+delayed+delayed 3. We arrived safely and soundly the next morning without our luggage. No underwear, Christmas presents, or toothbrushes. Yowzers. Thankfully, Jeff's fam treated us as if our house had just burned down, offering up spare sweats and toiletries. Our luggage showed up later the next eve...A bit soggy, but I'm not complaining!Everyone in Spokane was scratching their heads over this winter's record snowfall (5+ feet!?) They never get this kind of crazy snow! I was indulging in the white Christmas, mostly because my pregnant diva status made me exempt from shoveling. :) The little brown buildings peeking out from snow piles above are the Kesterson home and the church where Jeff's dad preaches. So cute. We picked the most perfect year to give Jeff's parents snowshoes for Christmas {lower left}! They could have used them to walk from house to garage! And errr, apparently I've been in Cali a bit too long--I thought I could get away with wearing ballet flats out one night through 6" icey puddles. {See toesicles in upper left.} Thankfully Jeff was strong enough to carry all of me + babe across the threshold.We absolutely loved seeing+catching up with everyone. All of Jeff's fam were there--his big sis Heather+husband Justin, little sis Jenny, and little bro Mark {upper left}. We had the best time, just vegging in between snow dumpings and shovelings. We also had a girls' date pottery painting *my favorite!* {upper right}. We even stole away on a double date with our best couple friends Becca & Sam who are currently living in Spokane. In the pics, we're roasting our own s'mores for dessert at the swank underground restaurant called Catacombs.

We headed back to S.F. on 12.31 for a quiet New Year's Eve; just the two of us in front of our little Christmas tree. As much as we loved Spokane's magical winter wonderland, we couldn't help but grin when the bus dropped us + our luggage off on green grass and sunny skies in front of our own little apartment.