On Boxing Day we all headed over to Eastern Oregon to stay at Sunriver, near Bend, and ski at Mt. Bachelor. We needed two cars, since Ben and I would drive straight back to Portland and Mom, Dad and Tom would return to Eugene.

The changing views on the drive over:

We crawled over the pass at about 18 miles per hour, passing all the Semis putting their chains on and squinting through the driving snow. It was a relief to hit the Eastern side of the mountains and see the snow taper off! We got to Sunriver in time to relax a bit in the (very nice and very large) condo before dinner.

Mom had worked many hours to prepare food before heading out. She made a big batch of Osso Bucco a couple days before we left, and brought the makings for sauteed cavolo nero (Italian kale) and a risotto Milanese (with saffron).

Lovely kale! (Meticulously cleaned and chopped by Tom; we had the stems in omelets and scrambled eggs for lunch.)

Delicious, warming winter food:

The next day I fell down and hurt my back, so instead of driving into Bend for a fun dinner out, we ate pizza at home and watched Monster’s Inc. I really, really enjoyed it, but I was also on painkillers so maybe I should watch it again to be sure it’s really that funny?

On Friday the Davidsons got to town for *their* week of ski vacation. They came over for a big lasagna dinner–again, Mom had spent hours making huge sheets of lasagna before we got to town. Yum.

We played Taboo and visited until it started to get pretty late. Ben and I were leaving the next morning to drive (3-4 hours) back to Portland and fly home. The less said about the messy 18 hour travel day with a very sore lower back, the better. Instead I will focus on the stunning landscape we drove up Highway 97 and then through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation on Route 26. (It’s a classic case of forcing Native American tribes onto harsh, arid land, but the terrain is very gorgeous to look at.)