Christmas and New Years

One of the great things about DC is that if your job is at all tied to the federal government this place pretty much shuts down for the holidays.  Every federal holiday.  This means an abundance of 3 day weekends and the week off between Christmas and New Years.

So, we headed out West and spent Christmas and New Years in Oregon visiting family and friends.  We had to fly on Christmas Eve, but we caught the same flight as our friend Anna so we at least enjoyed the company of a good friend all the way to Portland.  And even the small child throwing up in front of us (and all over Tim's coat under my seat) on the last leg of our journey wasn't going to dampen our spirits.

We spent the first few days in Portland with Tim's aunt and uncle and got to see just about all of Tim's side of the family while we were there.  And then we spent six whole days with our immediate families together on the Seymour ranch in Haines.  It was a very low-key and enjoyable time together.  There was lots of food, good conversation, card games, even some crafting.  And it snowed!

AND while we were there, we celebrated the fact that my mom kicked breast cancer's butt!!  She had her last treatment just after Christmas and just like that the worst of it was over!  They just got back from Hawaii, celebrating and enjoying the warm weather.  I'd say that's a pretty good way to celebrate making it through such an ordeal!

It was a little hard coming back to the fast pace of DC after such a relaxing time in Oregon.  But in many ways our time there reaffirmed to us both that we are exactly where we belong right now, and exactly where we want to be.  That's good to know.

There are far too many photos of Christmas and New Years to post here... but a good collection of them can be found here.