Baby, it's cold outside (and inside........)

Greetings from the southeastern corner of Michigan, where there can be no doubt that Christmas will indeed be white this year. Everything is covered in a glittering layer of snow, ice, and - ehm - salt:

Nope. A pile of snow does not magically disappear because you cover it in salt!

We are mostly staying inside except for all the many many many dog walks:

Yet, we still get to enjoy the fresh air from the draft by the patio door, and under Teresa's bed, and under the front door, and through the power outlet (no kidding) in Luca's room. On our to do list is to get some heavy duty masking tape and at least get some of it taped up. On the bright side is that we have become really good at actually using the fireplace which at least heats up the draft coming in though there.

It seems like we are in for some serious cold this weekend:

But after that? This is what awaits us. And it is no secret that I am very excited about our California trip this Christmas:

Kristian is already off from work. His department got quite a few extra vacation days, that they have to spend before the new year. And the crazy thing is, that he doesn't really seem to mind ;-) He even promised to do the gift shopping this year!!!!! Which I, of course, only think is fair after my exciting trip to the post office shipping parcels to Denmark (it tok an hour, cost 200$ and a significant rise in blood pressure. And I don't feel like talking about it anymore). The one obstacle we have not yet figured out is when to actually give presents this Christmas. We are not bringing them to CA with us, and Teresa is so busy, that she does not have a single night at home before we leave, which makes it a little hard to plan for a family dinner.

We have not done much this year besides decorating our "tomato cage christmas tree" and making some aebleskiver:

December kind of just crumbled on us this year. I have been extremely tired but has finally started to sleep better, which was highly needed. And Kristian has not exactly been high voltage energy either. But we hope that a dose of Bay Area sunshine and good company will do us good.