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It’s a Snow Day! What Are You Reading? (January 14, 2019)

Gooooooood Monday to you, bookworms!  What’s the weather like where you are?  We’re having a SNOW DAY here – the first of the school year.  It started snowing on Saturday around dinner time, came down all through the night and all day on Sunday, and I don’t know how many inches we ended up with, but suffice to say: it’s a LOT.  Especially for our area, which never handles snow particularly well (even though we usually get one decent-sized snowfall a year, sometimes more).  The kids had a ball playing in it yesterday – we made our rounds of the playgrounds in the morning, where we discovered that Nugget’s new ski jacket is extremely slippery.  He was FLYING off the slides and catching air before landing in the snow piles.  It was pretty hilarious, and as you can imagine, he thought it was awesome.  In the afternoon, Nugget and I went back outside to play with a border collie that our next-door neighbor had borrowed from a friend; we spent a good hour running around our alley, throwing a tennis ball, and chasing after the doggo.  The rest of the weekend was a lot calmer – Nugget and I rode bikes to the library on Saturday afternoon (where we hung out with the children’s librarian, who babysits for us from time to time) and I squeezed in a few hours of work.  Pretty standard stuff – but THEN CAME SNOW.

  

Reading.  A good reading week!  I finished The Time In Between on Tuesday and enjoyed it, although it was quite long and I did wish the author would’ve gotten to the spy parts a bit more promptly.  Then – library deadlines beckoning – I quickly turned to I’ll Be There For You, the new cultural history of Friends.  It’d been forever since I’d seen the show, but now I’m craving a re-watch.  Back to the library that went, and I returned to The Nine Tailors, which I’d started last weekend – finally finishing it, and turning to another book on a deadline: The Go-Between, a classic I’ve been meaning to check off my list for ages.  Just started it, so we’ll see if it lives up to the hype in my head.

Watching.  Nothing at all, unless you count bits of The Incredibles ii while cuddling Nugget to sleep on the couch on Sunday evening.  I did watch the scene in which Jack-Jack wrestles with a racoon, which is my favorite scene in the entire Incredibles franchise (or possibly my favorite scene of any Disney movie, ever – I always laugh until I cry, especially at the racoon’s face when Jack-Jack bursts into flames).

Listening.  I’ve been on a book podcast bender this week, so mostly catching up on the New Year’s episodes of my favorites – The Book Riot Podcast, From the Front Porch, The Read-Aloud Revival and more.  Tossed in a little Decemberists here and there, too – just skipping around from album to album and listening to the songs I fancy in the moment.  I got the new Decemberists vinyl, Traveling On, for Christmas and I need to listen to that one of these days.

Making.  What with spending several hours in the snow on Sunday, there was only one thing that sounded good for dinner – chili.  I made a vegan version which was light on calories but heavy on warmth, comfort and vegetables – two kinds of beans, wheat berries, gardein “taco meat” I’d made and frozen a few weeks ago, peppers, tomatoes, and a whole bunch of kale and cilantro.  Served with plain vegan yogurt and a few crumbled tortilla chips – perfect.  I have a big tub full of leftovers and I’ll be packing some good lunches this week.

Moving.  Nothing formal, but Sunday was an active day!  Between walking to multiple playgrounds, running around in the snow, toddler-wrangling and dog-chasing, I was beat by the end of the night.  I also did some sprints on the soccer field, because how often are you all alone on a snow covered soccer field?

Blogging.  It’s a bookish week!  I’m sharing Parts I and II of my three-part reading retrospective on Wednesday and Friday.  I had a great year in books, so do check in with me then.

Loving.  I forgot how much I like Leinenkugel’s grapefruit shandy!  I usually only buy it in the winter, and I grabbed a twelve pack last week at the grocery store.  I’m the only one who drinks it, so it will take me a few weeks to get through it, but I sure am enjoying the journey.  So citrusy and refreshing!

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

 

 

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2018 Goals: Final Accounting

2018 was a strange year.  Some things were really good – I changed jobs, and I’m hopeful that my professional life is back on track after the detours of the last five years.  And the kids continued to grow into smart, fun people that I enjoy more and more every day.  Of course, as you all know, we also had a hard year with the unexpected loss of a close family member, and the world definitely looks different at the beginning of 2019.  My wish is that this year brings healing on many fronts.  But before we can turn to all that, I need to look back at my goals for 2018 and see how I did.

Outdoors/Fitness

  • Another 12 Months Hiking Project – Done!  You can click back through my recaps, but I kept my commitment to get outside and hit the trail in every month of the year: January; February; March; April; May; June; July; August; September; October; November; December.
  • Complete the 52 Hike Challenge – Done!  I’ll have more thoughts on this coming soon – promise!  It was a challenge, indeed, but I made hiking a real priority this year and I was able to fit in more than one hike a week all year long.  And it was wonderful.
  • Get into a workout routine – not done.  Although I moved a lot this year – between the 52 Hike Challenge and toddler-wrangling, I didn’t sit still very much – it wasn’t in any formalized way.  In the fall I got back into Barre3 via the online workout portal and ran another 5K, but even then, I can’t say I was really consistent about anything.  It was just a function of the way life shook out – busy and stressed for most of the year at work and with parenting, then changing jobs and adjusting to a new office dynamic.  A consistent and predictable workout routine fell by the wayside.  I felt the lack of it, and I do hope this changes in 2019.

Relationships

  • Be a “yes mom” – a work in progress, but I made progress!  At the beginning of the year, I really, really wanted to say “no” less and say “yes” more.  The way I saw it, “yes” should be my default if the kids make a request that isn’t going to hurt them or anyone else.  And I worked hard at this, and at being intentional about saying yes.  Sure, buddy, pick up that giant stick!  Of course we can bake a cake, sweetheart!  I think I’ve definitely loosened up, and my relationships with the kids are all the better for it – and so many memories have resulted from my saying “yes” to things.
  • Try to chill out overall – another work in progress, but again, progress!  I’ve always been a high-strung person; I know this.  It’s who I am and I’m not likely to change anytime soon.  But I think I have chilled a bit this year.  Part of that, I believe, is due to getting a new job.  I chose to view the job offer as a vote of confidence and, instead of tying myself into knots about whether I was worthy of the vote of confidence (well, there was a little of that) to have faith in myself and in the legal skills I’ve acquired in twelve years of doing this.  And that has really helped.
  • Go on dates – done!  Yeah!  Steve and I worked hard at making couple time a priority this year, both through quiet game and movie nights at home, and going out more.  We made it to see several movies, out for a couple of dinners both as a couple and with friends, and we even climbed a mountain together.  He’s my partner in everything, and I know we’re going to keep going strong with this.  (It helps that we now have a roster of three fabulous babysitters!)

