2023 in review

Whew, I think 2023 was the busiest year of my life! Two jobs, lots of voluntary editing, numerous conferences. lots of therapy. It's been nice to take a breath when I get a chance!

I've noticed throughout my adult life, there are a few pairs of years that match well with each other:

2008/2009: Mission

2010/2011: BYU winter through summer, working at Church Distribution in the fall

2012/2013: In Provo all year, important editing and geology classes

2018/2019: This Is the Place in the summer, Sundance in the fall

2020/2021: COVID and grad school

It seems that 2023 is going to be a companion year to 2022: working for the Church History Department and being newly out.

So, here is my year in review for 2023! I look forward to making this post all year, every year.

January. My internship at the Church History Department ended, but I started a new part-time position in the department. There were some hiccups in transitioning, though. I took swimming lessons, where I learned to butterfly. I enjoyed hiking in the snow.

I toured Holdman Studios at Thanksgiving Point. I began attending group therapy sessions with other gay men.

February. I continued my swimming lessons. I took a day trip to Bear River Bird Refuge.

I did a Valentine's-themed 5k. I ripped my suit pants on the sacrament microphone, and the next week I spoke in sacrament meeting. I accepted a position with Utah Historical Quarterly, though I didn't start until the next month. I attended a women's history symposium at the Conference Center.

March. I was a judge for National History Day, just days before I started my own position with the Utah Historical Society. I went to the Siamsa festival at the Gateway. On St. Patrick's Day, I went to the National Parks concert all decked out head-to-toe in green.

Too bad my watch isn't green

My grandparents started moving into my sister's house.

April. We continued with my grandparents' move, and we had insane snowstorms. For Easter, I made hot cross buns and jelly bean cookies.

My sister, my niece, and I joined my parents in Virginia for vacation. We took a trip into Delaware and another into Washington DC, and we saw many historic sites in Virginia.

May. I went to North Salt Lake's kite festival. My state job took a walking tour of vintage signs in Sugar House. I did the Splash 'n' Sprint triathlon, but I psyched myself out during the swim. I got some good trail runs in, despite intense spring runoff.

June. My first Pride Month out of the closet! I had a magnificent 13.5-mile trail run. I helped with a service project at Camp Piuta in the Uintas. I went paddleboarding at Yuba Lake. I spent a lot of time editing for Wayfare magazine.

The wildflowers are unreal in June

While pulling goathead weeds, I found a lost wallet and was able to track down the owner and return it.

July. I ran North Salt Lake's Liberty Fest 5k. I made a flag cake for the Fourth of July.

I did more Wayfare editing. I took a trip to California that lasted less than twenty-four hours to escort my niblings home and meet their cat, Pudding. I went to the Pioneer Day drone show at Liberty Park. I went paddleboarding in Farmington Pond.

August. I presented on historical documentation for the Peoples of Utah Revisited symposium. I had a few rattlesnake encounters, including one in the dark when I had to jump over it. I did another service project at Camp Piuta.

September. I went paddleboarding at Pineview Reservoir. I did a very rainy Labor Day triathlon. I enjoyed the beginning of fall trail season.

I attended a live recording of Mormon Land with Richard and Claudia Bushman, and then I attended the Gather conference for LGBTQ+ Latter-day Saints. I got edits back for my Pioneer Day article, so I spent a lot of time reviewing those. I went camping with my family and then saw the National Parks at their Superbloom music festival. I turned thirty-five.

October. I attended the Faith Matters Restore gathering, and we watched the partial eclipse. I had a very busy month, so I relished the trail runs I got in.

My state job took a walking tour of Ogden's 25th Street, and then they sent me to Los Angeles for the Western History Association conference. I loved wearing my Halloween sweaters. 

November. I started the month by editing a book for Faith Matters. I was happy to get an inflatable cornucopia to join my Thanksgiving display. I did some final trail runs of the season.

I went to M. Russell Ballard's funeral. My group therapy ended.

December. I enjoyed the Christmas season.

Reggie liked to chew on the Christmas tree

My Pioneer Day article finally came out! I went to the Lower Lights Christmas concert. My brother's family came to visit for Christmas, and we had enough snow to go sledding once. My job with the Church History Department came to an end, and Wayfare editing resumed.

