Goodbye, 2023
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I’m sorry I neglected to blog for another three months…oops. Thanks to Missy for giving me the kick in the butt I needed to actually get this done.
Since the last post, we took a couple of amazing trips - one in October to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, and one in November to the Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona. Because those trips both have their own post’s worth of content and then some, I made an individual post for each one with recaps of each trip, photos, and fun facts. Those are both linked below.
Otherwise, not much has changed as far as everyday life goes. Work is work, and we continue to fight the good fight in having it not overtake too much of our mental energy and time. We’ve been using our crockpot a ton. Current favorite recipes include crockpot lasagna and pork roast. You don’t even need to cook the noodles first! We also made some excellent lamb in the crockpot for Christmas.
We recently got some new shelving units and reorganized a few things in our house after coming to the realization this is probably the only place we’ll live while we’re in Utah. We’ve been watching a lot of football and Rankin Bass Christmas specials.
We’re excited about the new addition of an espresso machine to our kitchen appliance lineup courtesy of Ian’s family for Christmas. Ian’s becoming quite the espresso connoisseur, and we both enjoy our delicious hot cup of dirt in the morning. I say this lovingly. Espresso is delicious, but it does taste a bit like hot dirt. Delicious hot dirt.
Ain’t she a beaut?
After two years of peer pressure from Ian and friends and finally moving past a couple of traumatizing ski experiences, I bought a ski pass to force myself to learn how to ski. In the last three weeks I’ve been six times and the pass has already paid for itself. I’ve conquered the big blue run at Sundance, and now Ian has to drag my out of there every time we have to go back home. I have no photographic evidence of my skiing, but hope to get some photos soon.
We also did a Santa run earlier in December, where about 400 people dressed in cheap Santa suits ran and/or walked 5k, 10k, or a half marathon. We did the 10k and ripped the Santa suits to shreds (they came with the race registration). Not that the competition was very stiff (most people/families did the 5k because it’s just a fun, silly event), but we both did get second place in our respective age/gender groups.
We did not run in the beards. Not featured, the crotch of these Santa suit pants being ripped to shreds.
Our Charlie Brown tree on the floor plus our tiny tabletop fake tree we’ve had since we moved in together in 2018 make for a nice little Christmas corner. The Charlie Brown tree started out even smaller than the artificial tree when we first got it. Now it’s Ian’s favorite plant child.
Thank you for reading and for waiting to read and for reminding me to write these posts. Please feel free to pester me more in 2024 if I start to get behind again. Things to look forward to in the new year include more skiing and a tentative trip home around Easter.
I hope you all have had a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season and continue that into celebrating the new year. Love and miss you all!
Chloe
