Truckee was hit with an unbelievable amount of snow - beating the record for snowfall from 50 years prior, and meaning that we couldn't actually get out. I managed to drive the trusty Camry (front wheel drive and a couple chains is all I need to drive around stuck 4-wheelers!) in to town a couple of times, so we managed to get food, and the cabin fortunately had loads of firewood thanks to Ron+Linda, which is good since we kept losing power/heat.

It was amazing. I kept clearing the driveway every day so it wouldn't get overtaken and impossible to clear. Finally the plow service managed to get out to us and cleared the driveway. Then I went out one morning and there was another foot of snow to clear because they hadn't made it out to us. It wasn't until I'd cleared half the driveway that I figured out that they had made it out to the cabin, but it'd snowed over a foot in a couple hours since they'd been there.

I didn't bring any ski gear, but managed to go up for a half day at the nearby mini-mountain. Turns out I had an amazing time because almost nobody was able to make it up there, and the good skiers had all gone to the big resorts, so I was literally the only one on the runs I took, over and over, plowing through a couple feet of powder.

And best of all, the little man really got to enjoy Christmas. And he also did his first Ollie, at only two years of age, which I still find mind-blowing. It was also the Christmas that Charlie got to start her new life dream of being a rock star.

We finally managed to leave after being stuck till the next year, which was amazing and worth it.