Christmas in Tahoe + The Holiday Season

Like every year, I wanted to do my very best to savor the holiday season as much as possible. And like every year, it flew by so quickly! The first weekend of December, I put up the Christmas tree and decorated my apartment, which really set things off with a bang and put me in the Christmas spirit. We also had a nice date at a local event called Christmas in the Park, where we got to walk around sipping coffee and enjoying all of the beautiful decorations. Later in December, I spent a weekend with family, decorated cookies with friends, got all of my shopping and gift wrapping done, and Dai and I had our annual Christmas day date in the city. This year we also had our usual special Christmas Eve Day high tea date early since we were going to be in the mountains this year.
I finished up school on December 19th and we headed to Lake Tahoe on the 23rd to spend Christmas with Dai's childhood friend, her boyfriend, and her parents who invited us to stay in a cabin with them. The cabin that they rented was beautiful! It had three bedrooms, a very spacious living area, and a hot tub on the deck. Soaking in the hot tub while it was snowing was simply divine!

We had a wonderful weekend of relaxing, enjoying the fresh snow, and spending time with good friends. We had yummy meals, drank good wine and champagne, and shared lots of laughs! I even took a nap each day and got in some reading time. This trip was actually Marly's first time in the snow and it was seriously the cutest thing to see him running around and getting covered in snow. He definitely would get cold after a while, but he was curious about the snow and it was just so sweet.

Christmas itself was also really nice! It was my first year spending it away from my family, so that part was a little bittersweet, but it was good to also spend a holiday with part of Dai's "family" since he is always so kind to usually spend them with mine. We had a fun Christmas morning and I got to share some of my family's American Christmas traditions with Dai's Japanese friends, which was really cool. Dai and I also made the family a really yummy enchilada dinner and we had a nice night hanging out. All in all, it was a really great Christmas!

Now we are back home and had a quiet and relaxing New Year. Dai and I both went back to work today, but tomorrow is my birthday and I have the next couple days off so it I'm not quite back to reality yet ;) I am looking forward to all that this new year will bring!

How was your Christmas? What do you enjoy most about the holiday season?

Adventure: Lake Tahoe

It was my birthday on Friday (the big 1-9), so Dai and I set off at 5am to make the the 3 1/2 hour drive to Lake Tahoe for a weekend of snowboarding and birthday celebrating. 

Let me just say this about snowboarding: It is a pain in the bum.

As I laid on my back in the cold snow after being knocked to the ground, I wondered why I thought this was a brilliant way to spend my birthday.

Now, don't get me wrong, the actual thrill of snowboarding is great. I love that part and am actually pretty good at it once I get going (in other words, I don't fall much), but it is all the other things that go along with it, like having to keep taking my boot out of the binding to get on the lift, falling when I get off the lift, having to strap my boot back into the binding at the top of the hill, getting up from the snow while strapped to the board, the fact that I always seem to get boots that are too small, and WET SOCKS. That is what I dislike about snowboarding.

BUT, all in all, we had fun.

Friday night, Dai took me out to dinner at a cute Italian place, where we were given a private, romantic alcove with velvet curtain's surrounding it. The place had such great food and they brought me a little birthday dessert.

The plan was to snowboard Friday and come back to the ski resort for another day on Saturday, but once Saturday morning rolled around, neither Dai or I could hardly move our necks or even think about heading to the mountain that day.

So what did we do instead? 

We got breakfast at a little café and took off for a drive into Nevada to go to a hot springs resort. 

We stopped along the way to take pictures of the serene and breathtaking scenery and of each other.

There's just something so nice about driving through the mountains. Everything seems peaceful and special. It's just grand.

We arrived at the hot springs, which in fact was basically a pool area with about 7 different jacuzzis. I will admit, I was a little disappointed because I thought it would be more "natural" looking, but it was still nice for our sore bodies to soak in the warm water. After visiting the hot springs resort, I also decided that a steam room or steam shower is a must  my future dream home. Add it to your list, too.

We later returned to South Lake Tahoe for dinner and a little gambling  at the Harrah's casino. We decided to go to the buffet on the top floor for the views of the lake and because why not?

Dai decided to play some slot machines after dinner, and inevitably lost $30 in all of about 5 minutes.

As we were leaving, we found an arcade, and after 30 minutes, $2, and 2 games of air hockey, we were thoroughly entertained. Guess we know what we'll be playing next time, huh?

We eventually did make it back to the ski resort on Sunday for another run and it was the best one yet :)

New Year's Resolution: Make it to Lake Tahoe many times this year, and bring Marly!