Holiday photo recap

In the spirit of getting things done before grad school starts again on Tuesday, here's a semi-random, non-linear update. What follows will be an incomplete but well-intentioned summary of my holidays, so take that for what it's worth.

This first photo is unrelated to anything, but deserves to be included for the novelty: Marle's common-in-Germany-but-not-in-the-States poppyseed twist.

Daniel and I spent December 24-January 5 in Virginia visiting many of our wonderful family members and seeing some friends as well. It was great to reconnect in person, and also to reflect on the meanings of place and people in my life (and the interconnectedness of the two).

If you look closely here, you can tell that my in-laws' Christmas tree is baby-proof on the bottom half only, to accommodate my two toddler nephews.

Game night with the fam.

Gifts with the in-laws.

Cousins.

More games.

New experience: My family went to the Melting Pot! So delicious.

This is the closest we got to a normal picture.

 I didn't take any other pictures of the food because I was too busy stuffing myself. I'm sure you understand.

After Daniel and I returned home from the holidays, our housemates threw a little surprise birthday party for Daniel's 29th birthday.

Mostly it featured tons of balloons. And cake.

Please take a minute to appreciate this birthday throne they crafted out of balloons and a dining room chair.

Unit love.

Next up: A list of goals for 2017...

The friendly sign found a friend

As you may remember, I put up my "Welcome your neighbors" sign at Thanksgiving.

It's been very hardy until now, but on Monday, we had record-breaking winds here in the Springs. There were sustained 50-60 mile-per-hour winds with gusts over 100 mph. Power outages were rampant, fallen trees and debris littered the streets, and the whole day felt vaguely apocalyptic. Our next-door neighbor's property currently looks like this:

Needless to say, my sign blew away. I wasn't too concerned, as I still have about fifty of them in my basement waiting to be distributed. (If you're in the COS area and want a sign, hit me up!) So I planned to replace it as soon as I was sure the apocalyptic winds had died down.

But the next afternoon, I looked out the front window, and lo, there was my sign. It was lying on the ground just inside our fence, with the only plausible explanation being that someone found it, knew it belonged to my house, and returned it.

As it turns out, the sign had not blown completely out of the ground, but broken: the metal post had severed neatly in half, with the bottom half remaining in the ground and the top half soaring to kingdom come. So I stuck it back in the ground, shorter this time, but equally heartwarming.

To my neighbor who found my sign, knew where it lived, and cared enough to return it home: thank you. You were the antithesis to the people who have stolen these signs in attempts to stifle the message, and I am so grateful to know you exist.

2016 books

Guys, I failed at my reading challenge last year. I got about six of the twelve and then mostly forgot about it for five or six months. (Not that I wasn't reading, I just wasn't reading books that fit these categories.) Here are the ones I did complete:

1. a book published this year (A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas)
2. a book you can finish in a day (Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon)
3. a book you've been meaning to read (Children of God by Mary Doria Russell)
4. a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF (The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, recommended by Anali)
5. a book published before you were born (Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer)
6. a book you've already read at least once (The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell)

Nevertheless, I did meet my Goodreads challenge: I set my yearly goal at 40 books and read 44. Here are some favorites, in no particular order, which I would recommend to just about anybody.

• Uprooted by Naomi Novic: A lush, gorgeous, Polish-fairy-tale-inspired fantasy. The magic in this story is among the most poetic and vividly imagined I've ever read.
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Essential reading for anyone aspiring toward racial justice. The beginning pages are rather heady, possibly to the point of being off-putting, but it gets easier and is absolutely worth it. I can't say much else about it except that this one should probably be required for everybody.
• Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson: The first novel in the Gold Seer trilogy takes place during the 1849 gold rush and follows a gutsy, smart, anti-stereotype heroine and her diverse cadre of pioneering adopted family members. I loved so many things about this book, but most of all I loved the author's adept tackling of marginalization and bias, set during a time when anti-bias sentiment was decidedly unpopular.
• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: An adorable and hilarious novel taking place in a newspaper office at the turn of the millennium. I couldn't get enough of these characters and their witty, endearing, compulsively readable interactions.
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card: I'm a few decades late to this one, but it's timeless enough to be appreciated anytime. I adored its handling of cultural and social anthropology, which made it much more engaging to me than the battle school setting of its predecessor, Ender's Game. It's also surprisingly relevant to the current political and social climate of the United States.

If you have read or plan to read any of these books, I'd love to talk about them with you! I'm always open to new book recommendations, too. Happy bookish new year!

Wanderlust: 2016 States

The most recent item on the list "Things my husband could be annoyed about, but isn't" is this: I keep talking about how desperately I want to take another international trip. One time after harping on about how this should be the easiest time of our lives to travel, I realized that we've actually been doing a ton of traveling. The fact that all of it has been in the United States doesn't mean it isn't true. (And furthermore, this isn't actually the easiest time to travel: Our income is tiny, I'm in grad school, we don't have jobs with built-up PTO, and we have a lot of Service Adventure-related responsibilities.)

Anyway, Service Adventure has blessed us with a lot of stateside traveling. So, at the end of the year, I'm reflecting back on the travels we've done in 2016 and feeling thankful for the opportunities. Here are the states we've spent time in. Relevant blog posts from these trips are linked below, in case you've missed them.

