I'm dreamin' of a warm cabin...

So Yosemite at Christmas is amazing. And Cold. Cold like Canada...

We arrived Christmas Eve, and spent the night at the Wawona Hotel. We took a quick walk at dusk across the way from the hotel, in a meadow covered in snow, with a great big moon overhead. It was cold.


But inside it was fantastic- warm and cozy with a big fire roaring and crackling in the fireplace, Christmas carols being sung by the piano, and warm booze being consumed. Yum. After a great dinner, we hit the sack so as to get an early start Christmas morning, snowshoeing at Badger Pass.



After the drive to Badger Pass, we got on the snow around 9am, and took a walk with one of the Rangers, and learned a little bit about the area of the park where Badger Pass is located. We covered around 3-4 miles, mostly on trails, but took a detour towards Summit Meadow. We didn't make it. It was cold.

We left Badger Pass around 2pm, and headed to Yosemite Valley for dinner. And oh my freakin' crap what a dinner it was! It's called Bracebridge Dinner. Take the time to check out the website. This was one of the coolest things that we have ever done. Indescribable. 4 hours long. Never boring. 8 courses. 2 bottles of wine. Not a single partridge in a pear tree. And not cold.

So on the 26th (happy birthday to me!) we did some more snowshoeing, this time at Crane Flat, northwest of Yosemite Valley. We spent a few hours there, and were able to go to Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias.

Here we are at the Tunnel Tree. It was cold.

We spent that night in Curry Village, located in Yosemite Valley. We stayed in one of the heated canvas tents, which is really better described as a one-room wood cabin with canvas draped over the wood... It was actually pretty warm. Until we had to pee. Then it was cold.

So when we got up Sunday morning to head home, it was snowing like a sonofabitch. Apparently sonsofbitches snow like hell.


We took this photo of the Merced River as we were driving out. For reference, the snowflakes are as big as a baseball. Don't believe me? Just click on the photo. Told ya!



We left this guy behind.

Happy New Year everyone!

Hectic holidays

Things have been hopping around the Shiflett-Hall abode. Jay has been working doubly-hard to land some lucrative deals (we have some big travel plans for next year) and I've been writing a review that is due to the publisher in early January. And, of course, it's the holidays! I try to manage our holidays with a spreadsheet. I've been keeping a Christmas spreadsheet since 2004, and I find it's the best way to keep up with addresses and gift lists. I know exactly what everyone got last year, so that great gift idea doesn't get sent out two years in a row. This year Jay helped me do a mail-merge with Excel and Word, and I printed out all our Christmas card envelopes. We've managed to purchase, wrap, and ship all our gifts out, send out our Christmas cards (with pictures), and last weekend we hosted a holiday get-together at our place! It was a lot of fun, and this weekend marks our relaxing weekend. My friend Jenny and I are hitting up the spa, and that evening Jay and I are attending the ballet. I will of course have pictures! Today's picture is a poor exhausted cat, who has been expending a tremendous amount of effort to help us wrap gifts and address cards. She has been endlessly patient (except for the whining) while I ignore her to take care of all the extra things that I've needed to get done. She, for one, is especially glad to have her humans back to doing what they should do - pet and love her! Just look how lonely she is, napping in the sunshine in her recliner, no one there to give her any attention...

Pickling!

Ever since we started shopping at the Farmer's Markets, we've lamented how many lovely fruits and vegetables we DON'T get to eat. There is only so much fresh food we can consume in one week. During one trip I bought an enormous amount of basil for a $1.00. We have dried several bunches of herbs that we didn't get through during the week, but our dried herb collection was stuffed full. So I decided to make some pesto and freeze it. It worked out really well, and I mentioned to Jay that we should start buying lots of fresh stuff and canning it. Well, we decided to give it a whirl. This weekend, we made our first ever batch of pickles. Jay made spicy dill pickles, and we are anticipating how wonderful those pickles will be in just a few weeks time.

Here I am, helping Jay poor the pickling vinegar over the packed jars (those are to the right in the picture). They look beautiful; Jay put in onion, dill, peppercorns, and dried peppers. I bet they will taste as yummy as they look. We'll keep you posted!

Canada Got Me Drunk

Jay and I have been busy bees, and it's only December 2nd. We've gotten most of our Christmas shopping wrapped up, our annual Swiss Colony order has been placed, and we are doing our holiday cards this weekend. We're also hosting a Holiday Happening cocktail party this month with our friends here in Los Angeles.

Since we've been so busy, we decided to order dinner in tonight. We had sushi and watched an episode of the muppet show, as you can see.

This is one of our favorite ways to relax. Good food delivered to our door or picked up on our way home, giving ourselves a rare day off in the kitchen. Jay is an excellent cook, and I am passable. Every week we make our menu and buy our groceries. This is a great way both to eat healthfully, as well as to keep within our food budget. We save a lot of money by eating at home, and we rarely eat out. Cooking together is a great way to connect at the end of our busy days apart. But sometime we just want to crash, and today was one of those days. Los Angeles is home to some excellent sushi restaurants, and we love sushi. So we stopped on the way home. Our Muppet Show DVD was waiting in the mailbox. And as you can see, Jay was hoisting a glass of nice, dark Trader Joe's Special Ale. Which has a 9% alcohol content, and I ended up quite tipsy on less than a glass. Turns out it is made in Canada; those insalubrious Canadians. One of the many reasons I love them so (big I love you out to my family in Canada, Drew, Jo, Galen, and Raynham)!!!

If you ever get a chance to drink in Canada, I highly recommend several wineries in the Niagara Valley, and you should especially try the ice wines. I would love Jo and Drew just for introducing me to ice wine, but I love them for many other reasons besides. And now you all know that I get sappy when I drink.