I hope you all had a great holiday!!!  I sure did.  Spent 4 days in my Big Bear home with my Mom, Sister and fur-kids (yep, that’s my entire family).  It was sooo relaxing to be there with them just hanging out and enjoying an escape from the usual hustle and bustle of life.  Christmas is the only time all three of us seem to get together up there at once so it’s really nice to do the snowy winter activities, watch movies, cook & bake and share some laughs.  It was a very ‘white Christmas’ after the past couple of storms we’ve had.

Christmas Eve was crazy… we arrived and got settled in to find that my heater wasn’t turning on.  Quite uncomfortable when it’s 12 degrees outside at night!!!  But like so many similar events recently it magically ‘healed itself’ and started working again without needing to call in a handyman on a holiday weekend.  PHEW.  My BMW did the same thing last week ironically.  Long story short all kinds of lights were on my steering panel, by the time I scheduled a mechanic visit the car decided to save me a boatload of money and has been normal ever since!  Go figure!!  Back to that night, we spent our Christmas Eve with a huge fire in the fireplace, blankets and warm drinks.  It was actually kinda cozy!  Here’s my living room that night courtesy of my iphone:

The day after Christmas my sister and I got a little antsy to do something.  Getting into nature is always my answer so I suggested a winter hike in the wildlife refuge land that backs up to my neighborhood.  It was an added bonus when finding my house to know that land is right there, will never be built on and is a great place to drop into and explore.  Here are a few fun shots I clicked off my trusty iphone:

It was irresistible to make snow angels in the untouched, vast fallen snow.  Had to:

Day three we attempted sledding on my neighbors side yard.  The sides of my property aren’t as long of a run with the placement of trees and my junipers.  (Yet another bonus being on 9000 sq ft of land)  It took me all of about 5 sled rides before I ran in the house, tied on my boots and grabbed my Burton FeelGood to do the same runs on my board.  Now I know why God created chairlifts!!!  It is sooo much work to hike up a sizeable hillside for a 20 second ride!  Geeesh!  I love that my sis captured it on video… but what really cracks me up is the fact she was walking while she held the cam (iphone) up and the nylon from her (my) snowboard pants made a seasaw sound in the background HAHA.  Silly sis!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYH9ilkUifU

(copy & paste to your browser, my blog hates large files-booo)

To summarize it was a memorable, fun Christmas 2009!