I made it home for the holidays to a meager snow storm (as you can see from this backyard photo). Still, it’s great to be home after a semester abroad in Vienna, Austria.

I love the peacefulness of being in North Dakota. Yes, it’s cold and freezing and windy, and you just about feel like your nose is going to fall off if you’re outside for more than 60 seconds (or else your nose freezes shut and you have to breathe out of your mouth), but there is something so serene about the cold. It a forcing function for calming down, staying in, and sitting down the fire to read a good book or do something thinking about the past year, of if you’re like my mom, a chance to do some delicious baking to warm up the house with the smell of gingerbread cookies and apple pie!

It’s interesting that when it looks so bleak and severe outside, the house inside is lively and full of color with baking, music, arts and crafts projects, cooking and general Christmas jolliness. It’s like the world knows that you need a break from work or school, or whatever thing stresses you out, and just be in the moment with people you love. While this photo doesn’t exactly say love, warmth and happiness, that’s what I associate with it.