I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving (or just a wonderful Thursday if you’re located elsewhere). Rudi and I drove up to spend the holiday with my folks, and we stuffed ourselves full of doughnuts, turkey, stuffing, rolls, vegetables, and pie. We watched the parade, counted our blessings, shared stories of loved ones not with us this year, and enjoyed each other’s company. (I also had two long naps, which means I missed most of the parade and most of the Disney special. Oops.).

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. When she phoned yesterday to check on our drive’s progress, my mom reminded us about one of their alternate routes north, which was far less trafficked than the Garden State Parkway would have been. (Don’t worry; we hit plenty in both Maryland and in Connecticut.)

2. We decided to stop for supper at Modern Apizza, but when we pulled up, we could see the crowd spilling out of the vestibule and onto the sidewalk. We are nothing if not devoted to our pizza, though, so just pulled out all our warm gear and prepared to wait. Turns out that there were two large parties waiting to be accommodated, and we were able to walk right in and sit down at a booth. (We finished our meal and left before either group was seated.)

3. Thanksgiving is one of the days when my folks light a fire first thing in the morning and then it keeps burning all day. I like to spend parts of the day curled up on the hearth.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A new poem, “The Health of Us,” by poetry goddess Claudia Rankine.

2. My coworkers and I were fast off the mark when an email announced to the entire building that there were leftovers available for lunch. I had a very tasty chipotle portobello sandwich.

3. Our season’s final volleyball match fell on the birthday of our captain, who brought the cookies her boss gave her to share with us after our resounding loss.

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

Three beautiful things in this week where we really need to work to find it:

1. The nice thing about living and working in the bluest of blue places (93% of D.C.’s voters chose Hillary) is that those of us who showed up on Wednesday and today were extra gentle with each other as we all sat in our offices and shared spaces wiping away tears.

2. The line at our polling place on Election Day was more than an hour long, but the priest came down the queue with doughnuts, and we all chatted with each other and were generally pretty chill with a festive feeling of civic virtue in the air. Granted, at that point, we thought we were going to win, but still…

3. Sarah spent last week in upstate New York and brought cider doughnuts back with her, including a half dozen for us.

How about you? What beauty have you encountered in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sam and his brother Alan come down for a show they went to see with Rudi, and we get to spend the weekend with them. We’ve known them for decades now, so they’re like family.

2. In our final regular-season loss, our volleyball team worked well together and played a fun, scrappy game. As one of my teammates noted, we didn’t even mind losing the way we played. (And as a bonus beautiful thing, I think we’re going to sign up to play together again in the winter.)

3. Sunday afternoon, I head up to the park to read in the sunshine and it happens to be the neighborhood Halloween party. There’s a bake sale and free popcorn and two moon bounces for the kids, and lots and lots of costume love. My favorite was a small baby dressed as a hot dog.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, heavy on the latter.

2. I have enough Halloween-themed socks to wear a different pair every day for more than a week.

3. Sleeping in on the weekend, surrounded by cats.

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

Sorry for a tardy Three Beautiful Things post. I had managed to lock myself out of my site and have had a tired, busy week that just wasn’t conducive to my getting back in. But, obviously, things are better now!

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We got to see Dylan Moran, who plays Bernard in Black Books, at the Lincoln last night.

2. My volleyball team got together to practice on Sunday, and while we still lost this week’s game, our playing was much improved.

3. This week’s debate was the final one for this election season.

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