Snowflakes

This year, we're spending Christmas in Colorado with my side of the family. Last night, we were eating my brother's homemade pizza when the snow started falling. We drove around looking at Christmas lights and it kept falling. We went to sleep and it kept falling and falling and falling.


In the morning, the railing on my parents' porch looked like this:

I stuck a ruler down the middle. 10.5 inches!

I pulled out the camera and took these pictures of snowflakes and was thrilled with the results!

The snow covered trees and houses look like a postcard. Needless to say, this California girl was thrilled and went out to frolick in it three times today! I think it's going to be a white Christmas!

Deck the Halls

"Deck the Halls" is a generous title for this post considering our two bedroom apartment has but a single hall connecting the bedrooms, main room, and bathroom. But, nevertheless, a tree, stockings, and a few other knickknacks have gone up and it is looking pretty festive in here!

Since we have no fireplace, I did the next best thing by putting my aspen tree branch over our gas heather and hung the stockings off of it. That'll do.

Autumn

When I moved to Los Angeles from Denver, I thought Southern California had no seasons. After seven years, I have finally learned that there are seasons here, you just have to look harder.

Michael took this picture of me a couple blocks away from the golden tree above. Pretty sweet shot, huh?

Thaimerican Thanksgiving

The official day for giving thanks is almost a week past, but I've still got something to share that I am grateful for.

On Thanksgiving, I woke up weary and in need of some soul restoration. I felt burned out on school and burned out on life.

My sweet, sweet husband took on all of the Thanksgiving morning cleaning and cooking responsibilities, and I just curled up in a blanket with a cup of tea and prayed and read. Then, we spent the most wonderful afternoon and evening with my in-laws and four international students from the colleges where Michael works. All we did was eat, chat, play games, and laugh for hours.

One of the students, Catt, drinking Michael's Thai Tea with boba, all homemade! (Stay tuned for the recipe.)

The food. It was about 60% American and 40% Thai and therefore "Thaimerican." Gosh, I'm clever!

The fun.

The games.

That night, I went to bed with my stomach full and my soul restored. Thank you, Jesus.