I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving! Let’s jump into one of my favorite monthly rituals.

What I’ve Been Up To:

My season has officially wound down, but that doesn’t mean it’s been quiet over here.

In November I finished all of my scheduled work, but I also booked several weddings, and proposal inquiries for the holidays are rolling in. I may or may not have some amazing work coming this winter, so be on the lookout!

If you’ve been following along, you might have seen that we roadtripped to Detroit and back in 3 days for my cousin’s wedding. Are we crazy? Admittedly, yes. But we did survive, and we even had fun along the way.

On our way out, we spent the night in Niagara so that the kids could see the falls for the first time.

I’ve been before during the day, and I think the nighttime lights make the experience even more special. Niagara had a bunch of Christmas trees and decorations out in the park adjacent to the falls, so the walk back with twinkling lights and the mist of the falls kissing our cheeks was much more magical than I originally planned. Serendipity strikes again!

We rode the Niagara SkyWheel, which the kids absolutely loved. They liked the falls, but they also found the dinosaur mini golf course equally fascinating. What’s a feat of nature against giant prehistoric statues when you’re a preschooler?

The next day we finished the drive to Detroit, crashed my aunt’s Airbnb, and were graciously fed chicken nuggets and blackberries by another one of my cousins while he was in the middle of getting his own kids ready (a million thanks to Sean!)

We then went to the wedding and stayed until Esmie couldn’t stand anymore. After, we got in the car and drove straight back–that’s the crazy part. We did make good time with the kids sleeping all night.

But the amount of dead deer on the highway in Pennsylvania definitely made me feel uncomfortable. It could be that the panic-induced-adrenaline helped keep me awake while driving, but I don’t think I see myself trekking through Pennsylvania during witching hours again. I like my SUV deer free, thank you very much.

All that to say, we did have lots of fun, we got home safely, but it was a wild experience.

While I’m not heading out as often for photography right now, there’s still a lot happening behind the scenes during the off season. I have a huge goal list I’m chipping away at, and I’m also excited for all of the new client meetings popping up. It’s such a fun time in the lifecycle of a wedding photographer!

And, Esmie turned 3! We’ve had the best time celebrating her between friends coming over, family dinner, and Thanksgiving. It’s hard to believe she’s getting so big so quickly, which is both cliche and true.

What I’ve Been Reading:

I’m currently in the middle of No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister. It focuses on one story, a novel called Theo, and all of the different people that interact with that story.

So far, each chapter features someone new. The story starts with the author, and then moves around to different people all living wildly different lives.

Like I always say, I can’t tell for certain if it’s a worthwhile while I’m still in the middle. But right now, I really am enjoying the book.

It feels like a celebration of the vast human experience that changes with each different person a story finds itself in front of, and it’s quaint and charming.

If you’re a lover of stories in general, you might find this one heartwarming. But don’t blame me if it takes a turn, hah! You can always check my Goodreads or Fable (I really want Fable to overtake Goodreads, sorry!) or my monthly book roundups on my Instagram to catch my final thoughts.

What I’ve Been Watching

I’m two episodes away from finishing The Summer I Turned Pretty. I do have to say that season 3 sucked me right back in. I felt bored by season 2, but the story definitely picks back up again with the latest installment.

I still think the movie ending is silly… just make a few more episodes and call it finished. But props to Jenny Han for the book sales and Amazon Prime money.

What I’m Excited About:

If you haven’t made your own list, I really think you should! Pausing and remembering all of the good heading your way definitely sweetens the day to day moments in all the busyness.

-The last few days of my album sale! I love seeing people hold their printed memories for the first time. In our digital era, this is something that most people don’t understand, but once they experience it, they don’t know how they almost missed it. The sale makes the albums a bit more accessible, which is an added perk.

-Celebrating my niece’s birthdays! We have a lot of fall and winter babies in our family, so the birthday celebrations are really ramping up. I’m grateful that most of my family has birthdays in the off season so that I get to celebrate with them. I have a nephew who also has his own birthday in December, so that’s exciting, too!

-Dillon’s birthday is also in December! We’ve been starting to make plans for his celebration, and I can’t wait to spend some extra time cherishing the one I love!

-Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and all of the celebrations in between. We spend out Christmas Eve first at a service at our home church, Westgate. But then we head home, and everyone gets a book to enjoy. Dillon and I get the kids into their new Christmas jammies (we are those people), and once they’re settled, we write letters to each other. We reflect on the year we just had, we write our hopes and excitements for the next year down, and add in any extra messages we want to share with each other. We swap letters, read them, and look back on our past letters. We also exchange books and read the rest of the evening away. Our church has a casual morning service–pajamas highly encouraged–and then we have the rest of the day to ourselves. We will be celebrating with our families as well, but those plans are still coming together.

-New Year’s Eve. We aren’t huge New Years people, but I do still like to sip some Martenelli’s. I tend to make season goals for my business, and we have seasonal goals in our marriage coaching. So I’m not a let’s get down to business type person come January 1. Still, I do recognize that time is passing, and I do want to live intentionally, so I like seeing the excitement around me.

That’s all I can say for now, but a few more noteworthy things may get added to the calendar. I’ll have to tell you all about it next month.

Until then,

Christine