Pumpkin and Spice

As much as I like my job/externship, it's been a difficult couple months. Starting a new job is always an adjustment, but I also had to adjust to moving to a new city, in a new state, 2000 miles away from my husband. It's been hard, but thankfully, I didn't have to spend my Christmas alone. My parents, my brother and Kyle all came out to Utah to spend the holiday with me.

They rented a condo, so I temporarily moved out of my "dorm room" and in with them. Their first day here, we had to hit the local Albertsons to pick up provisions, as well as a ham for Christmas dinner. While we were there, we saw former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the produce section (he has a home in Park City.) Kyle was totally excited about our "celebrity" sighting, but wouldn't go ask for a picture.

On Christmas Eve, Mom, Kyle, Royce and I went to Whole Foods to pick up our sides- green beans almondine, creamy and chunky mashed potatoes (there's a potato divide in our family), cornbread stuffing (WF's is so good- I love the pecans in it!), cranberry relish, roasted root veggies, dinner rolls, and of course, desserts! We got a chocolate pecan pie from the bakery, but they were out of pumpkin pie, so we had to hit the freezer section for that. I also grabbed a roll of gingerbread cookie dough. (I know, I know! But I wasn't about to buy flour, sugar, spices, &c to make cookies from scratch!)

I had to work on Christmas day from midnight to 8am, so I came home and slept! It was snowing when I left work, and it didn't let up all day, so by the time I woke up, there was a thick layer of new powder on top of the existing snow. We decided that we needed to take advantage of our White Christmas, so we bundled up and headed out in the snow. There is a field by the library, which is about four blocks away, so we walked there to play. The snow was about knee deep, and was mid-thigh deep or deeper where there were drifts. It was so deep and so soft that if you fell/flopped into the snow, it was a real challenge to get back up- when you put your hand down to push yourself up, your hand just sank deeper into the snow. All of us spent a fair amount of time flailing around in the snow like Ralphie's little brother in The Christmas Story. Examples?

Royce, the snow ninja.

Kyle, sinking in a drift.

In the field by the library was a massive mountain of snow. Of course, we decided we had to climb it, which was easier said than done, given that the snow was so soft. Once we made it to the top, we made a slide, and Royce packed a set of "stairs" to make climbing the mountain easier. We played until we were too cold and wet to play any longer, and then walked home to change into dry clothes and get Christmas dinner ready. I did my best to make the table look festive and Christmassy. I brought Christmas crackers, which are a favorite holiday tradition of mine. (You can see them sitting on the plates in the picture.)

I must have been a good girl this year, because Kyle got me a Kitchenaid Professional 5qt stand mixer in Empire Red (all my kitchen appliances are red.) I have been lusting after this mixer forever- I can't wait to get back to Florida to play with it! You all can look forward to some bread recipes once I'm back home...

The next day, I didn't have to work, so Kyle, Mom, Royce and I went to Park City Mountain Resort. Royce wanted to snowboard and since he's snowboarded before, he took an intermediate snowboarding lesson. Kyle, Mom and I were going to ski, so we took a beginning ski lesson. Skiing was a lot harder than I remembered... I guess I've not been doing the right workouts at the gym, because my quads and calves were screaming. I'm planning on doing some more skiing throughout the season, so hopefully it will get easier. (Above is Mom in our ski lesson- her orange hat made her easy to spot! To the left is me, lookin' nerdy in my ski gear.)

The next few days were sort of a blur- Kyle and I both came down with horrible colds- sore throats, mild fevers, coughs, boogers, the whole nine yards. I missed a few days of work, and we went through quite a supply of Theraflu and cough drops.

Once we were feeling a little better, we went tubing! There's a tubing park in Park City, where they have groomed runs as well as a tube lift to get you to the runs. Tubing is like sledding, except instead of a sled, you have a big inflatable inner tube to go down the hill. It's fun, because as you go down the hill, your tube bounces, which adds an extra bit of excitement. The tubes all have little leashes, which make it easier to drag your tube around, and also allows you hook your tube to the tow rope that pulls you to the top of the hill. We had an absolute blast! It was so much fun- like being a little kid again.

Dispite being sick, I had so much fun with everyone. It was sad to see everyone go, especially Kyle. Saying goodbye to him at the airport was heartbreaking... As much as I like it here, I'll be glad to be home with him again.