Home for the holidays, thanks to ELECTRICITY!

Rather, thanks to God for electricity. And the power company men who finally made their way out to my parents' neighborhood after almost three days of dark, cold, internet-less existence.

Yes. I left freakishly warm and beautiful New Jersey just in time for Washington's equally unusual freezing wind snowstorm blizzard event. It was 60 F in Princeton and about 15 F in Seattle. Weird.

Thankfully, my parents were able to summit the frozen hill they live down, find the clear main roads, and rescue me from Sea-Tac last night. Then I slept amazingly well on a mattress in front of our wood-stove, flanked by 5' tall diagrams of plant cells and a shower-turned-window curtain of the periodic table, below a mural of dolphins, and not too far from posters of parentheses, semicolons, and commas. My sister, Amy, slept on a mattress next to me (everyone else stuck it out in the glacial bedrooms). Maddie, the golden retriever, slept between us much of the night. Ashley, our 16-year-old tabby cat, provided a less-than-soothing soundtrack to our slumber with her asthmatic breathing.

In the morning, Mom made french press coffee and pancakes on the wood-stove. So freaking thankful for that stove. Dad, Mom, Jenny, and I sat around. We waited for Amy to get back from work. We stared at each other. We talked to each other. We played with Maddie. We petted Ashley and Scout (the younger cat). We remembered the days of internet fondly.

When Amy returned with the one car of the family's four which can survive our icy hill, she took Jenny and I on a sister date! We snuck lattes into the movie theater and thoroughly enjoyed Tangled. GO SEE TANGLED. It was beautiful, funny, and touching. The best characters were definitely Pascal, the chameleon sidekick, and Max, the horse sidekick, but Rapunzel and Flynn were good too. :)



On our way home, we picked up pizza. When we arrived home, WE HAD POWER!!! YAAAY! Also, my little (6'3'') brother, David! We ate in front of the fire, with all six human family members and all three animal family members enjoying each other, and then slowly laptops appeared and people trickled upstairs to the TV. :)

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow, everyone! I hope you have a terrific weekend--I know ours will be busy: dinner with grandparents and aunts, a trip to the brewery with my brother, a trek into Seattle with my parents to see Hamlet and have dinner with my old friend, Bethany. And then I'll run the Seattle Marathon on Sunday. We also have a German cake baking planned!

I must write about my recent trip to Chicago for a conference, but that requires pictures left on my camera in New Jersey. For now, from my phone, I give you a preview:


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!