I'm looking forward to 2024 being a little calmer! But that's not to say that being busy is bad. 

Happy New Year!

Christmastime is here

It's Christmas Eve, and the holidays are in full swing. 

My brother's family arrived on Monday to spend almost two weeks with us for the festive season. It's great to have them here.

The week started with the season finale of Holiday Baking Championship. And now we have to wait two months for Spring Baking Championship.

I am sad it hasn't been a very snowy December. The other day I was doing some yardwork when I heard a little bell. Soon I looked up and saw our neighbors' cat on top of our fence (the cat has a bell on its collar). It hopped off the fence and came up to me, so I got to pet it, and it even let me pick it up for a moment. So cute!

I love the nose.

This year, I decided not to use wrapping paper for my gifts, in part to avoid waste and in part because I don't like wrapping. Since my mom was a teacher, we have an abundance of used gift bags. And for those that didn't fit in gift bags, I used Christmas pillowcases.

I was happy that we managed to get a small snowstorm yesterday, and there was just enough snow that I was able to take my niblings sledding. I like sledding too, but it's not fun all by myself, so I usually only go when they're here. We go to the Eaglewood golf course, which isn't technically allowed, but it's one of those unenforced rules. I found dozens of golf balls. Seeing them peek through the snow felt like finding Easter eggs. 

We have tried to do Christmas activities with my niblings, and they have participated somewhat, but they also are always eager to get back online to play games with their friends. But we want them to enjoy coming here, so we will take what we can get. One of our activities was making sugar cookies, because they wanted to, though they lost interest by the time the decorating came around.

Franklin (15) made the face. Preston (19) made the bicep.

These are the ones I decorated. I will never be on Holiday Baking Championship.

Of course, I love to do these Christmas activities while listening to my Christmas playlist. I was underwhelmed by the new Christmas offerings this year, and I thought that this obscure song by Greg Laswell was the best of the new 2023 Christmas songs. 

 

But then, a Christmas miracle happened! (And no, I'm not talking about the new Mat Kearney song, though that was a pleasant surprise.) You might know that I love the old sunshine pop band the Free Design. Back in 1968, they recorded a Christmas album with the United States Air Force with three original Christmas songs. Two of those songs, "Close Your Mouth (It's Christmas)" and "Christmas Is the Day," were rerecorded and released as singles. But the third, "Shepherds and Wisemen," never was, and the Air Force album has not been rereleased since it originally came out. Thanks to YouTube, I've heard "Shepherds and Wisemen" and loved it, but it was never an official release. But! This week, they released a new version of "Shepherds and Wisemen"! It has the original vocals with a new backing track.

 

There was a lot of fuss about the new Beatles song, "Now and Then," released last month. But for me, this is much more exciting—a "new" Free Design song finally released fifty-five years later! I know this is very niche, but it makes me so happy, and this is my blog, so I can geek out about weird things like that.

I'm soaking in the Christmas season, and I'm just enjoying it for what it is, not having unrealistic expectations about what it should be like. I thought about talking about some more serious things, but I decided to keep it lighthearted.

Merry Christmas!

July in Christmas

As most of you already know, this week I received my copies of the issue of Latter-day Saint Historical Studies with my Pioneer Day article in it. Latter-day Saint Historical Studies is published by Ensign Peak Foundation, an independent organization. Unfortunately, their website doesn't appear to be updated very often, so I'm not sure how people will get access to my article or the latest issue, outside of going to a library. This is my magnum opus so far, so I thought I would share some of the events that led up to its publication.

Most of the issue is about the Church in Hong Kong, so my article seems a little out of place.

Growing up, I was aware of Pioneer Day, but it wasn't one of my officially canonized holidays. However, I did find this journal entry when I was six years old, where I doodled a firework, an American flag, and Utah, so I was aware of what it was about.

When I was a teenager, I would see American flags at Pioneer Day, and I would wonder why, since the pioneers arrived in Mexico. And if American symbols were unacceptable, then there really weren't a lot of decorations or iconography for the holiday, which makes it hard to really observe it in the way I observe other holidays.

