W2

Internets, this is the third separate blog post I've started over the past week to try to explain both my recent absence (in person Christmas-ing!) and where I am for the holidays.

Before leaving Mpls, I was busy being all sorts of festive: I sent out all my Christmas cards, had a cookie-baking and -decorating extravaganza, finished my Christmas shopping, and attended the Nutracker at the State Theater downtown (David's first ballet, in addition to his first Nutcracker!).

Then last Tuesday I flew into Seattle, where I met my aunt for lunch downtown and got to see Brother Rockstar for a bit before heading across the mountains with my dad. We arrived in Walla Walla at about 9 that night, and I've been here since.

Mandy pointed out to me in a recent e-mail that I've neglected to actually mention here that a few weeks ago, my parents moved. Here. To Walla Walla. From sunny southern California, they moved to Walla Walla, two weeks before Christmas.

The good news is that they are now within a mile of my aunt and uncle, my grandma and grandpa, and my dear friends the Swinjarnyars and their Peanut (as well as other bloggers of note). They're also now just a few hours' drive from my mom's other two siblings and their families and both of my siblings. (It's also a nice place to be in the summer, as my blog archives attest--and it's a veritably paradisaical fruit basket during much of the year, too.)

The bad news--though apparently only for me--is that it looks nothing like this Christmas past, or this one. Instead there has been a pervasive, low-hanging grayness every day I've been here, and although it hasn't been Mpls-cold, it has been in the 20s and distinctly chilly. Also: no palm trees.

And I'm trying to just get over it and enjoy being around family and friends--which I do, very much--but I admit that I miss, terribly, holidaying in a holiday destination. I know I should appreciate the fact that I got to spend any time there at all... except that spending time there was part of the deal I made with myself when I decided I could survive Minnesota for my doctoral work. A month of warm sunshine makes a world of difference in the middle of an Ohio or Minnesota winter. I'm not precisely sure what I'll do without it.*

Anyway, here I am. We'll head back across the mountains for Christmas with my nuclear family next weekend for more food, presents, and general festivities!

*Starting to run again is probably a good start; as I wrote here in 2007, on surviving a Mpls January: "I'm afraid I'm going to have to start running again, though, to make it through this winter, which is a daunting prospect indeed." I didn't bring my shoes with me to Walla Walla, having successfully managed to carry-on only, but am confident they'll be happily waiting for me back at home.