We’re out in Salt Lake dealing with some family stuff that is taking a lot of mental and emotional energy — but it’s not my story to share. For the next little while, I’m probably going to go light on content, so my apologies for that.

Three beautiful things from today:

1. When I arrived to see Rudi’s mom, she was eating with gusto the dumplings that the aide had made especially for her.

2. Salt Lake has put a mask mandate into place, which makes me much happier about being indoors.

3. I got to walk in the sun a bit today.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Lovely sunsets in Florida and Utah (we caught the first part while we were walking in a park and then I made Rudi pull into a cemetery so he could see what it became after that).

2. A kind Moldovan tech who speaks Russian to Rudi’s mom and who offered to make her some varenyky (Russian pierogi-like dumplings)

3. Pizza outdoors on New Year’s Eve with Sarah and Rudi

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi took practically all our Christmas presents from my parents with him to West Virginia so I could stay an extra four days and fly home.

2. Mum and I got nearly all the baking we’d hoped to done (today was mushroom turnovers and chocolate snowball freezer cookies).

3. Dad and I got two afternoons of playing pool in. Occasionally I even won. (I’m in a place right now where, much like with bowling, I just want to hit the ball hard. It’s good to understand what you need out of recreation.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Driving north, we saw a jeep draped in Christmas lights. It was the most festive car on the road.

2. We got a significantly later start than I’d hoped to (entirely my fault — PMS that I didn’t realize was PMS), but getting on the road late in the afternoon meant that we were treated to a gorgeous sunset and Christmas lights across five states.

3. Corey enjoyed chasing the balled up wrapping paper from the packages I’d opened around the living room.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A coworker was really insightful and asked about something that’s been a struggle I’ve been keeping to myself. It meant everything for someone else to give voice to a problem that I sometimes think I imagine.

2. It was a ridiculously warm day today in the northeast, allowing us one final volleyball gathering on the patio of my local dive bar. With omicron’s virulent tendencies about to make life a whole lot harder again, I appreciated it tremendously.

3. Rudi came home for 16 hours between trips.

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

I realize in the midst of this week’s Virtual Advent Tour posts that I somehow missed a Three Beautiful Things post on Thursday. Whoops! Here are three beautiful things from last week:

1. Christmas cards have started arriving.

2. Rudi’s flight was very early out of Dulles, but it meant I got to see a lovely rosy glow as I was driving back to D.C.

3. My volleyball team’s opponent forfeited this week, but one of the earlier teams stayed to play us. Then half of us stayed to help out another team that was short-handed. It was a good way to spend a Thursday night.

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