In 2013, I was working at BYU Studies on a book about the Tabernacle, and I got a clue that the pioneers might have used American flags in Pioneer Day. So I vowed that if I learned that the pioneers themselves used American symbols in their Pioneer Day festivities, then I would find such imagery acceptable, and I would add it to my canon.

Then in 2014 and 2015, I was looking up information for footnotes for a documentary history about the first decade of settlement in the Salt Lake Valley, including a footnote about Pioneer Day. And I learned that at the very first Twenty-Fourth of July celebration in 1849, they raised a giant American flag and read the Declaration of Independence. So American symbols are totally appropriate for Pioneer Day—especially since there are American flags and an eagle on our (former) state flag. So it became part of my holiday canon in 2015. 

My observance of Pioneer Day is basically a three-week extension of the Fourth of July and a time to focus on Utah history more broadly (even though January is Utah History Month).

In June 2018, while visiting Plymouth, MA, I bought the book Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday. It was fascinating and blew my mind.

Then, after I finished that book, on the Fourth of July, I thought, "The next book I read should be on the history of Pioneer Day." But because of my previous research, I knew there wasn't a book. There were some articles, but no entire books. I thought, "Someone should write a book about it. And that someone could be me."

So I began doing research and compiling information, planning on this book. In June 2019, I was talking with some colleagues, and they suggested I start with an article, then do a book later. An article is much more manageable. During that same period, I decided to apply to grad school, and I thought grad school would make me better qualified to write this history.

I submitted it to a journal in August 2021, and they rejected it pretty quickly. (I later learned from other people that that editor has been rejecting a lot of submissions, so I need not feel personally attacked.)

So I submitted it to another journal, and they asked me to revise and resubmit. (Their suggestions were really important and worthwhile.) I was in the middle of grad school, so it wasn't a priority at the moment. I finally resubmitted it last year—and they rejected it. They said it was well done, but it wasn't a good fit for them. And as I've seen the things they have been publishing lately, I tend to agree with them.

So then I submitted to LDSHS. One of their reviewers suggested accepting it but didn't offer any suggestions. Another reviewer also recommended accepting it, with a few suggestions. They accepted it for publication in May this year.

In September, the editor sent me her edits, so I had to go through and review them, most of which I agreed with. They really made it a better article. I had a very busy September!

And now it's out. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. But I haven't re-read it. It always makes me uncomfortable to read my writing once it's out in the world. (I have been celebrating by eating some of the Utah-themed foods I like to consume around Pioneer Day, with a Christmas twist.)

Maybe one day I will still make it into a book. But that sounds like a lot of work. I want to see how my article is received before I work on expanding my research.

But I do love reading books about the history of holidays. I have read two on the history of Halloween and one on the history of St. Patrick's Day. I have read a book about the first fifty years of the Fourth of July and another about the second fifty years, which were both important context for Pioneer Day. And I've read a book about the fourth-century origins of Christmas, and I'm currently making my way through a book about Christmas in America. And I have a two-volume encyclopedia of articles about various American holidays. It would be fun to add a book of my own to the literature.

I didn't like history in high school and college, because it was all about wars and politics. If that's your jam, great, but I find it boring. Now that I know cultural history is a thing, I actually love history. I think about my former obsession with terrible 1960s sitcoms. There were a few reasons for that, but I can't help but think that part of it was there was a budding historian in me who was interested in old things.

That Thanksgiving book really changed my life. It led me to research Pioneer Day, which was one of a few factors that inspired me to get a master's in history, which in turn has led me to a couple of history jobs.

When I tell people I work in history, sometimes they start going off about how much they love cursive handwriting, and they're sad to see it go.

No. I hate cursive. I'm very glad I can read it, but I hope no one ever writes in it again. I have been transcribing this week with my Church job, and I very much feel this way. So many cursive words are just a series of bumps, and they can be easily misread. For example:

• This says Books, not Porks.
• This says Spirit of God, not Spine of God. 

• This says Iatan, not Satan. 
  
  
  
• This says Bro Perris. 

  

  
  

What a horrible writing system!

