![\"Christmas](\"https:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5697\/23462362603_7da2665d94_k.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nThree beautiful things from the final week of 2015:<\/p>\n
1. The past week has been chock full of time with family and friends. Because of a last-minute job opportunity for Rudi, I got to spend a few extra days longer than initially planned with my parents. My aunt, uncle, and cousin joined us for Christmas dinner, and I got to spend wonderful afternoons with Karen and her children (when we discovered a new-to-us hiking trail) and Laura. Tonight, Sarah and I will ring in the New Year together, because it’s good to begin the year as you mean to go on — in this case, with good friends (and, hopefully, laughter).<\/p>\n
2. Because Rudi’s ski school had temporarily relocated to Vermont (no snow in Pennsylvania right now), he needed our car to go north. Luckily, he found me a cheap flight home, so I took a fast route back to D.C. (As a bonus, there were no lines in Hartford and everyone there was very pleasant.)<\/p>\n
3. This has been an abnormally warm December, so it was nice to wake on Tuesday to the ground coated in white, even if it was from an ice\/sleet storm. It wasn’t a real hassle to push-shovel, although I’m glad my parents have a tractor for their 1\/4-mile-long driveway.<\/p>\n
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world during these final days of the year?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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