12 Things

Today I am doing my usual post-Christmas cleaning fest. The day after Christmas, I like to get every last wreath and ornament packed and put away neatly for next year. Taking down the decorations is what my mother calls “a drag” and I agree. Which is why I like to treat the 26th of December like a band-aid. Rip it off quick so you can start the New Year fresh.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d share 12 of our favorite Christmas moments with you. I did this last year and it was so much fun, I thought I’d do it again. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s pictures and posts this week!

Twelve Things at Christmas VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Merry Day After Christmas!

love, elizabeth

happy day

Sweetness and Peacefulness and Dreaming

My mom and I were talking about this on the phone yesterday. We both decided we like Christmas Eve better than Christmas Day. I don’t know why…but in my head, Jesus was born on Christmas Eve and then His parents got to sleep in on Christmas Day (#thelogicofchildhood). Growing up, Christmas Eve was rife with tradition. We would go to the candlelight service and sing my favorite Christmas carols like this one. We would drive home in the snowy cold (I feel like every Christmas in Colorado was a white Christmas). We’d unbundle ourselves from coats and scarves and boots. Dad would grab the snacks and the camera. Mom would heat up her cup of coffee and we’d head for the living room and the tree. Dad would read the Christmas story aloud and then we’d open presents in a circle, one at a time so that we could enjoy them with each other. My mother was the quiet conductor of all of this, sipping her coffee and nodding that it was someone else’s turn. Mom and Dad would open presents from each other last and have the annual Hunny Bunny argument (both would insist that the OTHER person was “Hunny Bunny #1” and so no packages were ever marked to “Hunny Bunny #2”).  I would sort and pile my gifts in a box and, when we had finished, I would take them to my room and set them where I could stare at them in the dark. They would stay in the box for days, maybe a week, shining up at me all new and special. I liked to horde them for a few days, to keep them new and bright and separate from my regular, everyday belongings. Christmas morning was the leisurely version of this and we’d take as long as possible to open our stockings, just to make them last to the very last toe of the very last stocking.

This Christmas Eve will be different than the ones I had as a little girl but that’s okay. It will be a day full of baking and singing and movie watching and snuggling and candle-lighting and praying and present-opening. It will mostly be just me and Kyle but I like that. Someday we’ll probably have babies and then the babies will grow up and be children and Christmases will be different. This year I am cherishing the peacefulness and sweetness and quietness. I have a growing feeling that this is a rare gift.

I hope whatever your celebration looks like, it’s wonderful and that it feeds your soul.

Merry Christmas Eve,
elizabeth

Christmas at Mirror Lake

Kyle and I have been busy crossing things off our Christmas bucket list and last night, we managed to sneak away with some hot chocolate and the camera to one of my favorite spots on the university campus, Mirror Lake. I love this place year-round but during the holidays, they light up the trees all around the water’s edge.  I’m so glad we did this. It was one of the things on the list that didn’t cost a thing and it was so peaceful and sweet to be just the two of us there in the dark and the cold. It will probably be my stand-out memory from this Christmas with Kyle.

 

As we head into the holiday, I hope you’re getting lots of quality time with the people you love.

love, love, love,

elizabeth

Being Intentional About Christmas

Today blogging feels a like that treadmill I’ve been ignoring for a couple months – it’s not that hard when I do it everyday, it feels really good when I do it, and I feel better about myself after. But I keep staring at that treadmill like maybe I’ve really forgotten how to treadmill properly. So here I am, hopping back on the blogging train. I have so much to TELL you!

Beginning with my game plan for Christmas this year. Honestly, I’ve been feeling not-Christmas-y. I’ve been slower than usual getting decorations up. I’ve been staring at the tree extra critically this year. I’ve actually had a few moments of sympathy for the Grinch – I mean, the Who’s DO celebrate their festivities fairly loudly, don’t they?

My December issue of Better Homes and Gardens came (and this is not a paid advertisement, by the way) and I was struck by some of the advice in the Sanity Savers article about holiday organization:

“Before you launch into holiday planning, ask yourself: what do I love most? What do I dread? This exercise will help you decide what belongs on your to-do list and what needs to be simplified or deleted altogether. If quality time is a priority, put it on the calendar, just like you would any other important activity. Pick an evening to munch cookies, sip cocoa, and watch a favorite holiday film… Don’t get caught in the trap of doing something just because it’s what you’ve always done. Only commit to activities that really matter to you and your family.” (Thanks to B&G writer, Berit Thorkelson, for the wisdom. I’m taking your advice.)