Personal/Self-Care

  • Pack my lunches – done, and hoping to keep the momentum going in 2019!  I wanted to make a practice of packing lunches to save money, mostly, but also because it’s so much healthier.  I wasn’t great about this at my old job, but with a fresh start in a new job I’ve mostly managed to pack lunches every day.  I’ve done batch cooking over the weekends to have plenty of options, and have tried to streamline the routine so that packing three lunches every day – instead of two – is not so daunting.  My goal is only to buy lunch once a month – it’s going well!
  • Step away from the screen – always evolving.  Well, I’ve worked on this and some weeks, it goes really well – other weeks, less well.  I’ve never been a big TV person, and I’m still not, but the convenience of swiping onto my phone and scrolling through Facebook or Twitter is a different matter.  I’m making a conscious effort to cut down on both of those apps, and budgeting my phone time so I spend more time on Instagram, which I actually enjoy, then log off and go back to my book.  Thanks to the new iPhone screen time alerts, I know when I’ve done well and when I haven’t – and it’s a pretty even split so far.  But at least I’m being mindful about it, and I think that’s progress.
  • Explore natural healing and wellness options – a little.  I really wanted to dig into wellness over the year and explore some natural and alternative health options.  I did a little bit – I continued using my essential oil diffuser and working on combinations of oils to ease stress and promote good sleep.  And I started doing some research into vegan vitamins – I found a B12 supplement I like, but am still on the hunt for a multivitamin, immunity defense and stress relief supplement.  (Any recommendations for me?  I like gummy vitamins, but they need to be vegan.)

Reading

  • Read fewer books – EPIC FAIL.  I really wanted to slow down, savor my reading, and read more classics and chunksters, so I set a goal of 52 books for the year – a pace of one book a week.  I bombed hardcore and ended up reading 113 books this year.  Hardly slowing down, and I don’t think I’ll ever break the habit of tearing through books to find out what happens.  But there’s always re-reading, right?
  • Check some classics off my TBR – done!  I love reading classics, and I can’t get enough.  This was a fairly classics-heavy year for me, which is just how I like it.  There were some older classics – North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell; Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen; Summer, by Edith Wharton; and Scenes of Clerical Life, by George Eliot, to name just a few.  I also delved into some forgotten classics, like the Brensham Trilogy by John Moore, and more modern classics like Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner, and The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende.  And more – this is just a smattering.  Here’s hoping for even more time spent with these treasures in 2019.
  • Continue to make diverse reading a priority – done!  I set the goal to, once again, have more than 33% of my book list devoted to people of color, LGBTQ+, own voices, and other marginalized groups.  I think this is the third year in a row that I’ve made this goal, and every year, I’ve achieved it.  This year, I landed around 35% – a little less than last year, but I’ll have the exact figure when I crunch the numbers for my 2018 reading recap posts.  I think this is an important goal and a good thing to bear in mind when choosing books, but for 2019 I’ve decided not to set any goals around reading.  Looking for different voices and experiences has become second nature to me, though, so I’m sure they’ll still be on my list come next December.

One Word: Begin

When I set my one word for 2018, begin, I suspected – hoped, really – that 2018 would be a year of new beginnings.  There were some areas of my life and my family life that I thought needed a reset and a fresh start, and I resolved to work on bringing those about.  As it turned out, 2018 was a year of many transitions – some welcome, others very much not.

  • I started a new job.  This was the main transition I was hoping to bring about in 2018.  There were many reasons why I felt my old job – much as I loved some of the people there – was not a good fit for me.  This isn’t the place to go into them, so I won’t.  But I was quite unhappy and really in need of a new start.  I spent most of the year working on a “super-secret-not-a-baby” project, which was a highly organized and turbocharged job search – seeking out opportunities, sending resumes and follow-up correspondence, and going on job interviews consumed a huge amount of my time and energy last year.  It culminated in an offer that, after a great deal of consideration and discussion with Steve, I decided to accept.  I haven’t been in the new position long – I started in mid-November – but I am liking it so far and I’m hoping that this is the end of my job-hopping phase.  I want very much to settle in, make partner, and be around for the long haul.
  • Steve started running!  Okay – this is a beginning for him, and not for me.  But he’s enjoying running, and it makes him feel great – and I’m delighted for him.  And just a wee bit jealous that, thanks to his remote work arrangement with his firm, he can slip out for a lunchtime run whenever he wants.
  • We began a commitment to date nights.  I’m not good at leaving the kids, even for an evening.  I’m too conscious of how precious and fleeting these “little” years are, and I want to soak it all in.  But I have also started to recognize that my marriage needs nurturing, too – and so I’ve finally caved to Steve’s ongoing campaign to find babysitters and arrange semi-regular date nights (beyond just a movie night with the baby monitors set up on the coffee table.)  We now have a roster of babysitters and plans for a whole week’s getaway without the wee ones, next summer.
  • Peanut and Nugget transitioned at school.  This is a two-part beginning, and one part is a little bittersweet.  Peanut had done two years of Junior Kindergarten in her school, and she never really clicked with her teachers.  (Nor, from what I’ve heard since, did many of the other kids – which is unfortunate.)  We had a lot of frustration, miscommunications, and general stress around her school for the past two years, and we were thrilled to move on to Kindergarten, a fresh start and a new set of teachers.  So far, the K teachers seem to “get” Peanut, and I couldn’t be happier.  As for Nugget, he left his beloved nanny and headed off to join Peanut at school.  The nanny and I cried buckets, but the new Preschooler was delighted.  He really did need to be in a classroom, and he was ready for more structure and a wider group of friends – so it was the right thing to do and his first few months at school have been a joy.  He’s got a team of teachers who adore him, and they have a big ramp and a bunch of little cars – what’s not to like?  He’s really happy and enjoying this new phase.  (And I still text with our old nanny and have her over to babysit ALL THE TIME.)
  • We experienced an unexpected loss.  I’ve written a fair amount about the sudden, completely out-of-left field loss of a close family member and how stunned and bereft it left us, so I don’t really want to say more.  This has been a beginning, too – the beginning of a different world without someone we loved in it.  We’re still learning how to walk in it.  And I so wish this was not on my list of transitions in 2018.

