Winter Break
A few highlights from winter break so far:
Friends. On the first official day of winter break, one of my oldest friends, Jordanna, and her husband, John, were able to meet us for coffee. We have been so blessed (and pleasantly surprised!) in the past year with the amount of friends who have made their way to Oregon for one reason or another--it's always so good to see familiar faces and catch-up. We are so thankful to live in a place that people like to visit so much! And, of course, we thoroughly enjoy talking about all of the wonderful things we love about Oregon; given that Jordanna and John already love Oregon so much, we didn't need to do much selling :). We hope to see them on many more trips to come!
Snow. On Tuesday, we got to enjoy some fun, wintry weather. Snow is unusual for Corvallis, although it does happen a few times a year, and since it doesn't stick around long, we try to enjoy it while it lasts. It's all the more enjoyable because it snows just a little bit--not enough to inconvenience your life in any way, just enough to make things pretty for a few hours. This was my view for much of Tuesday morning:
It all melted away (or rained away, rather) by Wednesday, but it was fun while it lasted. The tricky part will be how it affects the mountain passes that we will inevitably have to traverse tomorrow when we head south to my parents' house for some Christmas celebrating. If it's snowing in Corvallis, the weather probably isn't so hot at 6,000 feet. Chains are mandatory at the moment, and although we own them, neither one of us has ever actually put them on. I know it's not rocket science, but in many ways Jake and I are still very much Southern Californians. So, we made it a priority to actually take the chains out and at least look at them before we hit the road tomorrow morning.
O, Caterpillar Tree. Yes, you read that right. Late last week, we discovered a lovely caterpillar infestation in our Christmas tree. Just. Gross. In fairness, our beautiful, 7-foot Douglas fir only cost us $5, because when you live in the land where firs and pines grow in abundance, you get a tree fresh off the farm for an absurdly good price (according to my latest issue of Sunset magazine, Oregon is the largest producer and distributor of Christmas trees in the US. Who knew??). But this was a little farm fresh for me. Yes, the caterpillars were tiny, slow-movers, and seeing just one would not have bothered me in the least. However, in the same way that one ladybug does not gross me out, but releasing them in bulk from those things you can buy at the hardware store totally gives me the creeps--this was the same volume of caterpillars chowing down on our Christmas tree. Now I'm having visions of moth swarms. Even grosser. Suffice it to say our tree now has some naked chunks where we hacked away at limbs to rid ourselves of the little buggers. And we've had to do this a couple of times since. Yuck. We can't get rid of the darn tree until we get home (believe me, we checked), so maybe say a prayer that Jake and I don't have to appear on that show Infested, talking about how caterpillars (or moths!) took over our apartment. Ewwww.
Fam Time. Now that I've thoroughly grossed you out, I'll change the subject and share how thrilled we are to have a few days off to celebrate Christmas with family! This is the second year in a row that we'll be missing Riley and Curtis, and all of the Bennetts and Boazes (and Trenton's first Christmas :( Boo-hoo!), but we're thankful for any time off, since we weren't sure we would get any at all. So excited for a white Christmas! (Minus our nail biting drive...)
Friends. On the first official day of winter break, one of my oldest friends, Jordanna, and her husband, John, were able to meet us for coffee. We have been so blessed (and pleasantly surprised!) in the past year with the amount of friends who have made their way to Oregon for one reason or another--it's always so good to see familiar faces and catch-up. We are so thankful to live in a place that people like to visit so much! And, of course, we thoroughly enjoy talking about all of the wonderful things we love about Oregon; given that Jordanna and John already love Oregon so much, we didn't need to do much selling :). We hope to see them on many more trips to come!
Snow. On Tuesday, we got to enjoy some fun, wintry weather. Snow is unusual for Corvallis, although it does happen a few times a year, and since it doesn't stick around long, we try to enjoy it while it lasts. It's all the more enjoyable because it snows just a little bit--not enough to inconvenience your life in any way, just enough to make things pretty for a few hours. This was my view for much of Tuesday morning:
It all melted away (or rained away, rather) by Wednesday, but it was fun while it lasted. The tricky part will be how it affects the mountain passes that we will inevitably have to traverse tomorrow when we head south to my parents' house for some Christmas celebrating. If it's snowing in Corvallis, the weather probably isn't so hot at 6,000 feet. Chains are mandatory at the moment, and although we own them, neither one of us has ever actually put them on. I know it's not rocket science, but in many ways Jake and I are still very much Southern Californians. So, we made it a priority to actually take the chains out and at least look at them before we hit the road tomorrow morning.
O, Caterpillar Tree. Yes, you read that right. Late last week, we discovered a lovely caterpillar infestation in our Christmas tree. Just. Gross. In fairness, our beautiful, 7-foot Douglas fir only cost us $5, because when you live in the land where firs and pines grow in abundance, you get a tree fresh off the farm for an absurdly good price (according to my latest issue of Sunset magazine, Oregon is the largest producer and distributor of Christmas trees in the US. Who knew??). But this was a little farm fresh for me. Yes, the caterpillars were tiny, slow-movers, and seeing just one would not have bothered me in the least. However, in the same way that one ladybug does not gross me out, but releasing them in bulk from those things you can buy at the hardware store totally gives me the creeps--this was the same volume of caterpillars chowing down on our Christmas tree. Now I'm having visions of moth swarms. Even grosser. Suffice it to say our tree now has some naked chunks where we hacked away at limbs to rid ourselves of the little buggers. And we've had to do this a couple of times since. Yuck. We can't get rid of the darn tree until we get home (believe me, we checked), so maybe say a prayer that Jake and I don't have to appear on that show Infested, talking about how caterpillars (or moths!) took over our apartment. Ewwww.
Fam Time. Now that I've thoroughly grossed you out, I'll change the subject and share how thrilled we are to have a few days off to celebrate Christmas with family! This is the second year in a row that we'll be missing Riley and Curtis, and all of the Bennetts and Boazes (and Trenton's first Christmas :( Boo-hoo!), but we're thankful for any time off, since we weren't sure we would get any at all. So excited for a white Christmas! (Minus our nail biting drive...)
From our house to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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