Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We managed to get our skeletal Christmas tree out of the house with a minimum of fuss.

2. I left the office this evening and it was still light enough out to bike home before dark.

3. We have had some good luck shopping Christmas sales in the last week, picking up inexpensive candy, stationery, lights, and extension cords.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We had early dismissal due to a winter storm on Tuesday afternoon. Those of you who live in snowy places will be amused, but in part such caution has to do with the long distances people commute here and the prevalence for icy highways. At least two major roads shut down due to jack-knifed tractor trailers. I, on the other hand, spent the end of my workday napping after walking home in the rain via the bagel shop.

2. Rudi and I celebrated “Little,” or Orthodox, Christmas this week. (His mom was born in Russia.) Rudi made borscht and we exchanged a few last gifts.

3. I used up the last of my use-it-or-lose-it healthcare savings account fund just before year’s end and today the box arrived. Opening it felt like a very practical Christmas present, in part because the money was deducted from my paycheck before I ever saw it and it felt free. We are set for contact solution, sunscreen, and bandages for a while.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sarah, Rudi, and I rang in the New Year the same way we have for years now — at the movies. This year two of us were a bit under the weather and two of us (I am at the center of this particular Venn diagram) spent part of the afternoon at the DMV getting a car registered, so we only caught a double feature. However, both A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Knives Out were quite enjoyable, and I recommend both.

2. Rudi and I also spent part of our New Year’s Day at the cinema, watching Spies in Disguise, which is partially set in D.C. We greatly appreciated the authenticity of their animated city, laughed at the idea of Will Smith’s spy driving in front of the Lincoln Memorial and up the nearby sidewalk, and mulled the plausibility of the CIA having a headquarters located beneath the Reflecting Pool. (Movies love to put intelligence agencies in or near our waterways. Marvel placed theirs on Theodore Roosevelt Island.)

3. One of our local bookstores was having a New Year’s Day sale on everything in the shop, so I took myself off to Petworth after the parade ended to buy a book — The Starless Sea — I’d intended to get back in the fall, when I missed the author’s visit to D.C.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I wrapped a project up at the end of the year that I’m very proud of.

2. Rudi came home after ten days away — and three days of driving cross-country.

3. Today was the first day that I hadn’t taken any cold medicine in a week.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sarah and I got to check out Enchant, which is this massive light display/maze/Christmas bazaar they’ve set up in Nationals Park. We both knew it was going to be a little cheesy, but were hoping for cheesy fun (as opposed to cheesy lame), and it was. We drank cocoa and I ate a pretzel with raclette cheese on it (so it was literally cheesy, as well as figuratively). We found all Santa’s reindeer and told him what we wanted for Christmas, and we enjoyed all the lights and generally had a lot of fun.

2. My office had a holiday party this week, with a white elephant/Yankee swap-type gift exchange. The person who ended up with my silly gift seemed pleased (she was the one who could steal from anyone at the end and instead opted to keep the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine), and when I offered the equally silly Taco-saurus Rex taco holder to a younger coworker after the fact, she nearly hugged me.

3. My volleyball team came in second for the league this time around, but we remarked afterwards that the team who won hadn’t really seemed like they were having fun, and that if those were the two choices (it’s a false dichotomy, but go with me), we’d pick to lose, but enjoy ourselves together. We stayed after everyone else went home to play 3-on-3, and then a bunch of us headed out to the bar to hang out for a couple more hours.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi, Sarah, and I went out for pizza at our favorite D.C. pizza joint last Saturday. The owner of the shop has publicly shared he’s considering moving to Colorado, and none of the shop’s social media pages have been updated in more than six months, so if they suddenly decide to close up shop in the middle of the night, at least we all enjoyed one last pie from them.

2. Rudi helped me finish decorating the Christmas tree the night before he left for Salt Lake City. This tree, which I bought for $20 in Connecticut, had a lot of bare patches in the middle, which might have been a turn-off for some people. It was very obvious when there was nothing on the tree but lights and would have remained so if I’d had a paucity of decorations. But empty space lends itself to dangly ornaments, and the tree has a lot of strong branches to hang heavier ones from, so now you’d be hard-pressed to notice the gaps.

3. Various people on my volleyball team have played together since last spring (four of us from one team, and three from another), but this is the first time the entire team has said they’d like to play together again in the next season. I keep getting emails from them as they sign up for the winter league. I’ve liked various teams I’ve played with before, but this group of folks is the first one that I’ve considered friends.

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