I’m sure there were more beginnings and transitions, but these are the big ones.  I’m still mulling over my word for 2019 – I think I have one, but I want to sit with it a bit more, and I’ll report back.

How did you do on your 2018 goals?

 

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Reading Round-Up: December 2018

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for December, 2018…

  

Alif the Unseen, by G. Willow Wilson – I love Wilson’s work on Ms. Marvel, but hadn’t picked up Alif the Unseen because I didn’t think I could adore any of her characters as much as I adore Kamala Khan.  But this story – of a young hacker in a fictional Middle Eastern city, his pious next door neighbor, and their encounters with thugs and djinn, was so much fun.  I was completely entranced by the world, laughed with and cried for the characters, and was thoroughly delighted with every page and sad to see it end.

The Lost City of Z, by David Grann – This nonfiction story of exploration and obsession in the Amazon has been on my to-read list since I first heard Liberty pitch it on the All the Books! podcast, so I was delighted when my book club chose it for the December read (pushed to January, since no one could make the December meeting, and we’ll finally get to talk about it TONIGHT!).  The author skillfully interweaves the histories of the Amazon and of the intrepid British explorers who mapped the world with his own quest to find out what happened to the most daring of them all, and whether there was any truth to the rumors of a vast civilization hidden deep in the Amazonian jungle.  It was a fascinating book – I’d have liked a bit more discussion on colonialism and its effects, but all in all, a great read.

The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende – Another one off the deep TBR, and my first Allende.  Magical realism is not my genre (to paraphrase my friend Susan, it doesn’t follow the rules, everything seems normal except that someone lives to be 500 years old for no reason) but I’ve wanted to read some Allende, and I thought I’d begin with her best-known classic.  I did enjoy the book, although it took me awhile to get into it and then it took me awhile to get through it.  As I told a couple of friends, it was what I’d have liked One Hundred Years of Solitude to be.

  

Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, by Art Spiegelman – Ever since I started reading comics and graphic novels a few years ago, I’ve heard about Maus – how powerful and wrenching it is, and how it’s a classic of the form.  I finally decided that December was the time to read the first volume (of two) and picked it up from the library.  I can definitely see why it’s a classic.  It was an incredibly compelling – and very upsetting – book.  I think I’m going to need a long break before I can pick up the second volume, but it’s a classic for very good reason.

Becoming, by Michelle Obama – After Maus, I needed something powerfully uplifting and joyful, and clearly that meant I needed Michelle.  I preordered Becoming months ago, knowing that the wait for a library hold would be painfully long and that it was going to be something I’d want on my permanent shelf anyway.  And WOW, was it incredible.  Michelle’s voice is so fresh and real, and I was immediately swept up in her life.  I read the scene in which she and Barack got ice cream, early in their dating life, on a cold night’s commute on the DC metro – and I remember looking up from the book and being surprised to find myself (1) at my metro stop, and (2) in suburban DC, in the dark, on a cold night in December.  I really thought I was in Chicago, walking down the sidewalk on a sweltering summer’s day with Miche and Barack, trying not to let my ice cream drip on the pavement.

In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women, by Alice Walker – A quick, but powerful and beautifully written, collection of short stories about the experience of being a black woman in twentieth century America.  I haven’t read any other Alice Walker books, although I’ve been meaning to.  Her stories were so evocative and compelling – I can’t wait to seek out more.

  

Lumberjanes: Unicorn Power!, by Mariko Tamaki – I needed something light and fun to get me through the last busy days before going out of town for Christmas, and the first Lumberjanes novel – which I had sitting on my shelf – fit the bill perfectly.  I knew the characters already, from reading the comic, and so it was easy to plunge right back into their magical summer camp adventures.  In this first novel installment, April discovers a mountain that is sometimes there and sometimes not, and she convinces Jo, Mal, Molly and Ripley to climb it with her in pursuit of their Extraordinary Explorer pins.  Of course, when they get to the summit, things aren’t quite as they seemed.  Also, there are unicorns!

Amelia Elkins Elkins, by A.M. Blair – Full disclosure: the author is a cherished friend of mine, and I’m already disposed to like anything she writes.  But Amelia Elkins Elkins would be a delight even if I didn’t know and like her creator.  This is a retelling of Persuasion from a modern vantage point, centered around a wrongful death lawsuit after the main character’s mother takes her own life following a medical implant gone wrong.  Blair’s take on Anne Elliot feels very true to life, and her twist on the familiar story is fascinating.  Highly recommended.

Christmas Pudding, by Nancy Mitford – I’d been saving Christmas Pudding for holiday reading, and it was exactly what I was looking for.  Christmas in the true Mitford style is witty, a little dramatic, with lots of Merrie England-ing and a good deal of booze.  And it was GREAT.  I don’t think anyone would argue that Christmas Pudding is up to the standard of Nancy’s classic The Pursuit of Love, but it was a rollicking good read.  The Christmas Day chapter was one of my favorite reads of 2018, and I laughed at it until I cried.

 

Christmas Poems, ed. John Hollander – I just love everything about the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets collection – the size, the design, the curation, everything – and Christmas Poems was a delight to dip in and out of all season long.  I particularly loved the poems on Advent and the Nativity – Dorothy Parker’s take on a maidservant at the Inn where Mary and Joseph were turned away was especially poignant – and the carols, of course.

