christmas in ashland: day 1 +2

day 1:
we left last friday*** for an 8-hour + drive to ashland, oregon to spend christmas with jamie's parents, his brother ted and his wife ann. we split the trip into two legs, spending a lovely night in albany, oregon after a lovely carl's jr. dinner. lovely. we haven't been on vacay for-ever. so this felt like a mini getaway.

**** this was a day earlier than expected so i did not get all my christmas cards addressed and mailed :(

day 2:
after a surprisingly good and free breakfast of eggs, home-made belgium waffles (jamie made our waffles with the waffle machine set up for the hotel guests in the little eating area), bagels, muffins, juice and coffee we set off for ashland. we just missed the big snowstorm that blew into the seattle area, which deposited record inches of snow. ashland got its own fair share of the white stuff. basically snowing us in for most of the trip (save for occasional trips to the market and two movie outings - Bolt (we took Sofi too) and The Curious Case for Benjamin Buttons.)

anyway i'm getting ahead of myself.
after a quick lunch at a place called "heaven on earth" in azalea, oregon (jamie had his first-ever chicken fried steak sandwich), we arrived safely in ashland with any major trouble. we even got up a particularly treacherous, monster hill on morton st. without having to put chains on. when we got to the house - which itself is at the top of a steep driveway - ted and ann were already shoveling snow. jamie joined in while sofi and stayed nice and warm inside.

dec. 20 - the jeep got stuck half-way up the drive even though it had chains and a four-wheel drive.

dec. 20 - sofi watches ted, ann and jamie shovel snow from the huge windows in the living room.

And since food was a very BIG part of our stay in ashland - jamie's parents and his brother are all excellent cooks, I will try to note what we had each day for meals.

Dinner: Coq au vin made by Jamie's Dad. Yummy!