i'll be home for Christmas...

The day after I arrived in Cupertino, I took off again - this time for Tahoe via Walnut Creek.  I got my "new" car serviced by my trusted mechanic Mike, and learned from his shop that I had a damaged tire that could have blown out any time while we were driving, especially at high speeds or while the car was overloaded.  I am so thankful that didn't happen on Judy's and my mostly freeway speed trip across the country with an overloaded vehicle!  I went straight from the mechanic to a tire place and got two new tires, then proceeded to Libby's.  We ate dinner before heading out to Vanessa's school Christmas concert.  Vanessa plays flute in the 7th grade concert band.

vanessa playing flute in the center of this photo

vanessa, libby, tori

The next morning, I headed out at the same time Libby took off to take Tori to school, and drove straight to Sierra-at-Tahoe with clear roads and barely a trace of snow falling as I arrived.  I put on my boots, grabbed my board, got a pass and headed out to ride for a bit.

feels SO good to be home!

The wind picked up a bit and snow began to fall in earnest, and I ended up getting a bit cold, so I drove down into town and visited my former workplace, Emerald Bay Physical Therapy.  I dropped my stuff off at Lisa's and changed clothes before meeting Tiffany for dinner at Orchid's.

tiffany and me after thai dinner

The next morning I braved the storm and went back to Sierra.  I got a pass again, and borrowed John Rice's jacket to wear over Lisa's down vest, and was therefore able to keep warm.  I ran into Megan, one of the kids who used to compete in the same events I did, and ended up riding powder with her and her family.

saying hi to jim - he and i started teaching at sierra the same year

riding powder with megan

My car got stuck when I tried to leave AND highway 50 closed toward South Lake Tahoe, so it took me several hours to get back to Lisa's.  At least I got to spend most of it indoors in the lodge.

sierra's parking crew snowblowed out the berm left by the plows

Once I finally got back into town, Lisa and I just ended up spending a relaxing evening hanging out at her place.  I also made the decision to leave early the next morning in an attempt to beat the next wave of the storm - I had been told to expect a 6-12 hour window ending mid-morning.

lisa about to head out to ride more powder, me heading home

It turned out to be an excellent plan - I had mostly clear roads, only light snow which turned to light rain in lower elevations, and no one in front of or behind me through all of chain control.  Once I passed chain control areas, the precipitation increased until it became a solid steady rain with occasional bursts of torrential downpour.

sugar loaf in kyburz

I stopped at Pearl's place in El Dorado Hills to catch up and give my legs a stretch.  An hour or so later I stopped at the Vacaville Factory Outlets for some last-minute Christmas shopping.  The rain continued, or if anything, got worse, so that I drove through some flooding on the freeways in the last 20 miles of my drive.  I made it back safely, with plenty of time to organize and prep my room to accommodate a second person when cousin Queenie arrived the next day.

pearl and me in her kitchen

Christmas Eve was spent preparing the house for the arrival of Alan and family as well as Queenie.  After Queenie arrived we had dinner at the Anvicks' next door, until my parents headed up to SFO to pick up Alan, Elizabeth, and Enzo.  Queenie and I attended West Valley Presbyterian Church's Christmas Eve service with the Anvicks.  Once the Madison Ngs arrived, we borrowed a box of K'nex from the Anvicks, and Keith came over to demonstrate for Enzo.

enzo, mama, and keith playing with k'nex

Christmas morning, Enzo was up early, chomping at the bit to open his Christmas gifts.  We opened our stockings before breakfast, and the rest after breakfast.  We rounded out the day with a family Christmas picture and a delicious ham dinner.

enzo was pretty excited about a chocolate bar in  his stocking

me, mama, alan, elizabeth, enzo, bupa, and queenie