holly jolly

Last year, we didn't even put up our tiny-tim-Christmas-tree...too much was going on, and we enjoyed the holidays with all of our family on Andrew's side in Argentina (a real trick, as our immediate family lives on THREE different continents now). However, with the exception of my 3 1/2 weeks in Kenya, Christmas 2009 was in the States. Thankfully, our family was in Chicago for Thanksgiving, and thus, we decorated.

I love, love, love decorating for Christmas....and Daddy Paul played the Christmas music, while we all decorated the tiny-tim-tree and placed all the knick-knacks across our 500-something-sq-foot apartment.

...a refreshing escape from the pre-trip anxiety I had while planning and packing to leave for Kenya the day after Thanksgiving...

...of course, the wise men keeping the Baylor Santa company under the tiny-tim-tree...

...our neighbors across the street, who's tree was conspicuously grandiose and placed in their bay window....I will admit I shoved our tree to the forefront just so they would know who they're dealing with...

...itsy-bitsy ornaments...

...and while I love all the shiny, glitzy, sparkling decorations, I'm just thankful for yet another year to celebrate birth and redemption in the Lord.

for charlie and other family members who don't use facebook...;)

Earlier, I posted pictures of what our apartment looked like before Mom's visit (click here to see the before). Here are the results of her stay:

A perfectly organized pantry, a roomy-feeling living room, and an over-all spotless apartment....thanks mom!

rooftop.

Summertime views from our rooftop deck....looking forward to this summer!

snowday.

The heavens have once again decided to open up, casting six inches of snow across the city and dropping temperatures into the 20-something degrees.  However, rather than bemoan our current weather fluctuation, I will celebrate with images of a perfect winter day a couple of weeks ago when the snow had receded, and Andrew and I frolicked about the city on one of our newest traditions - date night.  (In this case, date day.)

A walk in the park, the casting of our stilted shadows, a visit to a chocolate shop, a taste of fudge - all in hopes of spring and the joy of one another. 

what recession?

Immediately following our wedding last April, family members and friends alike were informed of our somewhat risky financial investment.  This twenty-five pound bag of white rice:

More than one person was quick to point out that it would take us a lifetime to consume all this rice.  "Watch out for weevils!" and "Better get an appetite for stir-fry quick!" were the cries of concerned family members.  But thankfully, Andrew and I performed thorough research and consulted with a number of experienced investors prior to our purchase, and the results - despite recent market volatility - have been exceptional.

Pot-roast with rice, stir-fry with rice, french-onion soup and beef-broth rice, beans and rice, even rice pudding have all made it into our daily diet line-up.  I'll leave out some of the more embarrassingly distasteful rice experiments (*a-hem*, rice and fish casserole - yes it was disgusting).   

Amazingly, here we are, ten months into our little recession-proof pantry item, and it looks like we're almost ready to do some dividend re-investing.  I'm considering buying into a more exotic grain of rice, possibly basmati or jasmine...any suggestions?

Pretty market savvy for 2poorgradstudents, don't 'cha think?

vignettes

A wintery day...I peered through our screened window to try and see something enlightening, and finding nothing, turned inward to our 400-something square-foot apartment to look at the array of stuff we set around and look at and occasionally use.  

A gift in Hebrew, a psychoanalytic book, Grandpa's scarf tossed atop our collegiate dictionary - a somewhat outdated book for 2 twenty-first century grad students, eh? 

Vignettes of our life.  

declaration of granola.

These winter days are growing longer, and in earnest hope for the spring - thanks to recent outrageously sunny mid-winter 60-degree weather here in Chicago - I finally realized my long-time dream of making homemade granola bars (recipe found here).  A shining, honey-and-brown-sugar kind of moment in what has been, at times, a dreary and bleak and long winter.

But as I was toasting and mixing and baking and slicing these delicious morsels of goodness last Saturday afternoon, things seemingly lightened.  Andrew was steadily working on his genogram project for school - an endeavor proving to be a test of his patience and maturity - as he plunges into and sorts through the makings of family.  And I, having just completed my midterms, was enjoying the chance to role up my sleeves, get in the kitchen, and make something happen.

And happen it did!  We celebrated the granola bars and the weather with a much deserved break.  

We headed down the street to Old Town - a quaint little neighborhood a few blocks to the south of us and just enjoyed meandering in and out of shops, finally winding up at the lake shore where the ice and snow had forgivingly melted, revealing something fresh and new and ready to be discovered.  Stark blue water against a sky that reveled in comparison to the manmade empire opposite it.  I breathed it in and thanked my Creator for a new revelation, a fresh reminder that meaning can be found, that true beauty is still relevant.

Thank goodness for homemade granola...