Right after Easter lunch my family packed up and headed to Santa Fe, New Mexcio! Our road trip began with a quick stop in Hutchinson, Kansas to see my Grammy and Pop’s childhood homes and then the next morning we made our way to our Airbnb outside of Santa Fe. Our trip was filled with good food, hiking & lots of time relaxing at the house. Here are a few snapshots from our Airbnb to kickoff the trip!
Diptychs 59
Diptychs 58
Cross Country Skiing at Turkey Hill
I spent New Years’ weekend at Turkey Hill with my family. My mom and I went cross country skiing around our property two times — it was so beautiful and I was amazed at how much the scenery changed each day. The second morning there was a hoarfrost which made all the pine trees look like real life flocked Christmas trees! It was the perfect way to kick off the new year.
2020 Best Nine
I somehow skipped last year but I’m happy to be sharing my best nine from 2020 today! It is truly impossible to sum up 2020 with any combination of social media posts. It was a year of many lows and challenges for all of us. This year, more than any other year in my recent past, was spent with my immediate family. There was less travel than I had planned and MUCH more time at home, but these photos do reflect a few highlights:
This year I worked from home from mid-March through December. While there isn’t an end in sight to this WFH life yet, there were some amazing projects and learnings that came from re-imagining my daily work life. Pictured is chalk art I created for Hallmark spreading positivity in a time where we needed it more than ever!
This year Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected! While a highlight, there is still much work to be done and divisive challenges to work through. There is also a vital need to keep up the work led by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dale and I celebrated five years of marriage! Our plans were to spend a week in Santa Fe. While that trip didn’t happen our outdoor appetizers at Campground and outdoor dinner at Plate in KC were just as special.
Dale matched at KU Med for his Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship! I’m so proud of all the work he has put in over many years to get to this point in his career. It is an unbelievably strange year to match in Pulm Crit Care and he amazes me every day with his dedication to his patients.
I was still able to participate in some amazing extra projects for Hallmark this year! They included helping with this mural for Children’s Mercy Hospital led my my friends Meredith and Matt. It was a much needed bit of normalcy to work on a creative group project (safely outside!).
My grandparents (Grammy & Pop) celebrated 60 years of marriage!! This is one of the days I’m most grateful for this year. So much work went into safely celebrating with our family this summer and I will never forget it!
My sister Sophie got engaged to the best guy, Alex, this year! I can’t wait to be a matron of honor in her wedding next summer and helping her find her dress was another highlight of 2020!
Dale and I managed to take a road trip to Colorado in September. I’ve shared lots of photos here on the blog and it was an amazing escape from reality for a week. I know that I will forever be extremely grateful for any opportunity to travel after this year.
We also fit in a sister staycation in Brookside this summer! I had really been missing the pool this summer so we rented an Airbnb in our neighborhood that had a pool and had the best day swimming, relaxing, and playing Catan.
The moments that aren’t pictured really are hard to sum up. Covid changed all of our lives significantly and while the year ended with Dale receiving the first dose of his vaccine those who have lost family and friends this year have been on my mind a lot. I hope that we can stay strong through 2021 in order to save lives and see a much different recap of this coming year!
December Around The Web
December flew by! This year Dale and I celebrated all month long with advent gifts/activities we planned for each other. It really helped bring some extra joy to this strange holiday season! We also celebrated my mom’s birthday with a luminary walk, Holiday Mart wrapped up with some awesome events including a virtual flower arranging event, and my family did an outdoor cookie exchange. Christmas both felt totally normal and completely different as we moved our celebrations outside, into garages and over zoom. This month around the web I loved getting glimpses of how others decorated this year, especially this dreamy curtain/wreath situation in Kelly’s daughters’s room:
Along the same lines, I loved Brighton’s roundup of holiday traditions. Ours remained mostly the same this year but I hope that Christmas Eve tamales continue for years to come!
Dale and I made these gingerbread cookies and they turned out great!
Carly has me inspired to try making a needlepoint ornament sometime. Julia also had beautiful needlepoint stockings made this year!
Mantle inspiration from The Makerista
My mom received this book for Christmas. We would love to visit the Chateau someday!
Already really liking these pillowcases. An affordable silk option!
One of my favorite Christmas gifts!
Beautiful NYE inspiration, even for at home!
This looks like the perfect recipe to try in January.