Tuesday, December 27, 2005

What I've been up to...

It's hard to post from home, because there's so much that I want to write about that I can't figure out where to start. I tried to write a list of highlights... but even that got ridiculously long. So I'm going to just dive in here.

This morning I went running down on the Lakewalk - my first run in weeks! It's about 30ºF outside - not so good for skiing or skating, but great for running. The sky was pale grey, and the lake was calm enough that it mirrored the sky perfectly - you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. There was a big thousand-footer anchored out there, waiting to go under the lift bridge into the harbor.

My dad and I walked the same route yesterday, after he got home from work. We checked out the canal, which is all full of ice - big plates of black and white ice. It's a little hypnotic to watch them undulating on the waves, clicking together and sometimes squeaking when one rides up on another.

Sunday, Christmas, was wonderful. We didn't stray from our Christmas morning routine: Coffee and stocking presents right off the bat, a breakfast that includes my uncle's homemade almond coffeecake, and then the under-the-tree presents. Then we leapt into action, and by the time the relatives arrived at 12:30 we were showered and dressed and had most of Christmas dinner ready to hit the table. (Our effiency was due in large part to all the cooking my mom, grandma, sister and I did on Friday and Saturday mornings.) The turkey took longer than expected, which just meant that we all had more time to sit around drinking wine and telling stories. There were 19 people in the house at this point, all from my mom's side of the family, so conditions were ripe for tales from the Slick kids' childhoods. They grew up on a farm in northern (like Canadian border northern) Minnesota. The best stories are the ones about building fires in Grandma's windowboxes, or about parachuting kittens from the barn loft using my great-grandma's bloomers... even though we've all heard them dozens of times. But we learned some new stories this year! Like the time my Uncle Brent took cousin Kristi and Uncle Brian on a joy ride that inadvertently turned into a cow-herding adventure when they rounded a haybale and came face to face with a bull.

We squeezed 15 adults and teens around the dining room table. (The 4 kids had to sit at the little table in the living room.) It was cozy, mostly in a good way. Towards the end of the meal, we took turns telling about our most memorable event of 2005. My sister talked about living with me. It was really sweet, and the feeling is mutual, and it makes me more excited than ever to have her move back in come January.

For dessert, we served the buche de noël that I made. It turned out pretty well this year! I'll post a photo when I get a chance. Everyone left around six to head back to the Cities, leaving the Sproats to a relaxing evening drinking tea and reading our new Christmas literature. I started The Kite Runner.

That's enough blogging for now. I miss DC, but I'm very happy here.

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