A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, by Philip Rhys Evans – As I mentioned in my Christmas book haul post, this was one of the books I found under the tree.  It’s a slim little book and I read it in a day, but I LOVED EVERY SECOND.  Steve could tell, too, because I kept interrupting whatever he was doing to read snippets of it to him, and we were both howling at some of the selections.  (The parish newsletter notices – oh. my. goodness.)  This is going to become a favorite, and I know I’ll be going back to it whenever I need a little lift after a long, tough day.

And so ends another year of reading!  2018 was a good one, and December was a particularly good month.  There was holiday hilarity, thanks to Nancy Mitford and Philip Rhys Evans, there was excellent fantasy in Alif the Unseen, and the Lumberjanes book was a joy.  I finally made time to read my dear friend A.M.B.’s book and it was just as wonderful as I knew it would be, and I was riveted by Becoming.  There wasn’t a single dud this month, and I just had a lovely, joyful end to the reading year.  And now – on to 2019!

 

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It’s 2019! What Are You Reading? (January 7, 2019)

Happy 2019, friends!  It’s been a minute since I did one of these posts, hasn’t it?  The beginning of the year has been beyond hectic.  As you know, we spent Christmas at my parents’ house in upstate New York.  It was a wonderful week, full of family and friends and lots of fun.  We headed back to NoVA on New Year’s Day (with a stop in Baltimore to visit the aquarium – our new strategy for bribing good behavior on long car rides, #winning).  No sooner had the traveling circus rolled back into Old Dominion than I turned around and headed out again – this time, to Miami for a three day business trip.  Before you get jealous, don’t.  I was working in a warehouse in the industrial district, putting in 13-hour days, and the picture above – of a sunrise run on the beach – was literally the only hour of fun I had the entire time I was there.  I got home late on Friday night and have never been so relieved to return to grey skies and bare tree branches.  We spent most of the weekend puttering around at home – I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly on Saturday morning, then took the kids to the library for about four hours while Steve started on a toy-culling project (shhhhh).  On Sunday, we wandered around Mount Vernon and continued straightening up around the house, and Nugget and I made a Wegmans run.  All pretty standard stuff – but it felt good to get back to routines and familiarity after traveling for two weeks straight.

  

Reading.  It would be too hard – too many pictures to upload at once! – to go back to Christmas week, so let’s just go with this past week, shall we?  I began 2019 in Blackheath, suitably confused as to who killed Evelyn Hardcastle all those times.  It was a totally bonkers book, unlike anything I’d ever read before, and I’m still not sure if I enjoyed it per se, but I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something really off the wall.  From Blackheath I went to Spain and Morocco in the 1930s – a bit of a shift, there.  I’ve been meaning to read The Time In Between for awhile now.  It’s good, but kind of on the long side.  I’ll probably finish it today.  Meanwhile, at the same time, I’ve been dipping a toe into the winter selection for the Tea & Tattle Book Club – Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Nine Tailors.  I love Lord Peter Wimsey, and I haven’t read this one yet – I’m just at the beginning, but can already tell I’m going to adore it.

Watching.  As usual, very little.  On Wednesday night, I did turn on the TV at 10:00 p.m. when I got back to my hotel room and finally was able to order room service – told you not to be jealous; it was not a glamorous trip to Miami.  I was so beat that even a book seemed like too much – and that rarely happens to me.  Anyway, The Office was on Nick @ Nite, so I watched a few episodes.  Side note: when did Nick @ Nite start showing series that I’ve actually seen?  The only time I ever watched regularly was in high school, while babysitting, because I tried never to fall asleep until the parents got home (and let me tell you, that was a challenge when I babysat for the kids of our party animal neighbors who would regularly stay out until 2:00 a.m. or later).  And it was usually I Dream of Jeannie, and I would pop popcorn and LOL at what an OLD show it was, with OLD people, and anyone who watched it must have been OLD too.  And now Nick @ Nite is showing The Office, which I guess makes ME old.

Listening.  A little of this and a little of that.  Some Decemberists – I had a craving to hear Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes, which is my favorite song from the new album, over and over and over again on the plane back from Miami, so I did that.  Other than that, assorted and sundry podcasts.

Making.  A batch pomodori al forno, thanks very much to my mom’s dear bestie, who served it to us at an appetizer party on the Friday after Christmas and then generously shared the recipe.  I haven’t tasted my own batch, though, because I’m saving it to take to book club on Wednesday (you’re welcome, ladies!).

Blogging.  Still playing catch-up from 2018 – I have my December reading recap coming to you on Wednesday, and then a final accounting of 2018 goals on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  It’s JANUARY!  I suppose that this makes me a grinch, but – anyone else really relieved when the holidays are finally over?  Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Christmas, but it’s a LOT of noise and bustle and activity and rich food.  I enjoy every minute, but this extreme introvert always winds up exhausted, overwrought, and just ready to get back to daily life.  I invariably find myself wildly relieved and really looking forward to giving my house a good sweep-and-dust, get back to healthy eating, organize myself at work, and shuffle the kids back to school.  My relief was a bit delayed this year, since I had to make the aforementioned trip to Miami, but now I’m finally able to breathe, scrub my kitchen sink, and stuff my fridge full of kale salad.  It feels great.

Asking.  How was your New Year’s?  And what are you reading?

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Christmas 2018

Merry, merry, merry – one more time – my friends! I know we’re at January 4 now, but I can’t miss recapping our Christmas weekend; it was too much fun, as always. New Year’s content will start next week. In the meantime, let’s close out December.  Our Christmas festivities started on the Friday before; I took the afternoon off and enjoyed one of my favorite Advent traditions – taking Peanut to on a girls’ date to the theatre.  This was an idea I hit on when we moved back to D.C. – we’ve seen The Secret Garden at the Shakespeare Theatre, Mr. Popper’s Penguins at the Kennedy Center, and this year – Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas at the Adventure Theater.

No snaps from the show itself, of course!  But it was as sparkly, festive and fancy as you would expect Christmas to be chez Clancy.  Peanut loved every minute.

