a week in the life...

The house is quiet this warm December Sunday afternoon. This afternoon we’ll head off to the Christmas Chapel with tea afterwards. This week has flown by very fast for me. Nate proctored and graded exams, finished up comments and other math department stuff while the kids and I had a string of social events. Monday was the regular ‘recover from the week-end’ laundry, dishes, cleaning, cooking, picking up toys, and the never-ending diaper washing (to name a few activities). Tuesday I packed the kids up and we joined several friends taking taxis to Radha Bhavan. I’d never been there before, but it is a huge mansion on the mountain ridge across town that now lies in ruins. Floors and ceilings have caved in leaving tall roofless walls sticking out of the seemingly fertile mounds of rubble. There were tall plants growing up in front of fireplaces and in doorways. At one point I wandered into the middle of several rooms, realized that the floor in much of that part of the mansion had caved in, and panicked slightly upon realizing that I wasn’t sure which way was out. I couldn’t see any of the people we came with, but managed to pick my way back to the outside carefully. I noticed several marks on the walls that match the electrical wiring and outlets, and made me realize that it couldn’t be that long ago that the place was lived in. Now it looks like it is hundreds of years old and hasn’t been occupied in ages. It was a neat outing. There was a hilltop where we could sit and see the view all around – the snow peaks lying on the horizon in contrast to the valley thousands of feet below us. We could even see our school buildings and TV tower in the distance on a far ridge.

Wednesday was our last Christian Fellowship time of the semester – it’s been a neat group to be a part of and we spent the evening praying and singing Christmas carols together. Thursday we had four senior boys over for supper. They had asked Nate if they could come over for supper and to study Calculus, and they also enjoyed looking at our books: MC Escher, optical illusions and magic eye. These are the most popular books on our shelf when the students come over (smile). On Friday, four junior girls joined us for lunch and we sat and talked about the upcoming holiday, exams that were over, and what next semester will bring. That night I was up late baking lussekatter – a Swedish bread served on Santa Lucia day- Dec 13. Will and I woke Nate up with singing, a candle, and tea. Will thought we should sing ‘happy birthday’, but by the time we got to Annie’s crib, he had caught the spirit of things and handed Annie a lussekatter saying, “here Annie- this is for you!” She happily sat down hanging her legs out between the crib rails, and bit into it- they’re both getting the hang of our crazy traditions. For breakfast/fika, we had invited neighbors over and a few other people we thought might enjoy the Swedish holiday. We all sat around for a couple of hours just enjoying hanging out, sipping warm drinks and eating home-made Swedish breads and cookies. It was a really nice way to start the day. We had a relaxing day (except for Nate who spent the afternoon grading), and then we went out to a restaurant with a group of friends for a birthday dinner. Will was such good company through it all, but Annie was distraught that she couldn’t be home in her bed sound asleep. If we think of it next time, we’ll get a babysitter, I think, but this week’s busy-ness got the better of us and we weren’t that organized this time.

Anyway, that should catch you up on life here, (since my mother at least is probably curious why we’ve been so out of touch!) Nate is so loving to host all kinds of events with me and attend even more events. (hahaha – Microsoft Word is telling me that I should write: Nate so loves to host…, but that wouldn’t be true at all!) Our honeymoon keeps going on and on- we’re nearly at 4.5 years of marriage, and it’s such a treat to be his girl.
Well, happy Santa Lucia day and 3rd Sunday of Advent! It’s been a good week here and I’d better start getting things together for going to the Chapel service in a couple of hours.