Tag Archives: winterbreak

dispatch from a northern weekend

Leave a reply

Seeking the snow last weekend, our first stop was my mom’s house – almost 4 hours north, on the west side of the state. Snow was knee-high (conservative estimate). Brandon and I woke up Saturday morning to run the Betsie Bay Frozen 5k, which is one of my favorite events. It hasn’t been run since 2020, before the world shut down. In the olden days I would have posted a full separate race recap with my time but in today’s world, post-50 years old, having survived a pandemic, menopause, teenage kid years, the Orange Menace and his Nazi cohorts attempting to ruin democracy as we know it, and various other life events, just getting out there and running it is enough.

We then drove 2 hours further north, to the village of Walloon Lake, which is most famous for being young Hemingway’s Michigan playground. We found a historical marker, and there’s a statue of him somewhere around, but the wind was blowing fine snow into whiteout conditions everywhere so we gave up looking. Instead, we skied at Boyne Mountain (the kid snowboarded) and enjoyed our perfect little Vrbo. As we get older, my ability to stay in a hotel has decreased significantly. I hate being cheek to jowl with mass humanity, having to either pay for every meal and snack or rely on hotel coffee and crumpled snack bags. Give me an AirBnB or a Vrbo every time. I know they’re wreaking havoc on small communities but selfishly I want exactly what we had this weekend. Which was a cozy cottage on a private lot with a fireplace, hot tub, separate bedrooms for us and the kid, a beautiful living space and kitchen, fully appointed. We cooked, we had good coffee, we had a fire, we watched movies, read books, I knitted, and we had privacy. I threw caution to the wind and ate what I wanted to eat, drank Horny Monk from the Petoskey Brewing Company, and made a fool out of myself on the slopes. (I fell. A lot.) The snow was almost claustrophobic – piled higher than street signs and just continually sifting down. The drifts outside the Vrbo were up to the windows with paths cut into them to access doors and the driveway – if you don’t have a snowplow or a snowblower running constantly, you would have big trouble.

All in all, it was a perfect swift getaway with my two favorite people. The world is hard right now and being away for a bit is a luxury. We don’t have a lot of travel planned for the year, so the times we do have together will be all the more important.

huzzah! christmas 2024.

Leave a reply

We had a really good Christmas Eve followed by our Christmas and birthday celebration for our Christmas babe Brandon but as usual I’m now ready for it to be done and put away. I’m going to squash that urge until New Year’s Day, however.

We watched three different versions of “A Christmas Carol” (Albert Finney, George C. Scott, and the Muppets). We ate tenderloin and burned Twisted Peppermint candles and the kid made an enormous birthday cake liberally decorated with sprinkles and buttercream and on Boxing Day we saw our big budget Christmas movie of choice “Nosferatu” (yep) and ate a square ton of buttered popcorn and I went to bed feeling sick and full as a tick.

(“Nosferatu” was interesting. I suppose I was expecting it to be a straight Dracula retelling but over our brewery dinner debrief, Brandon educated me that the original version was actually a ripoff of Bram Stoker, which explained the changes (England to Germany, different character names, some characters changed, amalgamated or removed altogether, etc.) I enjoyed all the key performances- Lily-Rose Depp gave an impressive turn in a role that was originally intended for Anya Taylor-Joy and showed she’s more than a nepo baby. I thought she was eerily reminiscent of Keira Knightley. Nicholas Hoult was also impressive (hard to forget, though, that he was the gawky kid from “About a Boy” and quite goofy in The Great (HUZZAH)) and Willem Dafoe always serves. Bill Skarsgård was a fine Count Orlak although in certain lights he sort of seemed like a demonic Omar Sharif as Zhivago and I’d kind of like to see him take on a totally different role next time – how about a romantic lead? I think he’s playing the Crow soon so that may scratch that itch.)

This morning we were up early to take Brandon to the airport as he’s headed out for a weekend with family. After I got home from the airport drop I got out for a three mile run. It’s mild and damp here in Southeast Michigan and the dark-eyed winter junco birds don’t quite know what to do with themselves. I came home with mud splattered up to my calves; I made more coffee, had a hot shower, got back into pajamas, and pulled out my old copy of “The Gentle Art of Domesticity” and my knitting.

I am looking forward to being full feral while he’s gone. There’s always the niggling feeling that I should be participating in some form of capitalism during this time off but for once in my life I’m going to ignore that. There’s a frozen pizza in the freezer, I have a ton of Vlogmas to catch up on, the kid has soccer and mall returns and exchanges, and I’d like to finish one more book in 2024*. I need to make progress on knitting my Christmas socks before I get sick of Christmas colors! There will be time to catch up on emails and bills next week, move into my 2025 Hobonichi, and feel dissatisfied that I haven’t monetized any hobbies. In the meantime, as Nicholas Hoult would say whilst playing one of his other acting roles, huzzah!