On Wednesday I shared our Christmas Eve activity – hiking at Saratoga National Historical Park and finishing up my 52 Hike Challenge for 2018.  After we’d worked up an appetite tramping through the snowy fields, we headed to my Aunt Maria’s house for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner.

This was THE big family event of the season when I was growing up, but I hadn’t been to the family Christmas Eve dinner since having kids.  (Even when we brought Peanut to my parents’ for Christmas when she was younger, we stayed home in the evening so we could put her to bed at a reasonable time.)  With bigger kiddos, and being in town, we joined the family again and it was wonderful.  All four of my cousins on my dad’s side were there, which was a special treat.  (We missed my brother and his wife, though.)  The group keeps getting bigger – husbands have been added to the mix, and this year the table also included my cousin Jocelyn’s new fiancé and his parents.  So much joy!

Aunts and uncles plied Peanut and Nugget with Christmas presents, fueling the excitement, and we got home pretty late.  Peanut curled up in “baby position” on the armchair, but someone else was wide awake and happy to put out treats for Santa… and generally to stir the pot.

Look at that mischievous face!  (Sorry for the blur; he’s a moving target.)  Eventually we got both of the little elves tucked away to dream of sugarplums, and the parents and grandparents got down to work loading up the Christmas tree.  No pictures of the completed project this year – whoops.  We all flopped down exhausted, knowing that Christmas morning would be arriving painfully soon.

And it did!  The kiddos were up and at ’em at 6:00, and by 7:00 all the adults were sort of awake, and we were down opening presents.

There were SO MANY gifts that we weren’t even able to finish opening everything before church.  We took a break from the unwrapping extravaganza for Christmas Day services.  I marked a milestone, as I told Steve: my parents’ church was renovated when I was in middle school, but this was the first time I’d ever entered what we called “the crying room.”  Peanut has always been generally good in church, but wild Nugget had to be removed from the crowd.  He occupied himself with zooming his “Incredib-ile” around, banging it into the glass doors, and scribbling all over one of the church’s coloring books.  Oof.

Then we headed home to enjoy our gifts.  Air hockey for the boys – Nugget cheated on every point – and…

Books for the girls, naturally.

Oh, and new pajamas.  The next couple of days were fairly quiet.  Steve and I both worked remotely Wednesday through Friday, but we also squeezed in some fun, including an unpictured play date at my high school BFF’s house – she has a daughter about a year older than Peanut – and a couple of lovely evenings with our family friends.  (Including a Friday night appetizer feast that I left with two new recipes to try – yum!)

We also got out for our traditional viewing of the holiday lights in Washington Park and dinner with our dear friend Seth.  The kids accompanied us to the lights; Peanut loved every moment, and Nugget snoozed through the whole thing – whoops.

Then we dropped the elves back at Nana and Grandad’s house and headed out for a grown-up dinner at Druthers Brewing Company with Seth.  We sipped, snacked, and talked away for over an hour, but we never seem to have enough time together.

After dinner, I got this gift – an old picture of Seth and me, circa 2001 – right after a 5K to raise money for the Red Cross in the wake of 9/11.  (Incidentally, that was my first 5K ever.  Please ignore my cotton t-shirt and early-2000s hair.)  We’ve been friends since freshman year at Cornell and have been keeping up our lights-and-dinner holiday tradition since our junior year and I hope we never let it lapse.

It was a lovely week, filled with friends and family – and I haven’t even showed you New Year’s yet!  Maybe next week?  Anyway – I hope your holidays, wherever you spent them – were full of joy, too.

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12 Months of Trails (and #hike52!): Saratoga National Historical Park in December, 2018

Here we are – the end of a long road!  I’ve been working toward completing the 52 Hike Challenge for 2018 since back in January – and while I’ll have more thoughts about the project, including quick recaps of my last set of hikes and the lessons I learned over the course of the journey – today, I want to tell you all about the final hike of the challenge.  I got to #hike51 with several weeks to spare, thanks to a hiking vacation and several multi-hike weekends in the summer and fall.  So I knew I had some options available, and I really wanted #hike52 to be extra-special.  I decided to do the final hike of the project in New York while I was there for the holidays, and a Christmas Eve hike in Saratoga before heading to my aunt’s house worked out perfectly.

We were greeted with this bummer of a notice when we arrived at the park.  Steve was worried we wouldn’t be able to hike there at all, due to the government shutdown, but I remembered that the parks stayed open – but unstaffed by rangers – during the last shutdown and I figured the same would be true this time, and it was.  (Also: I mostly stay away from politics in this space, but I have to say, it’s pretty infuriating that these shutdowns keep happening.  The inconveniences to hikers and museum-goers are the least of it – it makes me really angry to think about the many, many friends I have in the federal government workforce who are going without paychecks this holiday season because of a certain orange wannabe-dictator’s temper tantrum.  Anyway.)

Ready for #hike52!  I had my finisher’s medal in this brown envelope (which reads “DO NOT OPEN UNTIL #hike52!”) and I was ready to celebrate a mission accomplished.

The park was pretty much deserted – we saw another couple of hikers and a man out walking his dogs, but that was it.  The kiddos ran up and down on top of the hill near the (closed) visitors’ center for a little while.

There was snowball throwing, which ended after one snowball hit me in the face.  I was not pleased.

I declared it our cue to start the hike, and off we went.  Somehow, I’d never been to the Saratoga National Historical Park before, despite growing up in the area and despite the fact that I’ve been to the Saratoga Spa State Park more times than I can count.  It turned out to be a gorgeous network of trails winding through a hilly meadow with incredible mountain views all around.  Definitely a good choice for a celebratory hike!

What do you think of Nugget’s outfit?  The little guy was cold, so Dad put him in his snowpants to warm up… and zipped them over his jacket.  D’oh!  He looked pretty funny – but he didn’t seem to mind.

Peanut was warm and toasty in her sweater tights, big woolen knee socks, and puffer coat.  She loved following the snowy trail – it really was so picturesque.

Eventually, the littlest hiker started to get a bit grumpy…

So we decided it was time to turn around and head back to the car and on to our Christmas Eve festivities (which were also an engagement party! –> check in with me on Friday).

