holiday catch up

hi friends. sorry for the hiatus. this thing called christmas break happened. it was awesome. it was glorious to have three weeks off from work. i needed it. lots of good things happened. i'll show you:

1. first off seth (my neighbor and co-chicken owner) and i put to rest our rooster foghorn leghorn and one of my moms. we haven't cooked him up yet, but some coq-au-vin in on the docket.
2. i made owlie ornaments for my advisees and family!
3. i made lots of cookies.
4. the very very best part of the break was my sister friend adah and i pulled off the best and most super secret surprise ever by flying her home for christmas without telling our parents. they had NO idea. they thought she was in florida until two days before christmas when they dropped by to see me and found two girls instead of one snuggled in my bed. it was so great. they both cried like babies. then we just laid around in my bed for an hour or so laughing and talking, and proceeded to have a great time together for the next week. we only wish my big sis wese could have been a part of the surprise too! but she didn't have it too bad in latvia, which you can read about here.
5. christmas eve we always go to the candlelight service at the presbyterian church that includes readings from the bible, lighting the advent candles and the christ candle, lots of great music- including a gorgeous handbell choir, and ends with all the lights off and everyone holding a lit candle singing 'silent night' and taking their candles outside to place in the snow. i love it. it's one of my most favorite traditions.
6. christmas morning was so great! davey baby spent christmas with us (since he's part of the family and all) and it was so fun to have him here. i got up and made my (new) traditional christmas coffee cake out of this great christmas tree pan ash and dlass gave me a few years ago. we ate slowly, talked and eventually (around 1pm got around to presents). i knit a lot of presents this year, adah loved the mittens i made her!
7. a few days after christmas i was off for my annual trek to nyc to see sisters and friends. i took my friend mark along as he'd never been to the city before. we had a great trip and it was so so great to see my dear friends. some highlight were snow in the city one morning (which made for a great walk in central park), new years at courtney's in brooklyn, seeing fela! an awesome afrobeat show on broadway, watching some of laurel's rehearsals with the trisha brown dance company, seeing jesse, LOTS of good food, spending time with adah and her darling man luke, and an awesome church service at the cathedral of st. john the divine. i only took this photo of this neat fountain in the detroit airport, but mark took lots of awesome shots that you can see here.
8. now i'm back and just finished the first week of school. phew! it's still snowy and pretty here and i'm going to go cross country skiing in a few hours and can't wait. i bought myself some tulips the other day to remember that spring will come. plus i love flowers. i hope you all are starting your new year off right! xoxo