Ten Things I've Been Doing Besides Blogging

Our beautiful Christmas tree!

10. Lots of baking and cooking!  In the busy days leading up to Christmas and New Year's, we've been decorating gingerbread houses, baking cookies, attempting gluten-free cinnamon rolls (fail) and gluten-free pierogi (success!), preparing our favorite foods for Christmas dinner, and then enjoying eating all of that yumminess! 

9. Celebrating Jesus' birth with family.  My aunt and uncle came over for Christmas, and having them for a few days was a joy.  We went to Christmas Eve service, watched The Nativity Story, and then actually slept in on Christmas morning before opening presents.  We all missed having Mikaela and Joel with us, but we still exchanged gifts with them and skyped with them on Christmas day.

8. Ice Skating!  Papa took us ice skating the Saturday after Christmas, and after wobbling around on my first lap, my sense of balance thankfully returned.  I skated the whole afternoon without falling, and that's worth an Olympic gold medal to me!  

7. Staying up 'till midnight.  While this is more of a regular occurrence than I would like, I purposely stayed up on December 31st!  We had some friends over, and with games and snacks, the hours flew by until it was nearly midnight.  We poured sparkling cider and donned our crazy hats to welcome in 2015.  Melanie kindly pointed out that we are now just as close to 2030 as to 2000.  That is a strange thought.

My first selfie of 2015 with Susanna!

6.  Dancing.  Friends of ours hosted an amazing evening of English Country dancing.  I had so much fun getting dressed up, visiting with friends, and dancing these elegant and refined old dances.  Once a year is not enough for this sort of fun!

5. Family Reunions.  Somewhere in there we spent the day with my dad's side of the family, and for a first time in a long time, all of his siblings and his parents were together!  We ate the fruit of our pierogi labors along with feasting on other yummy Polish foods, caught up on cousin's busy lives, played games, and sang carols to our heart's content.  There is nothing like getting together with family and feeling like you were never apart!

4. Organizing.  You often realize the true meaning in life only when color-coding your sock drawer.  I'm being facetious, but I still get a certain satisfaction in starting the New Year with an organized room and an organized life.  Maybe I'll arrive there by the end of 2015!

Melanie and Emily at Seattle's gum wall

3. Visiting with friends.  Christmas break provided a wonderful opportunity to get together with friends with whom I don't get to spend much time.  Sleepovers, lunch, and coffee dates were filled with lots of laughter, stories swapped, life lessons shared, and deeper friendships forged.  I even got to go on an overnight trip to Seattle with Melanie, Sarah, and Emily!  I'm grateful to each and every friend God has placed in my life!

2. Reading.  I've just started reading What's So Amazing About Grace? and I want to underline every single sentence.  Perhaps I'll share a full review here when I'm done with it, but God is using it to minister to my soul right now!

1. Getting ready to visit Mikaela!!! Believe me, inserting only three exclamation marks shows great restraint in this case.  God provided amazing tickets at just the right time, and I still can't believe that I get to give her a great big hug very soon!  My suitcase is already packed, and I am counting down until our visit!  

Now I want to catch up on your holiday season!  What have you been doing during the last weeks of 2014 and this the first week of 2015?