But first I had to rip into my envelope.  FINISHER!

When we got back to the top of the hill, the boys pretended to fire the cannon a dozen or so times.

This view reminded me of Virginia.

Almost all of the fifty-two hikes I did as part of the project were with these guys.  I’ll have more thoughts on hiking with the kiddos to share when I wrap up the project, but briefly – I’m so grateful to have these mini hiking buddies.  They’ve made this year on the trail a lot of fun.

And with that – onward to 2019 hiking!  Where was the best place you hiked in 2018?

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2018: In Review

Happy New Year’s Eve, friends!  In lieu of my usual Monday post, I am getting sentimental (you’re not surprised, I know) and looking back on the year that is wrapping up today.  2018 was a year of extreme highs and lows – we had some really joyful times, but we also had an unexpected death in the family that left us reeling for the latter half of the year.  I think if there was a theme or a lesson to 2018, it was that life is short and you should hug your loved ones as much as possible.

January was a hectic month.  I entered a particularly busy season at work and had several 70-hour workweeks in a row – ouch.  Poor little Nugget also got hit with a yucky stomach bug that we’re pretty sure he picked up while playing at a local children’s gym.  And the weather was super-weird, fluctuating from 65 degrees one weekend to below freezing for weeks on end.  But we managed to get outside a couple of times, even in the cold weather, kicking off the 52 Hike Challenge at Theodore Roosevelt Island in D.C.

February brought more cold weather, more indoor time, and more hectic weeks at work.  We only managed to hit the trail once, but we did host Peanut’s BFF and her mom for a fun play date.  The girls baked raspberry crumb bars (with some help from the moms) and we all enjoyed them with tea.  I had some grown-up fun, too, attending a rosé tasting event at the Embassy of France with my BFF and doing a bit of book shopping.

March means one thing – my sweet baby’s birthday!  We celebrated THREE YEARS of Nugget with a Star Wars themed birthday party, and true to his nature, Outdoor Boy chose to mark his birthday with a hike.  We hit the trails a few times this month, since the weather finally started to thaw, and we also made a trip to the National Zoo.  I also made a trip to Boston to work on a union campaign (my favorite part of my job) and spent an evening chatting into the night with sweet Katie.

April was a banner month, because I saw my favorite band, the Decemberists, in concert!  They don’t tour all that often and even more rarely come East, so it was a special treat.  The rest of the month was just as celebratory.  We marked Easter with a service at our church – joined by Aunt Rebecca – followed by egg-dyeing and a vegetarian feast with a Aunt Rebecca, Aunt Jenn and Uncle Robert, and Peanut’s very first friend (Jenn and Robert’s daughter).  Hiking was good, too – there was the Bluebell Loop Trail, naturally – a can’t-miss April tradition – a Mason Neck hike with Rebecca and her dog Brandy, and a muddy good time at Great Falls.

May saw more family fun – a visit from Grandma, who we don’t see nearly as much as we wish we did, and a Mother’s Day hike at Mason Neck.  We also started our garden for the year (dubbed “Squirrelbait”) – spoiler: this wasn’t the most successful year.  We visited Mount Vernon and petted the baby animals, and Peanut said lots of hilarious things.

June was a month of highs and lows.  We started with the highs – first a trip to Cornell for my fifteenth reunion.  How is it possible that so much time has gone by since graduation?  It was fun introducing the kids to the place where Steve and I fell in love.  After Cornell, we stayed upstate for a bit longer and swung by my parents’ house, where my brother Dan and his wife Danielle were visiting from Colorado.  We never get enough time with them, but we made the most of the few days we had – sailing on the Adirondack lake where my parents have a camp and hiking at Lake Minnewaska.  The end of the month brought great sadness, though – the sudden and unexpected loss of a beloved family member.  We’re still working through the grief that followed.

July was a sad month, while we grieved and tried to adjust to a new reality without someone we all loved in it.  We’d been planning to make a trip back up north to spend the Fourth of July with my parents, and we decided that we would keep those plans, because we wanted to be with family.  I didn’t recap most of the trip – too sad – but we made it to the lake again and my parents distracted us with an afternoon of hiking at Bash Bish Falls and dinner out in nearby Lenox, Massachusetts.  (Western Massachusetts is so lovely; I wish I got there more.)  We kind of drifted through the rest of the month; I don’t remember much of what we did, other than camp runs and play dates – and I finally learned to bake bread.  It didn’t occur to me at the time, but looking back I think that maybe my obsession with bread-baking this summer might have had something to do with needing an outlet and to do something with my hands when my heart was feeling so sad.

August was the month we reserved for our summer vacation, and we managed to have a pretty good time.  We drove back up to New York (three trips to the Empire State in three months!) and spent a week in the Adirondacks with my parents.  We got a cute Airbnb apartment right in downtown Lake Placid and used it as base camp for a week of hiking and water fun.  Steve and I climbed our fourth Adirondack high peak (Big Slide Mountain this time); the kids splashed and played at the Lake Placid beach, and we celebrated Peanut’s sixth birthday on the trail.

September was quiet after the wild swings of summer, and that was what we needed.  We hiked at Great Falls with new friends who just recently moved to the area from San Francisco, and the kids went back to school.  Most of my month was taken up with back-to-school activities – as kindergarten class mom, I had a lot to do with back to school night, first PTA meetings of the year, and more.  Volunteering in Peanut’s classroom was one of my fall goals, and I have loved being around the school more.

October is my favorite month!  It’s my birthday month, fall splendor is everywhere, and Halloween is the best way to close out a month – if you ask me, which I realize no one did.  I cashed in my birthday authority by dragging the family out for a cold picnic and hiking in Shenandoah National Park – Nugget’s happy place.  During the week, I treated myself to a lunchtime excursion to see No Spectators: the Art of Burning Man at the Renwick Gallery with my friend Susan, and it was fabulous.  The rest of the month, we fit in several more hikes, watched the beginning of the fall foliage changing (it’s really a November phenomenon in Virginia, but it starts in October) and celebrated Halloween at school and in the neighborhood.