1. Colorado -- obviously, because we live here, but still worth mentioning, as it's the setting for a multitude of adventures.
2. California -- The Service Adventure leaders had a retreat in San Diego in mid January. It was a lovely little change of scenery and infusion of warmer weather into our winter.
3. Kansas -- In April, the Service Adventure unit took a recruiting trip to central Kansas. We spent a few days talking to high school students about the program, as well as exploring Sarah's home area with visits to the Cosmosphere and a salt mine.
4. Wyoming -- Every Service Adventure unit takes a trip together as the program is drawing to a close, and we took ours to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Gorgeous area and fun people!
5. Virginia -- From mid June to late July, Daniel and I spent time in VA with many of our family and friends. A highlight was our first time attending the Red Wing Roots Music Festival.
6. Alaska -- The Service Adventure leader orientation took place in Anchorage at the end of July this year! It was an amazing chance to visit the largest U.S. state, and we spent three whirlwind days on Kodiak Island afterward. It was one of the more unforgettable trips of my life thus far.
7. New Mexico -- We trekked to our adjacent state in early October for the annual hot air balloon fiesta and spent a happy weekend with the Albuquerque Service Adventure unit. Albuquerque is an interesting city with a vibrant Southwest culture, and I enjoyed getting to know it for a second time (since we visited last year for the balloon fiesta as well). For me, the highlight this year was viewing the nighttime cityscape from Sandia Crest at 10,000 feet.

So, consider this your year-end reminder that travelling is incredibly worthwhile, and you don't have to go far to be stretched in new ways. Here's to more travels in 2017!

Holiday happenings

An evening project: Decorating our new Christmas tree, freshly cut from the Colorado forests that afternoon.

We named it Tom.

A Saturday project: Baking Christmas cookies. Here's our intrepid cookie leader.

And a few helpers.

Later we set out to decorate all the cookies, and made it through about half before losing stamina. I found that my husband has a heretofore-undiscovered-by-me talent: Cookie art. I was amazed.

LOOK AT THE STRIPES ON THOSE MITTENS.

The whole crew, plus one...

...because Sarah came to visit! What a happy time.

Initialed.

Hiking at Red Rock Canyon & Open Space.

I never get tired of this daily sight.

 The housemates at the Festival of Lights, Colorado Springs's annual downtown parade.

I went to a sprouting class! Courtesy of Pikes Peak Urban Gardens, I now know how to grow my own sprouts at home in the winter. My first batch has been underway for a week, and about half of the seeds have burst open to reveal little pale white sprouts. I'm so proud.

Those are some of the holiday happenings around here...What merry sights are gracing your home these days?

Thanksgiving festivities

I planted a winter garden. It's a bit experimental, as I'm not sure if they're getting enough direct sunlight. But in the 5 days since taking this photo, dozens of little sprouts have emerged!

Thanksgiving day potluck at church. So much good food!

Some of us stayed for most of the afternoon to play games.

And in the Service Adventure household, the game-playing continued after we got home!

Also lots of laughter.

All Colorado state parks were offering free admission on Black Friday, so our Black Friday morning consisted of hiking in Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

It was a gorgeous day for it.

One of my personal projects from the week before involved getting these signs printed to distribute to Colorado folks. The design originated in Harrisonburg, VA, and since then, it's been spreading quickly across the country -- especially since the election.

On Friday, my order of signs arrived!

On Saturday we put ours up in the yard, and on Sunday, I began delivering them to friends who requested one.

Also on Saturday, Marle discovered the wealth of Christmas decorations in our closet. She became very excited, and within hours, our house was much more festive.

Hoping that all of you had a restful and joyful Thanksgiving!

Weekend Adventuring: Boulder, CO

Daniel and I had lived in Colorado for nearly a year and 4 months without visiting Boulder. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we finally made it there for a day trip. On the way, though, we stopped in Golden (a little town west of Denver) to meet up with two of Daniel's high school friends for brunch.

Golden, from the little I saw of it, is a mountain town full of Wild West charm. Super cute.

After that we headed up to Boulder, about 45 minutes away, and went straight to the Celestial Seasonings factory. All Celestial Seasonings tea is blended and packaged in Boulder, and they give free tours of the building, which is a dream come true for tea lovers like myself.

Upon walking in the door, you're given your ticket to the tour -- a packet of tea -- and a little mug for sampling teas while you're waiting. Like I said, a dream come true.

Everything was decorated for Christmas already.

Tea bar for sampling.

There was also lots of information about the company's history and process, as well as art to look at. For each Celestial Seasonings tea blend, they commission an artist to create a painting that captures the essence of that particular blend. That painting then becomes the art on the front of the box.

I had to sneakily take a picture in the bathroom, because Boulder is incredible.

We weren't allowed to take pictures on the tour, but if you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend it!

Next we headed to Pearl Street Mall to walk around downtown Boulder. Sorry about the weird lighting, but I love the mountain view.

We walked past Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, a building that was originally built and painted in Tajikistan, but was transported to Boulder in 1990.

After exploring lots of the little shops on the mall, our final stop was at Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant for dinner.

It was great to finally see one of the places we've been wanting to visit for a long time! Consider this your reminder to schedule that trip you've been meaning to take.

Surviving.

Today was a difficult day, and this week has been a difficult week. I suspect most of you feel the same.

Last night I slept fitfully, awareness of the current situation flooding my mind before I fully awoke each time. I crawled out of bed before anyone else was awake and made tea. A dear friend called. We talked, cried, and were silent together. I sat on our back porch steps and watched the steam from my breath dissipate.

There's a lot to unpack about absorbing this news, and I'm not going to unpack it here right now. Instead, I want to share this excellent poem, and along with it, a strong recommendation that each of you spend some time alone in nature this week. My hour of hiking in Red Rock Canyon this morning did wonders for my spirit.

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Today, we mourn.
Tomorrow, we get to work.