November Recap
Written while simultaneously decorating for Christmas.
Hales’ Happenings
What I’ve been up to
I took a couple trips back home this month, one to celebrate my dad’s birthday and the other to enjoy a non-traditional Thanksgiving meal with a side of competitive bowling. While sifting through things in the basement, my dad found a book that my grandmother made for me before she got dementia. I don’t have many memories of my grandmother, mostly that she was a harsh Norwegian woman who made a lot of lefse. She wrote to me every day for a year telling stories from her childhood living a simple yet hard life on a farm in North Dakota and of my dad’s childhood with his older and twin sisters. She wrote in detail describing her mother pouring melted butter in her ears to cure ear aches, casting her first vote for president Truman, and rolling weeds in paper to smoke behind the barn with her brothers. I’d never seen photographs of my dad as a child before, which made me emotional. I love finding little family treasures like this.
Work is really bumming me out. Classic tale of an underfunded urban public school with burnt out staff in survival mode (insert lowly shrug). My coworkers and I are coping by impulsively buying concert tickets over our lunch breaks. We even tried to see that super sad movie everyone was talking about, We Live in Time, to have a good cry but we all came out dry-eyed. The second-hand trauma we experience from work has us nuuuuuumb.
The holiday festivities have begun!
Emily and I found and chopped down a couple of perfectly imperfect Christmas trees to light up our little condos.
Thomas came back to town for a festive bar crawl around Uptown! Sending out a petition soon to get him to move back permanently...
DJ hosted his traditional Friendsgiving party, which is my favorite holiday celebration year after year. The true Minnesotans (me) were disappointed to hear we couldn’t play flag football this year due to some frigid temps, but I’m confident I’ll be back throwing interceptions next year. DJ delivered his State of the Friendship address (to which I get choked up every year thinking about how #blessed I am with the best humans that feel like family) and then we hit up Northeast for some espresso tinis and local “entertainment” including darts and bar regulars drunkenly playing Coldplay on the piano.
I caved and joined cookbook club! Which is really just a perfect excuse to get a bunch of gals together to share laughter and a meal. I whipped up some fancy Brussels sprouts and it took me 3 days to do all the dishes afterwards. Worth it!
5 star reviews
What I’ve been loving
Soy Sienna candles- my vintage treasure hunting/candle making friend, Sienna, makes beautiful candles! Hint hint wink wink if you need a Christmas gift for someone special or wish to bring more light into your home during these short winter days.
Cozy workouts (ie. lazy workouts)- for when leaving the house when it’s pitch black out at 5pm feels impossible. I put on sweatpants, light a few candles, drink a glass of red wine as pre-workout, and do one of Megan Roup’s low impact workouts in my living room. No shirt, no shoes, no problem.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich- the best fall read written by my favorite Native American author. She owns the cutest little book shop across the street from my school, Birchbark Books, which is where the story takes place.
Wicked the movie- genius. magical. perfection. My sister accidentally bought tickets in 3D (lol I haven’t seen a movie in 3D since Spy Kids…), but as Bob Ross would say, there are only happy accidents.
Yoke Lore- an absolute freak of a dancer with an electric banjo! He played a song called “Tom Robbins”, which he’ll never record because it’s so special for him to perform it live. The real Tom Robbins is an author who wrote Yoke Lore’s favorite book, Still Life with Woodpecker, to which he asks the reader over and over again “how do you make love stay?”. It’s at the top of my reading list now.
Things I Googled This Month
Simultaneously hilarious and humbling
“Idina Menzel lookalikes”- I thought her and Kathryn Hahn were one in the same, smh.
“hone in or home in”- upset that the proper saying is “home in” when referring to focusing on something.
“Great Lakes surfing”- in another life, I’d be a surfer on America’s third coast.
“car won’t start after getting broken into”- ‘twas a bad week…
“how much do Hallmark actors make?”- not enough for Chad Michael Murray to be in all of them!
“The Funnies”
My mom mails me newspaper comic clippings like best friends dm each other memes…
See you back here next month! Sending all my Christmas joy your way!
Much love <3