So with this in mind, Kyle and I made a list of Christmas activities that actually matter to us. We have until December 31st to do it all…but if we don’t, that’s okay too.

Okay, your turn. What’s on your Christmas list that you REALLY care about? I can’t wait to hear.

love, elizabeth

PS: I’m also taking Berit’s advice about Christmas cards this year: “Defer sending greetings until another holiday such as New Year’s or Valentine’s Day, when both you and your recipients have more time to enjoy the sentiment.” So if you ordinarily get a Christmas card from us, be checking your mailboxes in February instead!

A Yam-Sham.

It’s Thanksgiving night and I imagine many of you are away from your computers and with good reason!

Kyle and I have spent the whole day together, just the two of us. That’s my favorite part about Thanksgiving – the two of us and the puppy snuggled up in our apartment every year, cooking and watching movies and making up holiday-themed dance routines in the kitchen and wrestling the giblets from the still-partially frozen turkey and arguing over whether Scrooged or White Christmas is the better Christmas movie.



It’s been a great day but you know what really clinched it for me? Finally sitting down at our tiny kitchen table and listening to Kyle talk about growing up in Steamboat Springs, watching his eyes close as he describes the layout of his childhood home on 7th Street, watching him smile as he explained how he and his little brother Aaron would help decorate for Christmas. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his face and I just kept thinking, “There is still so much I want to know about you. There is still so much to find out.”

On our eighth Thanksgiving, I keep imagining the next year and the next and the next. I have no idea what they will look like. Will they be like this one? Will there be a tiny new person soon? Will there be another house, another home? Another job? Another city? The future seems like an impossible, overwhelming unknown.

And then I hear Kyle’s prayer over dinner echoing in my ears: “Thank you for Elizabeth, thank you, God, for being the one who holds us together after all this time. We know that’s because of you. In Your name, Amen.”

Happy Thanksgiving…

love, elizabeth

I Pumpkin Halloween

I have nothing profound to say today so here instead are some adorable baby pumpkins. I have just one more Halloween recap to share with you…it should be up this afternoon.

In other news, Kyle is flying back from Colorado this morning! He’s been out west visiting his family and celebrating his sister’s engagement (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!). I am feeling fairly giddy about picking him up from the airport. I know it’s only been 4 days but it feels like 4 weeks. I am but a shell of a woman without him. I swear, for most of the weekend, I couldn’t remember what day it was. Not good.

Anyway, Happy Halloween! I like this holiday, mostly the pumpkin part and the scary movie part. And now that it’s almost over…I guess we need to start thinking about Thanksgiving? I want to listen to Christmas music but I am forcing myself to wait until after my last day of candidacy exams (November 19th). Then it’s ON. Normally I try to hold out until Black Friday but after 18 hours of comps, I feel I will have earned a little Frosty the Snowman.

So how are you celebrating Halloween? Are you dressing up this year?

love, elizabeth

Hug a Tree Today

 

 

Want to find a unique way to celebrate Arbor Day? Go here and show the trees some love!

love, elizabeth

24 and 1/2

It’s February 14th, a day of great significance in our house. Not only is it a day celebrating love…it’s also my half-birthday, something that is still totally important to me because today I am 24 and 1/2, okay? Recognize.

And because February has a sense of humor, I am stuck in bed with a bad cold.

So while I may not be doing much of my favorite Valentine activities (cough, making out with Kyle, cough), my pajamas are celebrating for me…

Here’s my Valentine’s playlist in case you’re in the mood to be ushy-gushy with me.

Today, please know that you are loved. How are you spending the holiday?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

elizabeth

Be My Valentine: DIY

Anyone sick of me talking about Valentine’s Day yet?

This year I was craving that feeling I got when I was a little girl and used to make my own Valentines. So I got all the essentials: construction paper, Elmer’s glue, doilies, glitter. It was pretty therapeutic.

 

What about you? Any Valentine’s Day traditions for you?

love, elizabeth

DIY: Valentine’s Day Decorations

Like I said, Valentine’s Day is kind of one of my favorite holidays…and this year I had fun making my own decorations.

I wrapped some strips of newsprint around plain glass votives and tied them with ribbon.

This is a recycled metal rose that Kyle bought me at a renaissance fair a few years ago…

I glued five or six white and black hearts together and hung them staggered in the living room window.

It’s interesting how things connect in our brains. All the heart shapes and images that have shown up this February have stuck with me.