November was Steve’s birthday month, and we celebrated on the trails, of course!  Governor Northam had recently opened a brand-new state park – Widewater State Park, near Stafford – so we headed down there to check it out.  Even with the very barest beginnings of a trail network, it was lovely.  I also changed jobs in November, after a long search for a new opportunity, and enjoyed three days of “funemployment” – which I spent reading and chaperoning Peanut’s field trip to the weirdest farm ever.  And of course, one of my favorite holidays – we shared a Thanksgiving feast with my parents and our beloved next door neighbors, then spent Black Friday working off the mashed potatoes on the trail at Great Falls.

December – we made it to the end of the year!  I started the year with a business trip to Philadelphia, which was a lot of fun – and I got to see the lovely A.M.B. into the bargain!  Back in Virginia, we tried out a new tradition and cut down our own Christmas tree, then decorated it with all of our favorite ornaments.  We filled the month with other holiday fun – like a trip to the Christmas trains at the U.S. Botanic Garden – and even made it up to Baltimore to spend a day at the National Aquarium.  We ended the month with a little over a week at my parents’ place and managed to squeeze in almost everything we wanted to do – lots of friend time, hiking, family fun and playdates.  A good way to bid the old year farewell.

And now, it’s 2019!  Here’s hoping for lots of joy and adventures this year – we need them.

 

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My 2018 Christmas Book Stack

I know, I know, I haven’t recapped the actual holiday yet – next week!  But what I really want to show you is the stack of books I unwrapped on Christmas morning – because, to be honest, that’s always what I want to know about other people’s holidays: what books did you get?  Isn’t that terrible of me?  Oh, well.  Here’s what I received…

From Steve:

  • Drawn From Memory and Drawn From Life, both by E.H. Shepard and Slightly Foxed Editions No. 44 and 45.  I thought I had all the SFEs I wanted, then they rolled out two new releases I simply had to add to my collection, just in time for Santa to swing by Hoxbury Square, London, and toss them in the sleigh.  For those of you scratching your heads over E.H. Shepard’s familiar name – he’s the illustrator behind the classic depictions of Winnie-the-Pooh.
  • The House at Pooh Corner and The Complete Poems for Christopher Robin, both by A. A. Milne, in gorgeous Folio Society editions.  I’ve already got Winnie-the-Pooh in the same edition and these are going to be a beautiful addition to my children’s classics shelf.
  • Hons and Rebels, by Jessica Mitford.  Santa was shopping my Amazon wish list!  It was funny, because I had just discussed Hons and Rebels with my friend Susan over lunch, not two weeks before Christmas, and she was telling me how wonderful it is.  It was probably already winging its way to Steve for wrapping by then!
  • The Common Reader and The Second Common Reader, by Virginia Woolf.  Woolf isn’t normally my cup of tea, try as I do to like her experimental style.  But these books of her essays about authors, reading, and books sound great, and I added them to the Amazon wish list just in time for Santa’s snooping.
  • A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, by Philip Rhys Evans.  My first reaction to seeing this in the Slightly Foxed catalogue was a decided “meh,” but then I read the delightful and hilarious snippets and snatches that formed the little book’s preview, and I was completely charmed.  I look forward to laughing over this book in the very near future.
  • In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor.  It’s a very Mitford Christmas for me, apparently – I have been reading Nancy’s Christmas Pudding, received Jessica’s memoir (above) and will also get to peek into Debo’s correspondence.  I find the Mitfords absolutely fascinating, and Patrick Leigh Fermor is an illustrious figure in his own right, of course, so I can’t wait to tear through this.
  • A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt.  I’ve got a weakness for diaries and primary source materials that breathe life into different eras – an ongoing obsession since I first pulled L. M. Montgomery’s five volumes of diaries off my grandmother’s bookshelf and curled up with them in her overstuffed armchair, many years ago.  These were another Amazon wish list item, and I’ve been not-so-secretly admiring them over on Jennifer’s blog and Instagram.  I’m excited.
  • Tartine Bread.  I always tease Steve that his cookbook gifts are half self-serving – because while I’ve been wanting Tartine Bread for years, and especially lately since I finally learned how to bake bread somewhat reliably for myself, let’s be honest: he’ll be the one eating most of the results.  But y’all?  I’m going to enjoy this book.

From my mom:

  • Whiskey in a Teacup, by Reese Witherspoon.  I probably wouldn’t have bought this for myself, but I’m sure excited to have it – so thanks, Mom!  My BFF Rebecca really enjoyed it and kept texting me snippets of Lady Reese’s wisdom – especially the part about how children belong at weddings.  (Longtime readers may recall that Peanut was Rebecca’s flower girl last year, and Nugget rocked the cutest gingham bow tie at her wedding.)
  • My Squirrel Days, by Ellie Kemper.  My mom has a tradition of giving me a comedienne’s memoir every Christmas.  I’ve received books by Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler, and Lauren Graham – and Ellie is this year’s addition.  I love these smart, hilarious women’s voices and I’m sure I’m going to enjoy this.  And when I’m done, Ellie can keep company with her Office co-star Mindy, and the other funny ladies, on my nonfiction shelf.

From my brother:

  • The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh, by Kathryn Aalto.  It was a very Hundred Acre Wood Christmas for me, huh?  I actually already owned this one, so I’ll probably exchange it for something I don’t have yet.  But it’s delightful – my brother and sister-in-love clearly know what I like.

There it is – quite a respectable book haul!  Books were really all that I wanted this year, so I was happy to find so many of them under the tree.  And I foresee some really excellent reading this winter…

If you were celebrating a holiday this December, did you receive any books?  Do share!

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Advent-ures 2018

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  (That’s what the song says, at least.  I’m more of a summer kind of girl, myself.  But I do love the holiday season too.)  As always, I’ve been dragging the family out to make memories, determined to fill up our hearts and photo albums at every opportunity.  It’s what I do.  We’ve actually missed a few of our normal traditions – no Old Town parades, no Christmas in Little Washington, and we’re not going to be watching Santa waterski down the Potomac this year due to a schedule conflict.  But we’ve done a lot.

Visiting a Christmas Tree Farm

Starting with – cutting down our own Christmas tree!

