On Skiing, Meaningful Gifting, and 2023 Dreams

Picture this: It’s 11:00am on a Friday, and I’m sitting at my kitchen table doing what I do best: writing. Every so often I look to the window to my right to watch the magic of the snowflakes fall outside. It sounds like a dream, right? A goal for 2023 is to find little moments of joy in every moment of my day. I could have started this blog post with a quick, “It’s snowing outside, I have a long to-do list sitting in front of me, and I haven’t finalized my plans for the weekend.” But where’s the fun in that? Instead, I’m choosing to write about my life like a novelist would. Fake it ’till you make it, right? 

I created a list of [reasonable] goals to accomplish in the upcoming months. I’m happy to say that 20 days into 2023, I have in fact made progress on almost all of them. Skiing was at the top of my list of ‘make it happen’ goals, so when the first Saturday of the year rolled around with no scheduled plans, Anthony and I set our alarm for 5:00am and off we went to Wachusett Mountain. The early morning wake-up gifted us with a sunrise drive and seeing as we were some of the first on the slopes, we were greeted by freshly fallen snow. *I should note, it was not fake snow. It actually snowed the evening prior!* Within a few minutes of being on the mountain, I felt like I had taken no time off. It was Ant’s first time skiing and I had the best time teaching him everything I remembered from ski school… Seeing as I hadn’t skied since high school, I probably wasn’t the most qualified instructor… But after a few tries, he made it down the mountain without falling! And of course, I stood at the bottom of the slope yelling up, “YOU’RE DOING IT! GOOD JOB!” I’m sure people around me thought I was yelling up to a toddler, ha! We’re planning our next ski trip and are hopeful we’ll get around to doing it at least a few times this winter. For now, though, I think we’re just both proud that we made it happen. We had been talking about skiing for years now and to finally get the first run in, it felt good. 

Our holiday season was busy with family. Just in the last week, we’ve finished tossing away the boxes and reading the instructions for certain gifts we received. When the holiday season rolled around this year, I simply could not think of anything I wanted for Christmas. I have everything I want, need, and to be frank, I don’t have the space to collect endless ‘stuff.’ Shoutout to our 550 sq. ft. apartment. But, somehow everyone knew exactly what to get me. I don’t mean to brag, but I felt so grateful this holiday season. Not because I received X number of gifts, but because the gifts I did receive (and give!) were all extremely thoughtful. I’ll keep it short, but a few off the top of my head:

1. An emerald green mixing bowl for my baking endeavors
2. An Airbnb gift card to boost my adventure bug
3. This book about famous writers and where they wrote their best work
4. A Whoville inspired candle. (I do love the Grinch)
5. Socks, because I no longer owned a pair that didn’t have holes…
6. A family-size pack of batteries because somehow, I never have enough. (thanks, Ant!)
7. Amazon gift cards never go to waste.
8. A few puzzles to get us through the dark winter, a number of new ornaments to add to our collection, and a Kindle so I can bring my reading on the go!

The best gift of course, is always the opportunity to spend the holiday with family. But, if you’re in the market for anyone with a post-holiday birthday, I encourage you to find meaning in the gift you’re giving.

Signing off for now, folks. I’ve got a few deadlines to make before this Friday comes to an end. Oh yeah, and if you want to read some of my recent work, here are two pieces I recently wrote for The Knot on Pittsburgh Bridal Shower Venues and Nashville Bridal Shower Venues. x