All of November I was looking forward to the end of the month, when I would get to head back to the wonderful state of rainfall and evergreen trees. I taught my last segment of labs, including a Lunary Observing lab and one on Extrasolar planets. I completed two and half projects (with the other half of one project to be finished once I returned). In addition, Alex and I celebrated our fourth anniversary. November was a busy month, but finally Thanksgiving arrived and it was time to head back to Washington!

It was wonderful to feel the chill in the air as we stepped out of the airport, Alex and I both sighed as we crossed the threshold. Thursday was gloriously rainy, all day. I found myself staring out the window to watch the rain or lingering outside just a few seconds longer than necessary before heading back indoors.

This year, Alex and I enjoyed Thanksgiving at his parents house with my parents and most of his extended family. There was much joking, game playing and catching up to do, there was even some entertaining rounds of karaoke!

Past the holiday, we were kept busy with movie outings, Christmas theater, gift wrapping and a Christmas-y craft. This craft has been a tradition within my mom’s family for several years. The day after Thanksgiving, to get into the Christmas spirit, everyone would get together to do a themed craft. The past few years my mom has put much effort into organizing and preparing for the crafts and this year she gathered all the equipment for us to make our own mason jar luminaries! I have a lot of fun with this craft and value the time spent with my family being creative.

Alex and I did have time to make it to an old haunt, a coffee shop called Latte Da. If you had seen an earlier post, discussing the lack of quality coffee shops in the Phoenix/Tempe area, you can imagine my delight when we happened to stop by when one of my favorite baristas was working  – he makes the
prettiest looking lattes and I’m sure to compliment him whenever we cross paths.

Sunday morning we even had the opportunity to meet with some friends for brunch. Alex and I had recently attended their wedding back in August but since then hadn’t been able to catch up. It was wonderful to see them and hear about what’s been going on in their lives. They certainly contribute to the home-y feel of the Pacific Northwest. Hopefully the next time we visit we will have the time to venture to Seattle to see more friends.

In between the scheduled activities, we indulged in endless amounts of pie and soaked up the atmosphere (almost literally with all that rain!)

It was great to go back and we’re both looking forward to going back for Christmas.