Everyday Memories....

I've noticed that it's sometimes hard for me to remember the little, everyday things that are full of joy and profound meaning - unless I write them down! We've had a gratitude-full and wonder-filled holiday season, starting with seeing family in MI for T-day, and now recently finishing with seeing all kinds of friends and fam around the city and then throughout MN for Xmas and New Yrs. I feel full of bright memories and meaningful moments; a few that I want to be sure to remember include:

- watching Eva tap dance her little heart out with her new shoes, fluffy skirt, (loud) recorder and (hipster) skull cap with the VerHage fam
- opening up our "Petersen Baby May 2012" cookie at Opart Thai
- Eva reading her fave books to herself, and to us, this season (Sergio, Party in Kalamazoo, B-Bears, The Skin You Live In, various Bible stories, etc.)
- Eva playing by the tree like I always did, just to stay close to it
- everyday - but such deeply good - friend time, like making cookies with Danielsons, caroling with Edstroms/crew, dinner with Marxs, soup with Nordlunds, museum with Leah, backyard fire with Bassetts, coffee with Al, late night chats with JR, etc.
- visits to Field and Shedd and Children's Museum in Mpls with Eva, and watching her run to each section with open-hearted joy
- having Bonnie in town for fun and on the run fried rice!
- lunch with mom and talking with dad in Rochester
- best peanut-butter choc blossom cookie batch - ever - a la Mom!
- seeing animated lights with J and K in Mpls
- New Yrs party fun with mustaches, karaoke, and good friends
- SS Advent series with various music, space to listen, and hearing tender/wise thoughts from others
- Eva getting into the season by dressing up as Santa Lucia, playing her first part in a play as a little angel in the church Christmas story, and attending Santa Lucia at the Swedish museum - insisting that we walk with the mile-long parade of candles and lights together!
- watching Eva play fox and goose through snow trails with Gramps, and get out old Barbies and use homemade playdough with Grammy  
- Little Town of Bethlehem at NPCC = unreal!
- Eva's preschool "concert" at her "PBS school" under the arched stained glass windows and twinkling Christmas lights
- seeing Eva delight in carefully crafting paintings, picture frames, sticker pages, etc. as gifts for others; and picking out a sweater that she loved to give to her dad  
- long lunch with Molly and Eric, enjoying so much in common and so much to learn from each other
- playing with Joey (and Jeanne and Paul!), in their sunny, warm and beautiful home
- brunch with Satte and playing in the freezing cold car with Eva ("Now Sarah, you and mom are the girls and I will be the mom that drives us to the museum exhibit," says my three year old!)
- getting jeans that fit and discovering body sugar scrub for dry skin!
- Christmas Day night darts with Bo and Megs, Josh ("Have I seen you since Thailand?"), and having a Bruce sighting :)
- date night with Peter at Zzest, great long car drive conversations, and laughing a lot
- Blue Nativity night, with "The baby Jesus was just light, mom!" and "Why didn't the camel try to eat me?"
- Eva playing baby Jesus with me as Mary and Peter as the manger
- night out for just our family of three, shopping at Red Balloon, getting hot cider at Cafe Latte, and skipping up the sidewalks while singing in the frosty night air
- reading the Christmas story over and over and over to an eager listener/questioner at her bedtime
- drives and chats in the minivan while on the way to Owatonna, the airport, and around town with my fave Seattle family members
- walking around my home town and seeing the old/familiar and the new/surprising with equal delight
- Eva asking, "Mom, does God love monsters too?" 
- driving while watching E dance to the music in the back seat, singing her heart out, along with "Do You Hear What I Hear?" - and then knowing she will always crescendo to a loud finish, with her arms flung wide open, "He will bring, us, goodness, and LIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!"

Grateful for this Fall...

- Baking fresh peach and apple crisp
- Beautiful fall wedding on University of Chicago's campus
- Boots, sweaters and wraps
- Warm sun on the porch in the mornings
- Pool, pretzels, drinks and laughing with twenty-somethings who graciously included our three year old
- Family-made empanadas and truffles just down the block
- Soft blankets, nose nuzzles and cuddling
- Bedtime with Eva
- Finally making friends with the local UPS store
- Puddle jumping
- Morning prayer in Celtic prayerbook
-12 years of marriage to an amazing man
- Berenstein Bears books
- Lots of new babies being born into the world this season
- Crunchy leaves at the playground
- Eva's declaration that she wants to be a ballet teacher when she grows up
- Free training sessions with fun strangers at the gym
- Lasagna, chili, and homemade soup
- Striped umbrellas and jean jackets
- Discovering Almond cake
- Afternoons in Evanston
- Eva putting her arm around my neck on the couch to pull me close
- Laughing in bed in the mornings
- Getting into a preschool routine
- Bookstores and lattes
- Fresh new season full of fall energy

40 Years of Faith, Family and Friends

Another big event this summer was celebrating my parent's 40th Anniversary. We did some celebrating with the whole family out in Seattle, and then Peter and I helped host an open house in Rochester with lots of old and new friends in attendance. It all came together great and was a blast!