*Stay tuned next week for my Big Book Recap of 2024 which may or may not be interesting to fellow book lovers!

happy solstice

Leave a reply

I usually like to celebrate the winter solstice with some sort of outdoor activity- a walk in the woods, a run, a hike – but today we hosted my best friend and her husband for a solstice brunch. I’m officially off now until 2025 and ready to go into full goblin mode but seeing my best friend (since the age of seven) and exchanging our small heartfelt gifts was so deeply good for my soul.

I’m not the best hostess but this morning I think the brunch was perfect. I served this frittata (made with mushrooms, sausage, onions and cheddar jack cheese) and this baked French toast with fresh fruit, bacon, and scones and of course had pots of fresh hot coffee. We ate in the pale solstice light with candles and Christmas carols on the radio and laughed and swapped stories. It was a great way to celebrate the return of the light and the turn of that greatest old wheel.

the last one of 2023

Leave a reply

I’ve been off since the 22nd and while I really appreciate a nice, long break, I’m glad that the New Year is here and things can get back to normal(ish). I didn’t have any goals for the break except to spend time with my family and my best friend, to sleep and eat and run and read, and meditate, and knit, and I did all of those things except not as much knitting as I’d have liked. We celebrated Brandon’s birthday on Christmas, with pastries from the new bakery in town, Cannelle, and back-to-back viewings of ‘A Christmas Carol’ (the 1980’s version with George C. Scott, which is my favorite) and ‘Scrooge’ (the 1970’s musical with Albert Finney, which is Brandon’s favorite). We love them each for very different reasons. I finished my last couple of books for 2023 (‘The Running Grave’ by Robert Galbraith and the last two of Naomi Novik’s ‘Scholomance’ trilogy), I watched ‘Serpent Queen’ on Starz and that spiraled me into a Tudor binge watch that hasn’t quite run it’s course yet. I ran several days, but not as many as I’d have liked.

I had a great meet-up with my lifelong bestie yesterday, which was deeply needed. I am a true introvert so getting out of the house first thing in the morning made me horribly grumpy, especially with Sarge (my big cat) curled up more or less on top of me, nestled in the duvet and begging me to stay put. But my friend Kat and her husband are a tonic, with tales of their big old house and big families and shared bird-watching and crafting excitements.

Brandon went to North Carolina for a couple of days to visit his parents, and I had some fantastic time with my daughter. She’s been meeting friends at the gym / rec center every day to work out and I’ve been driving her and we sing Taylor Swift and then eat together and she disappears into her room to FaceTime and read and do her teenage things and I turn on some anglophile viewing and settle down with a cat and some Chianti.

Today is the last of 2023. I slept in to strange dreams of my coworkers, their kids and grief and switching watches with them, one of them dressed as a beautiful toy soldier with her hair curling over her shoulders, to the accompaniment of a man in a grocery store singing ‘Sundown’ by Gordon Lightfoot on a grand piano. I have to pick Brandon up at the airport this evening and I have a bounty of Italian goodies from Cantoro’s Italian Market for our dinner. The kid will make an appearance to eat her tiramisu and help Brandon pop the cork on our favorite low-budget champagne (‘not champagne sparkling wine since it doesn’t come from the Champagne region of FRANCE’) – Cook’s, $13 Spumante. And we’ll probably fall asleep well before 12 and wake up tomorrow to the biggest Sunday scaries of the year on a Monday, strip the house of the lights and bows and baubles and boughs, and we’ll start 2024.

Happy New Year to any of you who still read this weird little space. See you in 2024.

this is pretty much the most snow we’ve had in december this year and it quickly vanished

christmas 2021

Leave a reply

Christmas Eve was a girls’ day – Brandon had a family party a couple of hours away and the kiddo and I stayed home. She has recovered so well from surgery but was still a bit unsteady, and it was good for us to just be quietly home together and “vibe” – as she said. We have to be careful with not getting water in her ear so I washed her hair in the kitchen sink, we had a merry fire even though it was stupidly balmy outside, made nachos, watched a Marvel movie and ate some Christmas cookies. When Brandon got home that night we played Clue and finished up last-minute wrapping and stockings. In bed late.

Christmas morning was very mellow – the teenager slept til about 930 – no more the days of her being up at 5 tearing into her bright boxes and bags under the tree. Brandon made breakfast, we had coffee and cinnamon rolls while we watched the gorgeous buck who graced us with his presence in our yard all morning long. When everyone was up we opened presents and laughed at the cats adrift in the sea of wrapping paper and later that morning I took the kiddo over to her dad’s.

Brandon and I did our traditional Christmas Day run – it was muddy and we had lead legs but it still felt fine to be out. And I need to say that he was absolutely wonderful for the entire holiday. He knew that the Christmas spirit never really landed with me this year so he quite happily organized his own cake and special Christmas birthday dinner (crabmeat Mac and cheese). There is never anything from him except simple good cheer and pleasure in whatever the day brings, which is a true gift in a partner. After the morning presents and run, he was perfectly content to have a quiet day at home with me and watch Christmas movies (A Castle for Christmas starring Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes was terrible and perfect for my mood and he also got to watch his traditional favorite, Scrooge with Albert Finney). Later that night we took a walk in the gothic, damp-foggy darkness to look at Christmas lights and wash the fug of warmth, rich foods and scented candles from our lungs.

