Rule 2: Home for Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas was very busy and eventful this year! We traveled from San Francisco to Seattle and back again with a couple stops in between.

I was able to start my journey north on the Thursday before Christmas. Andrew had flown to Salem the previous Sunday so I was planning on picking him up in Salem on Saturday on the way to Seattle. I thankfully had an early shift at work so I got home early, loaded up the car, and was on the road by 11am. I was so excited to have dinner with my family and to snuggle with the animals after 5 days alone in the apartment. The drive was great until I just north of Redding.

Then I heard that chains were required on the Siskiyou Pass. That's fine, I always carry chains, I drive a Subaru, and I actually like driving in snow. Then traffic stopped due to a chain checkpoint. After about an hour I was driving again. Then due to an accident traffic stopped again. The supposed 30 minute wait turned into hours. Here are pictures I took when I stopped.

After 45 minutes of sitting I heard on the radio that "Blizzard Conditions" caused 1-5 to be closed about a quarter mile north of where I sat. Snow continued to fall and pile up while I sat in my car. After about two and a half hours traffic finally started to move. I was relieved I didn't have to spend the night in my car (I was prepared though. I had lots of food, water, and warm clothes). After hours of driving and praying the Siskiyou would remain open, I finally made it home. It took me eleven hours. Normally it takes us six.

My parents, Laura, her fiance Sheldon, and I planned on driving to Seattle for Christmas on Saturday, picking Andrew up on the way. Due to the storm, it was predicted that the Sexton Pass would be closed due to snow Saturday morning. So around 5pm Friday night we started loading up the cars. I drove to Salem with Sheppie and stayed the night at Dan and Sarah's house while my parents stayed in Cottage Grove (just north of the pass). Saturday morning we all met up and Andrew, Laura, Sheldon, and I stopped at Ikea in Portland to pick up some wedding supplies (yay!) while my parents went to Seattle.

We stayed two days in Seattle visiting with my grandparents and family we were able to see. Early Christmas morning Andrew and I packed up and drove down to Salem to see his family. After a couple days in Salem we drove to Medford. We had Christmas with my grandparents and cousins, stayed the night, then drove to San Francisco.

We had a wonderful Christmas but the time with family was too short. We're really looking forward to being closer to family in a couple years!

Laura made these cute mugs for herself and Amber, her best friend, who is going to college in Texas.

I made on for Maggie who is in Wyoming.

We returned to SF to find an adorable ornament in the mail from my Aunt Jonna and cousin Tatum. Thank you! I love it! We had it on the tree until we took it down a few days ago.

On the left is the ornament from Aunt Jonna and Tatum, and on the right is an ornament my mom made for us. She had my dad dig out from the yard waste bin the section of tree Andrew had sawn off and had my sister take it to our Woodshop teacher at the high school to cut it into thinner pieces. Thank you Ms. Chris!

Karen gave us this duck that found it's way onto the tree as well :)

On non-Christmas related notes, we've been adding furniture to the apartment!

This is one of my favorite pieces that my cousin Tamara has refurnished (see her work here). I saw it online and fell in love with it. Andrew bought it for me as a birthday present back in November. I absolutely LOVE it! We had talked about how we need a bench in the hallway so we can sit and put our shoes on and this antique phone bench is perfect!

Now we have dressers!!! My grandparents gave us the one in the middle and Dan and Sarah gave us the two on the outside. THANK YOU! Bye bye boxes of Andrew's clothes!