I hope this will just be the beginning. My article really is the most comprehensive history anyone has ever written on the topic. There was an article about Pioneer Day as celebrated in the nineteenth century, but mine also covers the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and my section about the nineteenth century is more expansive. There was a dissertation that brought in more stuff from the twentieth century, but it was more a folklore study than a history. And both of those articles were written in the 1990s, so I had more access to digitized sources. All this is to say that I genuinely believe I know more about Pioneer Day than anyone else on the planet at this point.

Christmas culture, etc.

Now that we're fully in the Christmas season, I got to attend two Christmas cultural events this week.

The first was the stage adaptation of White Christmas at CenterPoint Legacy Theatre. I like the movie, but I don't love the movie like other people do. The stage adaptation was OK. I thought the characters were caricatures of their movie counterparts, and there were a lot of unnecessary characters. But they kept the most important songs. (I think "Snow" needs to be a more widely played and recorded Christmas song!)

The second was the Lower Lights Christmas concert at Kingsbury Hall. I began following the Lower Lights in 2012 because Cherie Call, my favorite singer besides Lady Gaga, is part of the group. They're like a supergroup of local musicians. We have been attending their Christmas concerts since 2014, when they were still in the Masonic temple. 

Their concerts are a lot of fun. They just released two new digital-only albums, their first since 2016. They haven't done a Christmas album since 2013, even though it seems they have plenty of material, since they keep singing new Christmas songs. I'm glad they're still going, even though a lot of the band members have left Utah. But I do wish "Silent Night" wasn't the closing song for every Christmas event. The lyrics aren't even good!

Another Christmas cultural thing I did this week was to buy a fruitcake from Parsons' Bakery, because the only fruitcakes I have had have been mass-produced ones. I'm embarrassed to tell you how much I spent on it. But I'm glad I did, so I can have experience with this tradition. I have always thought jokes about fruitcakes are more common than actual fruitcakes. I liked it, but I understand why people don't like them; it definitely would not be something I choose over cookies, pies, or regular cake. But I hope to make my own sometime this season.

Also this week, editing assignments for Wayfare magazine started to trickle in. (My phone likes to autocorrect Wayfare to Warfare. Look below to see why I mention that here.)

And also this week, I had some extra time at my Church job. I am really interested in historical memory (how historic events are remembered and commemorated), and I remember coming across a hymn about the Pilgrim Fathers in a Latter-day Saint hymnal from the early twentieth century. I was looking for it and found it in the 1927 hymnal. The lyrics were written by a non–Latter-day Saint in the nineteenth century, when Americans loved the Pilgrims (before they retrofitted Thanksgiving to be about Pilgrims), and the music for this particular version was written by Evan Stephens. There are more hymns in our current hymnal written by Evan Stephens than by anyone else, and many believe he was gay.

Anyway, in the process of looking for this hymn, I was looking in the 1908 Deseret Sunday School Song Book, and in their topical index, they have an entry for Warfare! 

Can you imagine going to Sunday School and thinking, "Let's sing a song about warfare today"?!

But speaking of warfare: I went to Seagull Book this week and saw this very tacky decoration for sale. So you don't have to zoom in, I will describe it as a picture of a soldier with a gun, accompanied by wings and an American flag, with the caption "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Now, from a purely artistic standpoint, even I, a nonartist, know that it is not good art. Perhaps worst of all, it uses the Papyrus font. But from a conceptual standpoint, it is using a scripture about Jesus to describe someone holding an assault rifle! At the very least, they could have used a less violent image of a soldier. I support soldiers and veterans, and I understand why we have a military, but this whole thing seems to be in very poor taste. I hope no one buys it.

And to end on a silly note: my Facebook feed is filled with posts from a page called Things With Faces, and today I looked in my garbage and noticed fingernail clippings in a clump of fur from Reggie's brush.

December tidbits

I suppose one of the most remarkable things about this week is how unremarkable it was. Like, you mean there are actually moments after I've done my chores and exercised that I don't have to be editing stuff, or decorating for a holiday, or attending a conference, or anything else? Wild!

Here are some of the minor things that have happened this week.

