If it’s Thursday, it’s time to look back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. The UConn-Notre Dame women’s basketball game was on tv, which prompted Rudi to see when UConn would be in town to play Georgetown. Turns out it was Wednesday. It was great to see some of the Huskies’ newest talent, including spirited play from first-year student Moriah Jefferson. Georgetown’s Sugar Rodgers, who is being talked about for this year’s WNBA draft, was everywhere on the court, keeping the game far closer than I’d expected. (By that I mean UConn only won by 25 or so points.) If this is the last year the Huskies come to town (due to Georgetown’s imminent departure from the Big East), I’m over the moon that we got to see the game.

2. I hit both the Arlington and D.C. libraries to return (most of) the last of my Cybils books. And I took out books that I picked out and that I wanted to read. The first time since September!

3. Russian Christmas was Monday, which marked the end of the holiday gift-giving season between Rudi and me. To celebrate, he gave me Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer, which I’d had to put off because of Cybils reading (and which I plan to devour this weekend), and my favorite tiny notebooks, purple and the perfect size for carrying in back pockets, purses, and knitting bags.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

Happy 2013! As it’s Thursday, it’s time to look back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Rudi and I stop at Modern for pizza on our way back to D.C. Eating there would have required at least an hour’s wait out in the cold, so instead we called in a take-out order (and drove over to the New Haven Green to see the tree while we waited). We ate our fresh-out-of-the-oven, can’t-be-beaten pies in the car sitting outside the pizzeria.

2. I have knit much of a sock in the last week. The yarn is bright and self-striping in a colorway called Fruitcake, and the only constant through it all is the strand of sparkly red stellina that makes me feel so cheery when I look at it.

3. I have been sleep-deprived for months. The last week has been filled with sleeping late, going to bed at (by my standards) reasonable hours, and lots of naps on the sofa.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week as the calendar changed months and years?

It’s the final Thursday of the year. Hard to believe, eh? Or maybe not. Either way, I offer to you three beautiful things from the past week:

1. It has been good to spend time with my folks and with my grandmother, even if I spent some of it distracted by Cybils work and by Christmas shopping. Being far away is stressful and so I appreciate even just getting to be in the same house with them.

2. The holidays are for reconnecting. And we have. In the past week, we talked to a college friend who returned home to the Philippines to live and work. We usually get a letter each Christmas, so it was especially wonderful to hear his voice. I also spent a couple hours on the phone with my college roommate, who caught me up on what’s been going on in her life and with those folks she’s in closer contact with than I am. Rudi and I had brunch with another college friend, whom we hadn’t seen in a couple years. She seems to be doing well, which was reassuring to see. (And we hope to see her again next month when she and some of her students visit D.C. for the inauguration.) And, today, Karen opened her home to me for a few hours so we could visit and so I could deliver some Christmas presents to her and her kids.

3. My Cybils work is inches away from being complete. I am sworn to secrecy until the shortlist appears on Jan. 1, but I will say that it has been an enormous amount of work and I am proud of the role I’ve played. And I’m really excited to be done with it all and to get back to books of my own choosing and my knitting and my bed.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

There are five days left until Christmas. This is not comforting. So, quickly, so I can get back to prepping and reading, here are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I am done with work for 2012. My auto replies tell people I will get back to them in a whole different year.

2. I return three grocery bags (nearly 50 copies) of young adult books to the D.C. and Arlington County libraries. I am remarkably grateful to both library systems for helping me procure the vast majority of the Cybils titles nominated, but was even more grateful to clear them out of our house.

3. We watch The Hobbit on opening day and all five of us enjoy it. No, the 3D was unnecessary. Yes, it was longer than it needed to be. Did any of that matter? No.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

One more sleep ’til The Hobbit! (Not that I’m excited or anything…)

It seems like my life lately is all Cybils, Cybils, Christmas, Cybils, but in between there have been other good things. Here are three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Sarah invites my book out for pizza and me to join it. Rudi and I sit in the coffeehouse next to Pete’s and read while we wait. You know a friend is a good one if they understand when you have to read through your meals.

2. Muppets-themed Christmas underwear. (Related: Target has underoos for women!)

3. Our landlord did some needed renovations to our bathroom. Our fan no longer screams like an injured banshee when you flip the light switch on (the two are tied together), and the shower faucet no longer drips. The shower taps being replaced has the added benefit of improved temperature control.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

I’m fading so this will be a quick look back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Today was St. Nicholas Day. I awoke to find my shoe overflowing with great bounty, including fun new stripey knee socks and a Christmas tshirt.

2. Saturday morning, we were out the door early to run pre-party errands. By noon, we’d crossed the surprisingly line-free Costco and Target off our list, had returned a library book, and had dropped off bags of clothes at Goodwill and were en route to Poolesville to cut down a tree.

(Corollary: Remembering the night before how thin our usual tree farm had been last year and thinking to check their website. They had taken 2012 off to let the trees grow, and while they’d pointed to other resources in their county, it wasn’t as helpful for those of us who drive a couple hours out from the District. We opted to stay closer to the city and headed to the farm where we pick apples and strawberries.)

3. Our annual tree-trimming party was a great success, even if we were still cleaning when the first guests arrived. (We are always still doing something, but this was a new low.) We listened to music, doted on babies, hung ornaments, and ate a huge amount of food ’til nicely late into the evening. The party’s success was in large part due to generous friends who did not mention our obvious shortcomings as housekeepers and to my mother, who also did not mention my shortcomings when she knew us well enough to insist on making a lasagna this year to send back with us (as well as the tin of traditional spritz cookies that I assured her we could make do without this year since our time was crunched). It’s nice to have people who love you and know you so well.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?