Sometimes I’m not sure who can be trusted with my heart. I have lots of wonderful friends and family and I love them all. But I think sometimes that I open myself up too much. Am I too trusting, too careless with my heart? I only have the one very vulnerable, very young heart and sometimes I worry about giving too much of myself away.  I wonder about this and I wonder about my fear and I wonder about the wisdom of really being yourself fully and totally in this world.

It’s important to let people in. But maybe I do this too easily, too much. The fact is, not everyone deserves my whole heart. Only a few, in fact. I also want to be sure that I’m the kind of person that can be trusted with the hearts of others. It’s not every day someone hands you their heart.

What about you? Who do you trust with your heart, your deepest, most personal thoughts and feelings and self? Do you always feel safe doing that? Have you ever regretted it?

love, elizabeth

In-Auspiciousness

This may or may not be a real word. Whatever. It goes with the rest of this inauspicious New Year’s Day. Decided to stay in today and I’m really glad I did.

Tomorrow, the blogging and the real world begin again in earnest. Blog topics coming this week: a new filing system for the endless paperwork that sneaks into our apartment, seasonal depresison, a big pre-New Year’s fight Kyle and I had, and more…you heard me…MUCH more.

I know, I know. Riveting.

I’ll be checking in with all of you, blog-town so keep a look out!

Happy New Year’s Day!

love, elizabeth

31 Before ‘13

I know I’m not the first person to think of this but when I just couldn’t bring myself to draw up a list of New Year’s resolutions, I decided to try something else. So here’s my 2012 Bucket List. 31 things to before 2013. Some things made my list because I have to do them, anyway. Some things are on there because they seem easy or fun. Some things made the list because they scare the poop out of me. A few things overlap from my list of winter. I am resolved to attempt ALL of them.

31 Before ‘13

1. Get my solo-performance on its feet.

2. Successfully prepare for my comprehensive graduate exams.

3. Perform at a poetry open-mic night.

4. Read the chronological Bible straight-through.

5. Finish my PhD coursework.

6. Cook a new vegetable.

7. Commit to my one-hour system (see post).

8. Visit a weird museum.

9. Find five new uses for five old/recycled things.

10. Complete (at least) ten weeks of Weight Watchers.

11. Go to an Ohio State football game.

12. Learn to make a pie crust.

13. Take a vacation with Kyle to somewhere new.

14. Read ten books UN-related to school.

15. Visit five breakfast spots featured in Breakfast with Nick: Columbus.

16. Hike in Hocking Hills.

17. Watch all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films.

18. Attend the young women’s small group regularly.

19. Save money every month.

20. Write 300 blog posts.

21. Throw a party.

22. Take a haunted tour of something, using this map.

23. Celebrate Valentine’s Day in an out-of-the-ordinary way.

24. Present a paper at a conference.

25. Go to a Blue Jackets game.

26. Spend a day at the beach.

27. See a new band live.

28. Go on a blate.

29. Learn how to play a new board game.

30. Volunteer for a new charity.

31. Find and use a homeopathic treatment.

 

 

Source: istockphoto.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

So what do you think? What made it onto YOUR list?

love, elizabeth

Twelve Things of Christmas

Christmas week was wonderful but I have so many pictures, I thought I’d share twelve as a representation of the whole.

1. Madigan loved Dad. She spent lots of the week in his lap…

2. Jeni’s, the best ice cream parlor in Columbus (maybe the best ice cream ever). My favorite holiday flavors? Smoked Tea & Plum Pudding and Cumin & Honey Butterscotch Cake. Yes, yes, and yes.

3. Fantasy of Lights at Alum Creek. Sooo pretty to drive through…

4. An afternoon at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. What could be better?

5. Starbucks with Mom, Dad, and Kyle. Another bonus of being married to a barista.

6. Starliner Diner for a traditional Cuban breakfast.

7. Rummikub after dinner. Mom killed us.

8. Vegetable Medley Soup. Absolutely delicious and so easy! Recipe to follow.

9. The Poinsettia Tree at the Franklin Park Conservatory on Christmas Eve.

10. Perfect fortune cookie for our Christmas Eve dinner at Hong Kong Buffet.

11. Candlelight service at church.

12. Dad read one of our favorite Christmas stories aloud, Papa Panov’s Special Christmas by Tolstoy.

What kinds of things did you do this Christmas?

love, elizabeth

Merry Christmas

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.

~Bobby, 7 years old

Source: vi.sualize.us via Elizabeth on Pinterest

Hope you’re having a merry Christmas morning!

love, elizabeth