It was very cool to see people from my childhood gather and share in the celebration of the values my parents have always worked to embody. I was reminded of those things that most define them, as I thought about what it meant for my parents to reach this forty year milestone. My mom and dad are not perfect - of course no family is - but from the start of their relationship, they centered their relationship on faith, family and friendships. FAITH: They were part of underground Bible studies in college, were fresh-faced evangelists to friends and family members, and knew they were called to be in ministry in the church and to love and serve others. From the beginning, they anchored their relationship and our family's foundation to God and to a local church. That is a big reason that today, I still consider many Salem Rd folks like my extended family; they've known me longer and better then anyone else, and they have always been there and stepped into my life and my story.  FAMILY: Even before they were married, they knew they wanted two kids, and they had names picked out for a girl (Elizabeth Margaret) and a boy (Timothy David).  It is funny to me, now after becoming a parent and naming our firstborn, to think back to when my parents were this age, to realize that they once had kids at this age and that they gave me and my brother our names and the start to our stories. Sometimes I forget that they were at this stage too, that they weren't always "adult parents of adult children." FRIENDS:  From as far back as I can remember, we had people in our house and went to visit and eat with friends at their houses. My parents worked to be hospitable, generous, and welcoming friends, and I remember often heading home from church with a new family who visited following us for a beef roast meal, or dropping off homemade jam/crisp/bread to someone during the week. Even without a lot of financial cushion, my parents valued helping and giving to those with less, which I think has always stuck with me as part of how we live like Christ and love our friends and neighbors. 

Celebrating with my mom and dad on that humid summer day in Minnesota, I felt so much gratitude. I felt the sweetness of remembering the good and the faithful things that my parents and their community had done so well for forty years. I felt the joy of watching children and grandchildren grow and move forward, of the generational movement that my mom and dad have helped advance. And I felt the peace that comes whenever I acknowledge that God is always good, and working for good, in those who love Him and follow Him; and whether it is forty years, or forty minutes, we each have the opportunity to keep learning and relearning how to follow, and love, and be loved by, such a good and gracious God. What a gift! What a thing to celebrate! So thanks mom and dad for giving me so much good in my story.  Thanks be to God.   

There is Nothing Sweeter...

...than hearing your two year daughter laugh and chatter and happily cherish playtime with her daddy. Just outside the closed office door, I hear him join her in pushing dolls in strollers and walking pretend dogs on their leashes and taking amazing and imaginative horse rides; I hear their stories, the places they're visiting, the squeals of glee.

I walk out into the hallway with a broad smile and find super daddy cradling his girl while they rest together, wrapped in warmth within our Christmas-tree-lit living room.

Insert sigh of contentment: here. 

Giving Thanks

We were lucky this year to get to celebrate Thanksgiving with several groups of people - we had a bunch of friends over in Chicago, we saw Alicia and Dave in town for a quick and delicious meal, and then spent time in MN with family, where we also saw my Grandma Marly and caught up with some friends in town at the Danielson's house. Jed also came down for a couple days for family time (appropriately), and we explored a new (to us at least) local hangout that had a fab live band (which reminds me that I need to track down their name...)   

We had a great weekend with Mosbo family and friends over the holiday - here are a few pics from our trip:

This shot was taken during a break in the middle of the jumping/dancing festivities with Bo and Megs!

 Beautiful table!

 The guys...

 ... and the girls! (Minus the little girl who was sleeping.)

Fun with Grammy.

This trip was the first time that Eva seemed to get how time leading up to a drive and time leading up to leaving worked; she would ask how soon we would be there, or how soon til she had to leave. She also talked about going to "Miny - sohta" a lot beforehand - she somehow even has the MN accent down!

Happy start to the holiday season - there is so much to feel grateful for!

(This is a gratitude tree that Eva and I made together; each branch has something written on it to be grateful for.)