It was such a beautiful day on Monday that we went on a walk after work around our neighborhood to see all the lights. This house was our favorite, it’s an older man’s house and he puts them all up himself. It’s so nice. My mom always calls putting up lights on your house “a gift to your neighbors” and I must say that I agree with her. We had to get one last walk in before the temperatures plummeted to sub zero.
Quintessential winter lunch.
This was our first time ever watching The Grinch. Doug fell asleep in the first 90 seconds.
The Marcums invited us to dinner at their home along with the Pugmires. Chris made a way yummy ham for us. Weeks ago, Preston had seen a classified add for an interesting trade; he chopped down a cord of wood and traded it for a very large pig. Incidentally the ham we are eating is from that very pig. Dinner was delicious and also thumbs up to Chris for having long enough arms to capture all six of us in a selfie.
Friday was so exciting. My friend Sara came all the way from Mississippi to visit me! That’s a little bit of an exaggeration, they are moving from Mississippi to Alaska and are camped out in Utah for a few weeks so she drove up from Utah to visit, which is still far and so nice of her. We worked together for several years and I miss spending 8+ hours a day with her and droning on and on about the pointless minutiae of our everyday lives. We were downgraded from 40 hours a week together to frequent texting and that doesn’t always cut it; it was much needed for both of us to see each other. I work in an office of all men, which I quite enjoy, but sometimes I don’t realize just how much I need some female time. We rocked the minivan all Friday night which was just a funny choice for our girls night out but I can’t complain about the comfort.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Especially when there is a winter storm warning and your friend has to drive herself and two kids back to Utah.
Sara and I packed the car whilst Lily was discovering snow for the first time. She kept asking, “Mom, can I play in the snowing? I want to play in the snowing.” It was so very cold out but she was the happiest thing I’ve ever seen. Hopefully that holds out for the endless winter months in Alaska, because from what I hear, there is plenty of snow there to go around. We were freezing but having so much fun watching her. It made me appreciate the snow, if only for three minutes.
So here I present a little series I like to call “Lily’s First Snow: Remembering to Appreciate Things Even When it is Three Degrees Outside and You Hate Winter”
We finally got our Christmas tree up and the cats are happily snoozing next to the calming lights while simultaneously working on creating permanent impressions of their little bodies on the cushion of our new couch.
