As quite a few of you know, we had an exciting holiday season and were very happy to spend time with both sides of the family. First, we went to California to get in a quick weekend of sunshine and exchange presents. We were able to see everyone at Grandma and Grandpa's, church, and for dinner with Ron, Marlene, and Steve. Then we had a day back in Eugene before Courtney's mom and sisters came out to see the apartment for the first time (and exchange gifts! Could that large one be a guitar for Cambrie?) and take a tour of the University of Oregon.
Before the Cherry's plane landed in Oregon, Courtney sliced the tip of her finger off making dinner. We waited in the emergency room for four hours before the doctors gave her medicine and bandaged her properly. Since it was the tip, it was unable to be stitched. But it would heal on its own given 3-6 weeks.
That was definitely scary and Courtney was disappointed she'd be unable to make the Christmas/New Year's dinner she'd been planning for weeks. But the good thing about it all is that, under Courtney's supervision, Cambrie was able to make the dinner almost completely by herself and it was a delicious learning experience!
Courtney really loves this time of year when it comes to music and movies. She played our Christmas albums (favorites this year were our vinyl 'That's Christmas to Me' by Pentatonix and 'Joy to the World' by Pink Martini) and watched Christmas movies (Love Actually, Elf, and many Rankin-Bass classics) and drank tea and hot chocolate from our special holiday mugs. Here are some pictures of our apartment decorated for Christmas!
Two miniature trees in the entry-way
The wall of Christmas cards!
To end this recap post, I'd like to say that in lieu of traditional "New Year's resolutions" we like to make a list of our top ten highlights and one of Courtney's is the amount books she read. There's a list of them below, although she says she thinks she forgot to record some of the non-fiction books since they were in her old planner.
Books read January 2015-December 2015
-Elizabeth Warren's 'Fighting Chance'
-Michael Hasting's 'The Last Magazine'
-Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D Levitt's "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything"
-Amy Poehler's 'Yes, Please'
-Brady Udall's 'The Lonely Polygamist'
-Takuji Ichikawa/Terry Gallagher's 'Be With You'
YA books
-Colin Meloy's 'Wildwood Imperium'
-Veronica Roth's 'Four'
-Louise Rennison's 'Withering Tights' and 'Midsummer Tights Dream'
-Jane Yolen's 'Briar Rose'
-Elissa Sussman's 'Stray'
-Suzanne Selfors' 'The Sweetest Spell'
-Sarah Pinborough's 'Poison'
-Rainbow Rowell's 'Landline' and 'Attachments'
-Trenton Lee Stewart's 'The Mysterious Benedict Society' 'TMBS and the Perilous Journey' 'TMBS and the Prisoner's Dilemma' 'The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict'
-Mary Rose Wood's 'The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling' 'TICofAP: the Interrupted Tale' 'TICofAP: the Hidden Gallery' 'TICofAP: the Unseen Guest' 'TICofAP: the Unmapped Sea'
-Emily Carroll's 'Through the Woods'
-Renee Ahdieh's 'The Wrath and the Dawn'
-M.A. Larson's 'Pennyroyal Academy'
-Aaron Starmer's 'The Riverman'
-Kathryn Littlewood's 'Bliss' 'A Dash of Magic' 'Bite-Sized Magic: a Bliss novel'
-Angelica Bank's 'Finding Serendipity'
-Glenn Darkin's 'The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance: The Candle Man Book One'
-R.J. Palacio's 'Wonder' 'Julian's Story' '365 days of Wonder: Mr Browne's precepts'
-Soman Chainani's 'The School of Good and Evil' 'A World Without Princes' 'The Last Ever After'
-Kimberly Griffiths Little's 'The Time of the Fireflies'
-Nikki Loftin's 'The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy'
-Django Wexler's 'The Forbidden Library' 'The Mad Apprentice'
-R.C. Lewis' 'Stiching Snow'
-Jonathan Auxier's 'The Night Gardener'
-Shannon Hale's 'The Princess Academy'
-Merrie Haskell's 'The Castle Behind the Thorns'
-Kate Milford's 'The Greenglass House'
-Diana Wynne Jones' 'Enchanted Glass'
-Heather Vogel Frederick's 'Absoluetly Truly: A Pumpkin Falls Mystery'
-Margi Preus' 'Enchantment Lake: A North Woods Mystery'
-Natalie Lloyd's 'A Snicker of Magic'
-Ingrid Law's 'Savvy' 'Scumble' 'Switch'
-Megan Frazer Blakemore's 'The Friendship Riddle'
-Gary D. Schmidt's 'Orbiting Jupiter'
-Holly Lisle's 'The Ruby Key' 'The Silver Door'
-Jessica Spotswood's 'Born Wicked'
-J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' 'HP and the Chamber of Secrets' 'HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban' 'Beetle the Bard'
