On being home for the holidays!

First this selfie happened:

Made it home to this guy after 18 months apart! ¡Que hombrecito!

And I was so happy that I did a little dance!

Then I got really excited about SNOW:

But before all that, I got to spend a precious 21 hours with:

Time with college BFFs = beer, coffee, chocolate and bagels!

Where's the selfie stick?

And I finally got to partake in the Raff's new tradition of chopping down our very own tree:

Champions of the tree hunt!

Dragging our prized tree out of the woods on a snowy day.

Tree dragging continues

Finished product, what a beaut!

And I also did a lot of this:

Cross country skiing!

And no holiday would be complete without some of this:

Did somebody say pomegranate martinis?

I also made a pit stop to my old high school to give presentations about Peace Corps:

All-school assembly, where in the world?

Spanish 5 class

Then I got to tour our new middle school at the Community School where I went to high school. If you can imagine the best learning environment ever, this is it. If you can imagine the worst, it's what I teach in.

And then the famous Perch employee Roger Mankus was doing his 1,000th ascent up 3,000 feet of Bald Mountain and so Henry and I did it with him:

Car's ready!

Shredding (too hard) in the fresh pow on the way down

Sunrise...nothing prettier. 

And then the Raffs all got together for one family shot to wish you a very Merry Christmas:

Merry Christmas from the Raffs!

And suddenly I was saying goodbye :( it was tough leaving home sweet home, but I've got a job to finish!

Bye bye 206 Crazy Horse! Until October!

On Peace Corps by the numbers

By the numbers: 

405: Days in country

44: Hogares Saludables women health promoters graduated

36: Escojo Mi Vida youth peer educators graduated

50: Books read

6: Haircuts

12: Ant infestations dealt with

6: Collection of dead and named cockroaches

3: Cellphones I've ruined

8: People who have visited my site

24: People in my immediate Dominican family after having lived with 5 host families

32: Cookstoves built / 38: Cookstoves to go

428: Days since I've seen my mom, dad and brother