I wasn’t depressed, exactly, just sort of subdued. It’s been a rough year. But the holiday was still special thanks to my partner and daughter who made everything bright and funny and full of gratitude for me.

This last week of the year is my favorite- between Christmas and New Year’s when you can’t quite figure out what day it is and you have time to putter and get stuck into weird projects that you don’t otherwise have time for. On Boxing Day I mopped all the hardwood floors and put away and organized all of our wrapping paper, bows, tags, bags and ribbons in bins in the basement (we don’t need to buy wrapping paper for a decade, now that I see it all in one location). I’m technically off work but still have a contract to review at some point and I try to check emails every day or every other day to keep my inevitable return to work somewhat manageable. But otherwise, I’ll be knitting and reading, trying to fit in a few runs or workouts, and we’d like to head over to Ann Arbor and Detroit a couple of museum and shopping trips.

I hope you all had a merry holiday and have time this week to take stock. And that you get to do exactly what you want with your holiday decorations- spirit them away immediately and start 2022 clean, or keep them up as long as possible. Be well and stay healthy. xo

merry christmas

Leave a reply

The kiddo had a minor ear surgery this week and although everything went well, she has still been my focus. Hence my lack of posting.

I took a long walk on the solstice and admired the low, hazy sun. I thought about the year that has passed and the year to come. I missed my dad and saw wild turkeys and several Eastern Bluebirds.

We finished a Harry Potter movie marathon (Brandon had never seen them) and I’m also very, very into the Witcher and Travel Man with Richard Ayoade. Before the kiddo’s surgery, we saw Kings Man in the theater (it was pretty empty because everyone was next door watching Spider Man) and tried a new-to-us local seafood restaurant. There have also been LOTS of Vlogmasses and although I am really enjoying them I’m heartily sick of the YouTube Christmas songs they all use.

I’ve been running just about every other day, and I finished two books (I started the Josie Quinn series at Steph’s recommendation via her blog) and hope to finish two more before the New Year to pad out my Goodreads total.

Also been knitting. Mostly small fiddly ornaments and although that always starts out fun, I’m about ready to call that quits for another year.

Although I’m feeling a bit disconnected and not very Christmassy, today is Christmas Eve and I’ll spend it with my little family in our cozy home. We’ll make something yummy and fun for dinner and play a board game and then eat cake. And I’ll wake up tomorrow to a bounty of gifts and food and Brandon’s birthday. I am so truly and thoroughly blessed. My love and best wishes for a peaceful and contented holiday go out to each of you and your families. xo

winter break

1 Reply

Miss L had the week off for her winter break so we scampered up north for a few days to visit the folks.

It was pretty cold – a few degrees above zero Fahrenheit- but Miss L still wanted to ice skate at the local rink. She spent a fair amount of time shoveling and sweeping the rink free of snow, which I suppose is an occupational hazard for kids in the northlands.

We also played quite a bit of poker with my folks & tried to get their cats to love us (in vain).

“back the f- up, karen” – tessa

I’m working on a pair of sock yarn mittens – the Mittens to Fit pattern by Slavi Thomsen is a Ravelry pattern and I’m using some old – very old – sock yarn from my stash. (Leftover from legwarmers, it’s Berroco Sox in the now-discontinued Huddersfield colorway.)

I’ve been looking for a sock yarn mitten pattern for awhile and this one is very cute, except as I start the second mitten I am plunging into the unknown. The pattern is written for the right mitten and the pattern note says to be aware to make the thumb on the opposite side for the left mitten, so they fit your hands. There aren’t any other pattern instructions as to how to put the thumb on the opposite side. I assume that I just reverse the pattern for the increases for the thumb? I’m going to try it. If worst comes to worst, I’ve tried the right mitten on my left hand and it seems to look fine, so maybe if I utterly can’t figure it out I can just knit two “right” mittens but if any crafty knitters know how to do this, please leave it in the comments!

My mom made a great Bay City ham and sent us home with a big container of leftovers so once we got home I put a pot of white bean and ham soup simmering on the stove for dinner.

The great thing about a vacation in the early part of the week is that you get back and it feels like a Monday but here it is Friday and I only have one day of calls and catch-up before the weekend! It is warming up into the mid-20’s F. here so Brandon and I are going cross-country skiing tomorrow – it’s my first time and I can’t wait! What are you up to with your weekend?

Be well and enjoy. xoxo

PS – I also wanted to share the great news that one of my favorite vlogs – A Simple Swedish Life, about a Korean / Swedish family living in Stockholm – now has an Instagram account. His vlog is simple, silent, about the Swedish lifestyle, and his imagery is minimalist and striking. His subject matter is heartwarming and pure, especially when he features his cooking, musings, his wife, and his 1.5 year old son. Please go follow @asimpleswedishlife if you have an IG account – well worth it. Thank you!!