walking in a winter wonderland...

the epic snowstorm of 2009--20 inches of snow in fewer than 24 hours. supposedly it hasn't snowed this much in a day since 1909. and everyone in the greater dc area was housebound for a whole saturday.

except for the me. who decided that lunch in old town was the perfect excursion for a blizzard. and it really was.

just barely making it to chipotle before it closed. it was best burrito i'd had in a long time.

saying goodbye to a dear friend

I knew this day would eventually come, but I wasn't looking forward to it. When I opened the mail last week to find my dearly beloved passport invalidated I almost cried. I saw the holes that had been punched through it and for a minute I felt like someone had also punched holes in my heart. Sure, it's old and ratty, its front cover has completely peeled off, and it has the world's worst picture of me (many a border guard has gasped in horror/pain at the sight of it) but I love it. and now it's like a part of me just died.

I'm sad it won't be traveling with me anymore. we've crossed 71 borders together and it has been stamped more than 100 times. we've been through good and tough days. like when it almost got confiscated at the Israeli border or when it ran out of visa pages and I had to beg a Kuwaiti guard to stamp over a completely covered page or when a moroccan border guard stamped it with the wrong year (!) so it looked like I overstayed my visa by 11 months (scariest moment of my life to date) or when spanish border guards pretended to lose our passports on a ferry from spain because one of my inebriated traveling companions insulted someone or when I was almost stranded in serbia because the border guard didn't think it belonged to me, etc, but we always pulled through.

oh geez. I had forgotten about half those stories. here's hoping my experiences with my new passport are less dramatic/terrifying/potentially expensive.

presents.

I know that christmas is about birth of christ/family/not presents, but a good chunk of my time in december is spent either buying presents or thinking about what I'd like to get. this year I've been thinking about what makes the best christmas present. is it something you need? something you wouldn't buy for yourself but that you really want? something that you've never even thought about, but it's given by someone who knows you so well that it turns out to be exactly what you need/want?

which made me start thinking about memorable christmas presents from the past. the good, the bizarre and the disappointing.

the bizarre:

in our family, we draw names and in 7th grade, catherine drew mine. she was sooo enthusiastic about her present and would talk about how great it was like everyday so I was naturally very curious/super excited about it. I literally couldn't wait until christmas eve that year. however, when I unwrapped my present, I found a pocket watch. a pocket watch?! what on earth was a 7th grader going to do with that? catherine was so excited that i feigned delight but I was too concerned to even be disappointed. I was completely baffled as to how my 9 year-old sister even managed to find a pocket watch let alone how she determined that it would be the ideal christmas present for me.

I still wonder about this.

the disappointment:

when I was 20, I was going on my first trip abroad by myself and really, really, really wanted a digital camera for my major present. I kept telling my mom about it and I thought she understood that she was supposed to get me one. that Christmas morning I found a really nice tool set, a drill, and few other power tools. I know that this was really rude of me and that I should have been more gracious/blah blah blah, but I was so disappointed that I actually cried.

I cried because I was afraid of tools and electricity. I cried because I couldn't imagine what you even did with a drill or why I'd ever want one. I cried because I thought this meant that my parents knew nothing about me. and I cried because there was no way this drill was going to properly document my Moroccan experience. I think my mom felt bad--at that point in my life I'm not really sure that I realized that she actually had feelings.

Of course now I use my drill all the time (my other tools were "borrowed" into oblivion by siblings before I even cared that I owned them) and am really grateful for it. And I think about her just about every time I use it. which is why I'm a bit neurotic about losing it. I'm probably the only person alive who is sentimental about her drill.

the good:

the next year (my mom's last christmas) I woke up christmas morning to find another tool box. I was confused. was this my punishment for being so ungrateful the year before? (my mom was totally the type who would do that just to make a point). by this time I had matured a bit so I opened up the tool box ready to pretend to be enthusiastic about another heartbreakingly lame present and found a digital camera instead! I was soo excited that I started screaming and jumping up and down. I don't think I've ever been as happy about a present as I was that morning and I'm not sure that I ever saw my mom smile as widely as she did at that moment.

NC featuring the lovely biltmore

so I went to North Carolina to see the Biltmore estate all decked out with christmas decorations. it was beautiful and the trip was a lot of fun.


biltmore estate





bacon-wrapped beans. quite possibly the highlight of the entire trip.

amazing north carolina bbq. hush puppies, brisket, ribs, and pulled pork with mac and cheese and coleslaw. delicious.

duke university

and more biltmore shots

smokey blue ridge mountains.

I had no idea that NC had such amazing biscuits. someone needs to open a biscuitville franchise in the dc area.

eating lunch at the world's fanciest mcdonalds. it had a player baby grand piano, a large fireplace, and great lighting. unfortunately, the food was still the same.

fake/real thanksgivings

his year i had two amazing thanksgiving dinners (which based on how my jeans fit now, it may have been a bad choice). first one was with friends in DC:

because of a mishap with the turkey which made the counters difficult to work on (it was tragic, but our fantastic thanksgiving dinner ended up being turkeyless), some people had to be very innovative in where they prepared food.

our empty plates. it was the best thanksgiving dinner I've ever had.

We re-enacted Hannah's family's annual thanksgiving skit (can't you tell? they're pilgrims on the mayflower.)

Hannah showing off her awesome pie

Then I went home. I had so much fun--I think the best part was that my dad decorated the house for christmas before I arrived so that I could have both Christmas and Thanksgiving at home (since I'm missing Christmas this year. so sad!). I didn't actually get any photos of thanksgiving dinner but here are a few I snapped during my 4 days in UT.

we ate lunch at the hospital because my dad had to work every day that I was home.

Gramps with Lucy and Jack

Lucy decorating the tree

post dinner stupor

salem city's new mayor:

dear dc, you look great in fall colors.