For Christmas, my parents gave us the most wonderful cookbook:
So far we’ve made beef enchiladas and pork tacos:
Both involved cooking with terrifyingly spicy peppers (blending them into a sauce and then boiling it off, for example). But it’s worth it: the meals are just as amazing as back in Austin.
-Hendrik
Our last stop was Salt Lake City, where spent the evening drinking Polygamy Porter (a local Utah beer) with Amy and trying to thaw the pipes to her toilet so we could flush it (we eventually succeeded).
On the drive there, the weather was again terrible with freezing rain on top of a foot of snow. We counted 26 cars off the road during the 5 hours drive that should normally be a 3 hour drive.
Sister wives drinking Polygamy Porter.
After our frigid trip to Montana and Yellowstone, we spent the first week of 2017 chilling in Idaho. And I do mean chilling as it was also frigid and snowing there. We did some more snowshoeing, ate piles of Mexican food, and enjoyed bricks of sharp cheddar cheese, which I did not realize how much I missed.
We’re not frozen yet!
We also had two birthday parties; one for my dad and one for a friend from high school, played lots of board games, and enjoyed having an oven large enough to bake real cakes.
Happy birthday dad. First b-day as a retiree!
After Christmas, Hendrik joined me in Idaho and we immediately whisked him away to go wolf-watching in Yellowstone. In the winter, the West entrance is closed so we had to drive all the way up to Bozeman, Montana and back down to the North entrance. We had terrible weather for driving including a mild blizzard. The hotel in the national park was closed for renovations so we rented a house next to the Yellowstone River North of the park.
We had a successful visit to the park which included seeing 12 big horn sheep, a pygmy owl, and tons of elk and bison. We had a “three dog day,” which means we saw not only a wolf but also a coyote and a fox.
What Amy refers to as a Yellowstone standoff.
We also enjoyed romping around in the snow by the river and a snowshoeing excursion along a creek. The weather in Montana was cold and snowy with a low of -30 degrees F.
Amy ventured out for a photo once it warmed up to -25F.
For the week of Christmas I had a great visit to Portland to see my family. We filled the time with all of the foods I missed most. Apparently I managed to go to Portland right between two freakish snow storms and had only mild weather.
I’m presently on the train back from a conference in Zürich:
Which was a lovely trip. I was worried that jetlag would ruin the week for me, but apparently I’ve become immune after years of practice and with the help of melatonin. I’ll be glad for a return to routine even though our weeks of trips were fantastic.
-Hendrik
I spent Christmas in Idaho Falls with my family and Hendrik went to Portland for Christmas. I was stubborn this year because it had been 3 years since I had visited Idaho Falls.
We had a quiet little family Christmas with lots of snow and cold weather. A few days later, we took advantage of the powder and went snowboarding at Targhee. It turns out that it is like riding a bicycle; I still remembered how after a decade. On the other hand my legs took about a week to forgive me.
So did I die of food poisoning from the burritos? Of course not! But apparently I decided my Christmas break also applied to blogging. I’ll try to catch up in the next few posts.
The day after arriving, I was my sister’s plus one at her work Christmas party. She works as a web developer at a startup company called Cotopaxi that makes outdoor clothing and gear. Their logo is a llama. As such, they had an alpaca photo booth set up. The evening started with the red alpaca, Gary, trying to eat my hair while I tried to pet his pregnant wife, the grey alpaca, Prudence.
Amy restraining the insatiable Gary long enough for a photo.
I thought that would be the strangest part of my evening. I was wrong. The evening proceeded with snacks, a personalized office-themed parody of Twas the Night Before Christmas that had a line about every employee, then a surprise wedding of one of the founding employees, followed by dinner and dancing, Christmas presents, and drinks. Twas quite a Christmas party.
The next day we drove home to Idaho Falls where it started snowing and basically didn’t stop for the rest of the year.
EisenOrem Adventures 