Holiday Trip Home

Troy and I just returned from a road trip to Minnesota for the holidays. I'm really glad we have the job flexibility to travel for a longer time period when we want to. Our trip was action-packed, as usual. We mostly visited with our families. Somehow, even after living away for all of these years, it's getting harder and not easier to be far away from them.

Some trip highlights:
 
-Bentleyville with my sis and her family immediately upon our arrival in Duluth (after a 11 hour day of driving). It was so sweet to see my nieces and how excited they were about the Christmas lights.

Ethan and Ria roasting marshmallows

-Getting time with family--especially with our nieces and nephews. They are growing so fast!

Auntie Lissa with Ria, Taylor and Amelia

Maks

Troy's brother Casey and his boy Jack

My sisters and nieces

Grandpa and Grandma with the girls

Grandpa Rick with Taylor

-The Rogers family get-together. We saw lots of folks we might not have gotten to see otherwise. Also, when I mentioned that I don't really drink hard liquor anymore, Troy's mom insisted that I do a shot with her. Ha!

Me and Angie

Troy with his uncles and dad

The Rogers clan

-Staying with Matt and Eryn in Chicago on the way back. They are such incredible hosts. They always have a variety of great activities and restaurant options planned for us. We laughed a lot and enjoyed some great food and pie together.

-There wasn't much snow in MN but we managed to get two cross-country ski outings: one with our good friend Sarah and one with my dad.

-Annual wine and cheese party at my mom's with close friends. Always lots of fun!

More pics are on my Flickr page

I love my nieces to pieces!

We're back in Minnesota for a month or so to organize BradFest again. It's been a terribly busy time since I'm not really able to take time off, but I did find a bit of time this weekend for visiting. I finally got a chance to meet my niece Taylor. She's unbelievably tiny and sweet!

 

 And I had a blast with Ria, who is now 19 months old. She's got an incredible vocabulary already and my heart just melts every time I hear her say "Auntie!"

Picking raspberries

Eating raspberries with "Papa"

Peekaboo!

The Cutest Puppy

Troy and I plan to move back to Charlottesville soon because he's got to start building the robots. It's stressful to do an apartment search from hundreds of miles away (thank goodness we have friends like Steve and Aurie to look at places for us in our absence)! We have also started the long and arduous process of applying with the IRS for official nonprofit status for the Friends of Brad Memorial Foundation. Let's just say that last week was a long one.

Luckily, I noticed a weekend event that would lift our spirits--the Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon's "cutest puppy" contest. Coincidentally, it was happening at the Fitger's building in Duluth which is home to one of our favorite Minnesota brewpubs. They have two new Belgian beers on tap, so it wasn't hard to convince Troy to go.

Good beer and puppies. It was big smiles all around.

This one was my favorite, although not an official entry because he wasn't yet 3 months old.

Another cutie, I think an honorable mention? BTW, they weren't all huskies, but I'm partial to these dogs.

My sister, Ethan and niece met up with us for the contest. Ria added to the overall cuteness of the day.

A Tasty Family Tradition

Last weekend my mom decided to make potica (pronounced po-teet-sah). This delicious but difficult to make dessert is very dear to our hearts. It's a traditional Slovenian treat that my grandmother always makes for Christmas, Easter and other special occasions. Like, for example, my sister's wedding reception.

Potica consists of a thinly rolled yeast dough and a sweet walnut spread. Though I love to cook, making potica is a daunting task, I've never attempted to make it from scratch myself. I was excited to be home to help my mom with the task.

The dough has risen!

The filling. Ground walnuts, spices and honey.

Mom rolling the dough out

Mom called in grandma (who won a ribbon for her potica at the state fair this past year) for the toughest part--stretching the dough. It's really tricky to stretch it out over the whole length of a table without tearing it, but grandma is an expert.

First you stretch the dough, then you spread the filling over it. Grandma says it's best to do the spreading by hand.

Three generations

The next step is to roll it all up. In case you didn't notice before, there is a bed sheet spread over the table. This makes the process of rolling much easier.

The finished product! Delicious!

Giving Thanks

This was the first year in maybe a decade that Troy and I have been home to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday because I absolutely love the food. And eating and being with loved ones is probably my favorite activity. Plus, Thanksgiving is not nearly as stressful as Christmas!

My mom's family Thanksgiving (accidentally cut out grandpa and Alice)

All the grandparents (plus mom) enjoying their pie

Rogers family Thanksgiving

Pie was a big part of the celebration this year. I'm not even going to tell you how many pieces I ate. Troy stayed up all night on Wednesday, making two pumpkin, one apple/honey/thyme, and one French silk pie. As you can see from the photos, we ate two Thanksgiving dinners, one at my folks' and one at Troy's. Grandma Jean brought pecan and pumpkin pie to my mom's and Cassie and Bre brought pumpkin and apple to the Rogers. Yum!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. I have to admit that it was a bit of a rough reality for us to return from Belgium. Troy and I essentially got to live out our dreams there for a while, he with music robots and me with journalism. And the picturesque, medieval city of Ghent provided us with an incredible amount of culture and fun.

We know that we both got to enjoy the experience of a lifetime there. And now that we are back and broke, we have the unconditional support and love of our families. And even though it's not always as fast as we like, with their help we are moving forward. Thanks moms, dads and siblings!