Day trip to the snow!

I had two weeks off work for the winter break. It was my hope to get some things done and get to the snow as much as possible......Sadly, I only got to go one time. However, it was a good time. My friend Jessica, her two young kids and their dog Dylan joined Timber, Jade and I for the day trip. Jessica was generous to drive and risk her van to my two furry beasts since I woke with a sinus headache and had to take some sinus medicine that causes drowsiness. She offered to reschedule the trip....I said no way! It had been such a struggle to make the trip happen, I was not about to disappoint her kids and another kid: yours truly. Ha Ha!

This trip was Baby Jade's first time in the snow and of course, she loved it. Timber was exposed to the snow very early on, at about 4 months of age in the same area as well as the extreme winter conditions of South Dakota and Montana.
see posts: http://melanialynn.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-trip-to-snow.html, http://melanialynn.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-snow-january-12-2009.html, http://melanialynn.blogspot.com/2009/01/wyoming-south-dakota.html

I can't wait to take them up again. I love the snow and it's fun watching the dogs enjoy themselves. Timber likes to eat the snow and Jade couldn't stop running. I would eventually like to move a little closer to the Placerville area. I love the mountains and it's a great place for the dogs too.

I'm hoping before the snow season ends this year to experiment having the dogs pull a light sled. Jade isn't full-grown, so she can't pull me despite the help of Timber. However, if I can trust the dogs enough to be cautious, I might have them pull around Christian or Patryk. I will start out with just the sled to see how they react. So far Timber is not particularly fond of his harness. I made him wear it all day and through the night and he was restless almost the entire time. Perhaps a more custom harness for sled dogs with padding would be less annoying. We'll see.

Family Christmas

This Christmas was my second Christmas back home in the Bay. I'm still having a tough time getting excited about it despite my family's enthusiasm, decoration and the presence of my two excited young nephews. After 11 years away from home and being with a partner who doesn't celebrate...nay, negates holidays...the passion has drifted from me.

Despite the lack of intense excitement and spirit that once flowed through me in my youth, it was a good Christmas. My brother lives around the corner from my parent's home, so this year (as well as last Christmas) he and his family slept over on Christmas Eve. Since I'm the night owl of the family, I offered to stay up and take care of the kid's stockings. My nephew, Christian is a night owl too, so there's no telling how long he'd be awake.

Christian is going to be 8 years old in April and he is already starting to doubt the existence of Santa Clause according to his mother. She wanted to do a little extra to try to keep it alive in him. Her suggestion was to put some dirty fingerprints on the glass doors of the fireplace.

The kids covered the hearth with decorations, so I decided to make it look like Santa knocked over the decor when he pushed open the glass doors. I put my hands in the ash and placed some hand prints on the doors. I was inspired by a Christmas I had when I was about his age. I remember a line of ash tracked from the fireplace to the Christmas tree. I couldn't very well track ash through two rooms since the tree is in a separate room, however I decided to make a small path from the opening of the fireplace and over the hearth onto the carpet for a couple feet.

Christmas morning, I was woken by the excited shouting of my younger nephew, Patryk. All I could hear as he ran up and down the hall was, "A bike! I can't believe it! I can't believe it! Santa remembered! It's exactly the one I asked for! I can't believe it! I can't believe it...." I dragged myself out of bed and threw on a sweatshirt to everyone in the family room. Christian received his own set of "wheels" a Land Shark 4-wheeled kneeboard which he says that he wants to have the dogs pull him.

My great gift surprises: A Bose iPod docking station and the complete series of "Planet Earth" on DVD from my folks and a Chi flat iron from my brother and his wife...and a handmade turtle my nephew Christian made out of polymer clay and cooked in his tiny oven. Coincidentally, I got the "Planet Earth" dvd trivia game for my nephews as a gift. That series rocks. :)

Visiting with Christy, Dylan and Chico

Two of my best friends, Christy and Dylan came up to visit from Hungtington Beach for a night. They brought Chico, momma Jade's sister and baby Jade's aunt. Baby Jade had never met Chico and the last time Timber and Chico saw each other was a year ago. The dogs got along great and we two-legged friends enjoyed out time too. We enjoyed a late lunch at Qins then relaxed at home for a while and watched a movie. I cooked up a nice dinner and after we ate, we decided to go for a drink in downtown Clayton, my home town. We had a good time and it was great to see my friends. We were too buzzed to really get any photos later that night, so I mostly have shots of the pups playing.

Holiday Work Party

My work organized a dinner at Celia's Mexican Restaurant in Antioch. The food was pretty good. We had a "white elephant" type ornament exchange....people got pretty crazy over stealing ornaments from other people. The coveted ornaments were those that had a Starbucks card included and the glowing snowman ornaments. I got one with a Starbucks card, and that was immediately stolen from me, then stolen from the person who stole it from me. The glowing snowman exchanged hands at least 3 times as well! The people I work with are great.