Steve grew up with a real tree but I’ve had a faux tree for basically as long as I can remember.  I’ve always been squeamish about the idea of cutting down a living tree, but Christmas tree lots give me the sads.  But in 2017 I read that in order for a faux tree to be more environmentally friendly than a real tree, you have to keep it for seven years.  That’s the line at which the fake tree’s lifespan surpasses the effects of off-gassing, water use and chemical processing it takes to produce it.  The problem is: we weren’t keeping our fake trees that long.  These days it’s almost impossible to find a nice one that isn’t pre-strung with lights, and our pre-strung trees were dying after three to four years.  So I read up on Christmas tree farms, liked what I learned about their sustainability, and agreed to give it a try.  (We may go back to a fake tree in the future, but for now we’re experimenting with real.)  So – off to Middleburg, Virginia we went, to cut down our own Christmas tree!

The kids went tearing down the mowed path, ready to pick out their tree.

How about this one?  Too small, Charlie Brown.

Peanut liked this one, but it was a little oddly shaped, so Dad vetoed it.

Ohhhhh, the sass.  So much sass.

Found it!  Steve stopped in front of this Douglas fir and I said: “It’s a beaut, Clark!”  He cut it down while I stood supporting it from the other side, sniffling that I felt like a murderer.  I still feel a little guilty, actually.  But I try to remember that the tree gave oxygen to the atmosphere all year and that three to four replacements were planted in its place.

We hauled our victim tree out in the big yellow wagon.

While Steve took care of paying for the tree, getting it wrapped, and loading it on top of the old four-wheel drive sleigh (sorry, Clark) the kids and I warmed up by a delicious-smelling campfire.

I harassed the littles with photo shoots and checked out the coordinated outfits of the families who were clearly planning to combine their tree-cutting with Christmas photo-taking.

 

Such cuties.  Most adorable kids ever, and not a bit biased.

Finally, Daddy motioned us over to the car.  We drove home gingerly with the tree secured by several miles of rope.  Daddy set it up immediately and we wasted no time in pulling out the lights and ornaments.

Now it’s officially the holiday season!

Warming Up in the National Aquarium

Last Christmas, my high school BFF gifted our family with tickets to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  It’s one of the most expensive family activities in the area – adult tickets are $40, incredibly steep when you consider that most museums are free – so having gift tickets was a blessing.  We applied the gift tickets to a membership so that we can go to the aquarium all year long; everyone in our family loves it.  It’s not Christmassy per se, but last weekend we found ourselves in Baltimore, darting through the raindrops to the aquarium entrance.

My favorite part of the aquarium?  Seeing the wide-eyed wonder on these two little faces.

(My second-favorite part is the gigantic multi-story coral reef.)

The puffins are cool too.

There was a touch tank full of moon jellies.  Nugget bravely reached a finger in and petted one of the jellyfish.  Peanut, Daddy and I took a hard pass.

Brave boy.

Hello, turtle.

So much fun!  I’m glad we have the membership, and I can’t wait to go back on chilly weekends this winter.

Christmas Trains at the U.S. Botanic Gardens

Finally, while we have missed out on most of our usual Advent fun this year (due to scheduling snafus, some poor planning on my part, and a yucky cold in Nugget’s nose a couple of weeks ago) I insisted that we make it to the Botanic Gardens for the Christmas trains.  That’s a can’t-miss activity.  It’s mainly for Nugget, but we all enjoy it.

While we waited in line, we enjoyed some of the plant-based D.C. landmarks.  The garden does them every year, and they never fail to impress.  The Washington Monument!

Waiting impatiently to enter the train room…

It was delightful as always!  My favorite year was 2016 – for the National Park System’s centennial, the train room was NPS-themed.  This year, the trains circulated around various train stations, natural elements and the North Pole, but it was still beautiful.

A certain little boy was very taken with the whole thing.

(His sister was impressed, too.)  Hello, Thomas!

After we’d had our fill of the trains, we checked out the rest of the Botanic Gardens.  I demanded pictures by the poinsettia wall.

 

(It was nice to have these pictures to look at later, after they were both so obnoxious in Michael’s that I wanted to kick them out of the car.)

The final stop on the way out of the Botanic Gardens is the D.C. landmarks – of course.

Hello, Mr. President!

I had to snap a picture of the Supreme Court for us lawyers in the family.

The National Museum of African-American History and Culture.  (Still on my to-do list.)

A miniature Botanic Gardens.  The roof looks like it’s made of onion skin?

The Library of Congress.  Hello, beautiful!

And the Capitol – always the most impressive of all.

The days are ticking closer and closer to Christmas now, and I still have a lot to do.  I’m entering the whirlwind of gift-wrapping, card-writing, FedEx-running and friend-lunching that always characterizes the latter part of December.  But I don’t mind any of it, and I hope that my kids grow up remembering how I packed the holiday season full of fun and family from October to January.

How have you been celebrating this holiday season?

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The Winter List 2019

Another season’s change is upon us – is it just me, or do they seem to go faster and faster every year? – and it’s time to make a list of hopes and dreams for winter.  I’ve always liked winter, but three years in Buffalo kind of stamped out my enjoyment of the season, try as I did to embrace it.  So I’m going to try to get some of my old appreciation for the cold months back this year.  Here’s what I’m thinking:

  • Take a snowy (hopefully) weekend getaway to the mountains.
  • Bake an olive oil citrus cake.  I put this on the list every year – this year, it’s happening!
  • Take Peanut to her first movie in the theater.
  • Make progress on cleaning out the basement.
  • Take the kids to play at Badlands.
  • Read some Dickens.
  • See Huckleberry Finn’s Big River at the Adventure Theatre.
  • Go ice skating on the Empire State Plaza in Albany.
  • Take Peanut to see Angelina Ballerina: The Musical in Gaithersburg.
  • Complete a “vegan for 100 days” challenge.

There!  Some outdoor fun, some bookishness, some family stuff and some food – sounds like the makings of a good winter to me.  After checking every item off my list for the first time ever this fall, I’m excited to see how the winter goes.

What’s on your winter to-do list?