Going South

I had the most wonderful Christmas out in Park City with my family. I was out there for six days, which is a pretty long vacation for me, but it just flew by. I skied three of the days, had lots of great meals with the whole family, did a little shopping, spent hours in the hot tub, slept lots and played many games of Catchphrase. Pretty much the perfect holiday, although it wasn’t quite as snowy as we might have hoped. Here are just a few pictures from the trip!

My dad and sister did an awesome job picking out the perfect Christmas tree. We all decorated it together.

Gorgeous sunrise one morning. This is the view from out hot tub. Pretty nice, eh?

All the cousins being silly at Christmas Eve dinner.

With Santa Beth opening presents on Christmas morning.

Beautiful day skiing at Deer Valley.

Skiing lunches are my FAVORITE! I think I had chili every single day.

I had a great pre-Christmas weekend, although it made it very hard to go back to work this morning. On Saturday I got all of my Christmas shopping done and wrapped everything. I love wrapping presents and watching Love Actually made it even more fun! They are all under the tree now and are ready to be packed for Utah.

Saturday night was the 4th annual Christmas party that my friends upstairs throw. Each year is better than the last, although notably more tame as we get older. ;) I made these cheesecake stuffed strawberries which were a big hit.  Find the recipe here. They are so simple.

The not so fun part of the weekend was getting the battery in my car replaced. It’s been slowly dying for a couple weeks and I wanted to get it taken care of before I left it sitting for a week while I’m away for Christmas. They were very helpful at Autozone, and I paid more than I wanted to, but they installed it for me since I didn’t have a clue how to!

And the perfect ending to the weekend was doing our usual drive through Highland Park to look at all of the beautiful (and often over the top!) lights. We made a stop at Starbucks and got apple ciders and then drove through the neighborhood for an hour while listening to a Christmas Pandora station. One of my favorite Christmas traditions!

Now just three more days of work and then I’m headed west for some skiing with my family for six days. I just love this time of year.

This weekend was nothing short of incredible. My bff from high school is a White House staffer and decided to take little ol’ me as her plus one to the “office” holiday party. The event started at 2:30 on Friday afternoon and was held in the East Wing of the White House.

The various rooms in the East Wing were decorated immaculately with trees, lights and garlands.

And there was a Bo in each room. This one was made entirely from garbage bags.

There was champagne, eggnog and a huge spread of food.

I had a great time enjoying the food and drink, and meeting all of D’s colleagues.

We got to see the President and First Lady!  Dream come true. Obama expressed his gratitude for the hard work and sacrifices that his employees and their families make for our country.

D also took me on a tour of the West Wing where the Oval Office and Cabinet Room are. Probably the most surreal part of the whole thing! No photos allowed in the West Wing, but here’s a pretty one from outside.

If you ever get the chance to take a White House tour, do it. It really is an elaborate building on the inside. It was truly a once in a lifetime kind of a day, and one that I won’t ever forget. Thanks to D for letting me share it with her!

The last flight I was on, home from Laguardia on Sunday, made an emergency landing in Washington, DC.  We were on the ground there for 30 minutes. I’m going there for real today and will hopefully be there a little longer than that this time around.  I’m going for a VERY special event which I’ll tell you more about when I get home. I’ll give you a hint…it involves a house. Possibly a white one. ;)