We took down all the Christmas decorations, but the boxes are still sitting out everywhere. Our tree is still up, and though it has been de-ornamented… I just feel bad throwing it out on the curb when it’s still so pretty and makes the house smell all pine-y. I guess we’ll leave it up a little longer. It’s hard to put the holidays away, sometimes.

Other than those loose ends, I’m feeling energized about the new year. Work is super busy, and we’ve started tearing apart the office to make a new, improved work space for me. The carpet has been pulled out, and we’re working on fixing the wood floors, which were covered in splashed paint. It’s a mess now. But, after the floor is done, we’re talking about designing some built-in shelves along one wall. I will share some pics of it soon.

On Christmas afternoon, we headed up to Delaware to spend some more time with family. We had breakfast for late lunch/early dinner and opened presents. One of the traditions that I’ve learned from Matt’s family is how to open one gift at a time, going around in a circle and taking turns. Growing up, it was always chaos with everyone going at once and paper flying everywhere, and then afterwards inspecting what gifts had actually been given. There is something nice about both methods, and I love the fact that we get to do it both ways now. Another tradition of theirs is eating grapefruit. Though I tried it one year, I just can’t get down with it, but it is still a comforting reminder of Christmas day for me now, regardless of the fact that I don’t eat it.

The day after Christmas, we decided to get out of the house, and went for a walk around the lake at Carousel Park with the doggies. It was windy and chilly, but it felt nice to stroll around and let Bowser and Tiki enjoy some play time.

our bikes

   

weeeee!! my new ride

   

taking photos and biking. not nearly as easy as chewing gum and walking

   

There should be WAY more 3-day weekends in the year. In fact, every single one of them should have that extra day to relax… methinks there would be a lot less insanity in the world if this were the case. We took advantage of it by biking around the US National Arboretum. THIS on a Monday morning is a MUCH better start to the week than checking your inbox. Especially if you’re riding your brand new bike!!! EEEEEeeeee!!! Isn’t it pretty?! Matt spent a pretty good deal of time working with BicycleSPACE to custom build my new ride. We’re still waiting on a few finishing touches like a rack, lights, and kickstand, but it was ready enough for an inaugural ride. !!!!! We spent two+ hours on Sunday sewing the elk-hide grips onto the handle bars. By the way, I am SO adding double cross-stitch to my resume under the “Skills” section after that effort. It looks so super sweet now though. Well worth the time.

We decided to start with a short ride, so Matt found a really quick and easy route for us to get to the Arboretum. It’s sad that we don’t go there more frequently for how close it is. We decided that biking is DEFINITELY the way to go for exploring the expansive grounds there. Every other time we’ve gone on foot and apparently missed about 90% of the place. It was a humid, cloudy, overcast day, but we missed any raindrops and had a good first ride.

Afterwards, Matt and I helped Val and Ty move into their new apartment in Columbia — it was a pretty efficient move and we’re now bummed that they are no longer going to be our DC neighbors. Bowser will be missing Tiki play dates as well. At least they are closer to their jobs now though. Hello easier commuting! After all their boxes were inside, we had to skedaddle home to get ready for Matt’s work party at his bosses house. There were crabs, ribs, and lots of water slide action. Matt managed to rip an enormous hole in the back of his swim trunks on the slide, so the water fun was somewhat short-lived. Reference the ridiculousness of their homemade water slide in the photo below, though. That is just the top part where you take off on a ride all the way down to the bottom of their farm. The entire slide has to be longer than a football field. Talk about being the coolest kids on the block!
   

After the work party, we went to the Thievery Corporation show at the Kastles Stadium on the SW Waterfront. Awesome show! We sat and watched from the very top of the stands across from the stage. Maybe my 28-year-old self is actually just acting my age now, but the whole time I was thinking how awesome it was to just sit there with a beer and relax and listen to the music away from the crowds and not be one of the people crammed up by the stage with all the other sweaty kids dancing around and screaming.

it was actually a great view, not that this blurry camera-phone photo is any indication

   
This morning we woke up bright and early to go for a little walk in the woods. We drove out to the head of the Glover-Archibald trail in Tenleytown with Bowser in tow and headed along the path towards Georgetown (with Bowser leading the way, of course). He is just so damn cute running through the woods and sniffing everything. It’s not often that our city-doggy actually gets off his leash, so it felt good to let him run around the trail, explore all the curiosities of nature, and greet all the runners and other doggies out with their owners. The great thing about this particular trail though, is that you don’t encounter too many other people out there. Just the running water, the trees, and lots of green! The trail itself is fairly flat elevation-wise, but the ground is pretty rocky and bumpy, so you definitely have to pay attention as you’re going along. We broke off the path a few times to play in the stream and also to give Bowser his very first swimming lesson. (First, that is, if you don’t count the time that Matt briefly threw him in the pool at Ivory Road, thinking my mom wasn’t looking. She was actually watching from the deck the whole time and immediately gave him the NO-DOGS-IN-THE-POOL friendly reminder. No way he was getting away with that one…) Anyways, todays swimming lesson consisted of Matt tossing Bowser into the stream water up to his chin, and Bowser standing there in the water whimpering and shaking, not realizing he could just walk out of the water. After a few minutes, we walked downstream and left him to his own devices and he finally scampered out of the water. The great thing about dogs is they immediately forget things and he was again happy as can be.

hikers!
   

swim lesson!
   

dog on a log!
   

I found lots of pretty yellow leafs on the ground already. fall’s-a-comin!
   

By the time we got home, we had worked up a pretty good appetite, so walked down to H Street for some much-needed sushi sustenance at Sticky Rice. We made it there just in time to miss the MASSIVE storm that came through. Thunder and lighting and gushing winds. Glad we weren’t still out in the woods at that point. After sushi, we sat in the window at Sova and enjoyed a cup of coffee. Matt read the newspaper while I thumbed through an awesome book about America.
   

   

Mmmm, coffeeeee.