Blizzard of 2009

Washington DC got 16+ inches of snow yesterday, which is a record for December. Thankfully it came on a Saturday and did not cause major disruption to commuters. Our church was canceled this morning, the school (faculty) Christmas party was canceled yesterday, and school for tomorrow has already been canceled. Since I am scheduled to give all my exams tomorrow morning, that means the students will take them Tuesday instead - and I have one less day to get my grading finished before Christmas. We played in the snow with Calista yesterday and today, and today I skiied around Greenbelt Lake a couple of times - something I have only been able to do once or twice before in the 6 winters we have spent here (counting this one, which technically just started). I uploaded some more pictures here. Often it warms up to 40+ degrees the next day after a snow here, but the forecast calls for low-to mid 30s as a high all week, so the snow might stick around for a while. It's going to be tough to go running.

Christmas tree

We got a real Christmas tree for the first time! Our house was to small to make a larger tree work until last year, and with an 11-month old we did not want to try last year. Calista helped us pick out the tree from a vendor who operates out of the parking lot of our local supermarket . . not quite as romantic as "cut your own", but it works. We decorated it this afternoon. Calista helped some, and mostly managed to stay out of trouble.
Things are finally settling down for me now. We had our cross country team banquet last Tuesday, which mostly concludes the events of the season - other than making arrangements for purchasing championship jackets for the team members. Exams start on Wednesday . .

Thanksgiving and beyond

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I went to NY for a cross country meet - we were victorious at the Jesuit championships, beating several other very good teams. We headed to Chincoteague for Thanksgiving, and went from there to North Carolina for the southeast regional cross country championships. The team did well, finishing 7th in a region that spans from the Mason-Dixon line south to the Gulf coast. After two days of classes I went to the Loyala Retreat House to help lead a 3-day retreat for seniors at Gonzaga. Looking forward to some more free time in the coming weeks!