This picture of Cookie summarizes the past two months for us. We bundled up against the cold (and life outside our 2BR/1B apartment) and just kicked back.
My friend Rachel drove up here to visit. The three of us gobbled up delicious meals and enjoyed catching up as we piddled around at various places - examining knick knacks in antique malls and picking through rocks and fossils at the Falls of the Ohio.
Sifting through the stones reminded me of the countless rock cairns we saw at parks and temples in South Korea. I imagined that if this place was in over there, it would be covered with tiny towers and unspoken wishes. I made a little cairn of my own, topped off with a fossil like a star on a Christmas tree, carefully stacking a wish between the teetering stones.
The past two months have of course involved working too. This is the first time in my short education career that I've worked with such young children, being in a Kindergarten classroom. One of the perks of working with this age is the adorable drawings students make. My phone's picture gallery is speckled with their creations, one of my favorites being the stick dinosaurs below.
Autumn passed without much appreciation. The trees seemed out of sync, changing their leaves at different times. We didn't get the chance to escape for a mountain hike. Some of the prettiest fall colors we saw were in the mall parking lot (directly below).
One of the most adventurous things we did was try Starbucks' Zombie Frappuccino. It was pretty tasty - caramel candy apple with raspberry frosting.
Despite extremely chilly weather, we ended up using the grill for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I cooked traditional dishes like sweet potato casserole, roasted vegetables and sticky date pudding, but for our entrees we chose our favorite proteins - steak and salmon. These were grilled to perfection by Isaac, our resident master griller.
I couldn't talk Isaac into a picture with Santa at this Christmas party, but thankfully my friend obliged. This may be the skinniest Santa Claus I've ever seen.
Staying home for Christmas meant gifts arriving via post. We loved this detailed packing list, I hope you can see it all right in the picture. In the end we had an admirable pile beneath our minimalist (apartment friendly) tree.
Christmas Eve there was sleet in the evening and then snow in the night, which I thought totally qualified as a white Christmas, especially since it remained on the ground for a few days afterwards.
The amount was negligible, even a snow-loving Southerner like me must admit. But it was still enough to make me feel very excited about it. We went for a drive on Christmas Eve in the snow, looking for nice Christmas lights but also just enjoying the festive flakes float by.
There's an Icelandic tradition called Jólabókaflóð (Jule Book Flood) that involves books and chocolates on Christmas Eve. We thought that it may be a nice tradition to start, so we both picked out a book and I made some fancy hot chocolate. Then we got comfortable in our pajamas and read, the silence punctuated by the occasional sip of the richest hot cocoa ever.
So we chose to end our year without much fanfare or much of anything really. Sometimes it's just better than way. I feel incredibly grateful and blessed to have spent it with Isaac, who grows even more amazing in my eyes everyday. We have big hopes for 2018, and a few plans already in the making. I'll do my best in the new year to keep this blog posted, about once a month like I've been doing. I think I'll try harder to take some pictures of Isaac and myself too, because I'm still not very good at that, am I?
