It’s been really nice to be back in the US for the holidays. We’ve been able to see both of our families, catch up with friends, relax, and plan the next phase of our trip. For Christmas we spent 12 days traveling to both Virginia and Minnesota to visit family, and the common theme for the entire trip was SNOW! Between the huge East Coast snow storm and then the Midwest snow storm, we got our share of snow this holiday season. And for the most part, we loved it!

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Snow in Virginia

The first part of our trip was to Blacksburg, VA, home of Virginia Tech where Ben’s sister Kim graduated this December. It’s in the Appalachian mountains, so they do see snow occasionally, but usually not to the scale of what this huge storm dumped on us that weekend! Ben’s mom rented a remote cabin in the mountains for the weekend for Kim’s friends and family. We had quite the drive to get there since we drove right in the middle of the storm. It took us 2 stressful hours to get to the cabin (normally a 40 minute drive), but luckily everyone made it safely. We had already stocked up on groceries, so we happily allowed ourselves to be snowed-in all day Saturday. The snow was gorgeous, and the perfect consistency for little snowballs, giant snowballs, and… burying people?  We had a blast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More snow in Minnesota

After arriving in an already snowy Minnesota a few days later, we learned that another storm system was making its way towards us. Over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we were once again blanketed in snow. Again – no harm done, we were still able to spend Christmas Eve & Day with my family as planned.  On Saturday, Kim flew out to Minnesota for a job interview and we headed out to play in the snow again – this time cross country skiing.

Although I’m wishing I could be somewhere warm right now, at least if we’re going to spend December in the cold US, we may as well have snow to play in!

P.S. We’re very close to getting our upcoming travel plans all worked out. I’ll post an update soon, promise!