• My feelings of being a professional are continuing to trickle in. My state colleagues and I were guests on a (not super interesting) podcast that will be coming out in January. And I also got an email asking for my address to send my author's copy of my Pioneer Day article. So I guess that is coming soon!
• I was able to use the last of the garden tomatoes for sauce for homemade pizza, and I also put the last yellow squash on said pizza.
  
  
  
• However, we still have a lot of apples from our tree. Regular readers of this blog know that I enjoy making crisps with whatever fruit we have on hand. And I think I made my very best one ever this week: cranberry apple gingerbread crisp! I nailed the gingerbread flavor, and I love how the cranberries cut through the sweetness of the apples.

  

  My mom thankfully helped cut and peel the apples

  I like to make variations on the recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and I think this was my most creative and most successful variation. So I'm going to put the recipe here so I have it in the future, and in case you want to try it. It's different enough from the regular recipe that I'm counting it as my own.

Ingredients:

Topping:

1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup molasses

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 cup whole wheat flour (all-purpose flour works too)

pinch salt

1 cup rolled oats

Fruit:

6 to 8 cups apples, peeled and cut

2 cups cranberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rub the stick of butter on the inside of a 9x13" baking dish.

2. Cut the stick of butter into smaller pieces. Cream it with the brown sugar and molasses. (A food processor makes this step quite easy.)

3. Mix in the lemon juice, spices, flour, and salt. 

4. By hand, mix in the oats. (Don't use a food processor for this step, unless you want the oats to be all ground up.)

5. Combine the apples, cranberries, and sugar in the baking dish.

6. Put the topping on the fruit.

7. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

• I continue to make my way through my Christmas playlist. I first compiled this playlist in 2013, and every year I add new stuff to the end of the playlist. Then when it's Christmastime, I start at the beginning and make my way to the end. (I still buy music, especially since there's some that's not available on streaming services.) I've been balancing listening to the playlist from the beginning along with the new additions to my collection (Christina Perri, Cher, Mark Tremonti, Joel Paterson, Greg Laswell, the National Parks, Mat Kearney). A decade ago, I was more interested in quantity in my playlist versus quality, and my playlist has every Christmas song I own, even the ones I don't like. There are some really terrible songs early in the playlist. But I've made it into the 2016 section, so the rest of the playlist will be more enjoyable. (2017, 2018, and 2020 are some of my favorite sections.) And then later in the season, after I've made it through the playlist chronologically, I'll put the whole thing on shuffle. It's one of my favorite things about this time of year. Currently my playlist is up to 2,045 tracks.
• In November, I bought the new game Super Mario Bros. Wonder for Nintendo Switch, even though I'm not a gamer. (Please don't assume that about me!) When I was a child playing Super Mario Bros. All-Stars on Super Nintendo, I loved to look at the backgrounds and wish they were levels. And in Wonder, there are moments where you do play in the background! It took more than twenty-five years for my wish to come true.
• It has been almost two years since we put my cat Jimmy down, but yesterday I had a flashback that made me realize how Reggie is different. Reggie was sitting on me on my bed for some loving, and then he got off me. I thought, "Time to move my feet so he doesn't bite my ankles." But then I remembered that Reggie doesn't do that (thankfully!), even though Jimmy did. Reggie is the most laid-back cat we have had.
• I attended North Salt Lake's tree lighting festivities and the Festival of Trees, but I don't know what to say about them other than that I attended. 

Low-key Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving for being a relatively low-key, relaxing holiday. There were many small things that cumulatively made it an enjoyable week.

On Monday, my ward had a pie-baking competition, so I brought my chocolate cherry pie. I love the flavor, but I discovered that I need some kind of thickening agent for the filling, or at least need to remove some of the liquid. I have made this many times, but only now did I realize I should work on the filling. 

As I was preparing to leave that night, one of the laces in my ten-year-old shoes broke. Luckily, I remembered that I once bought some dinosaur shoelaces from the clearance section of Winegars grocery store. So I replaced the lace of one shoe. They're a little short, but they work.

These shoes are great for wet weather.

On Tuesday, I went running with a friend. 

Thursday, we had Thanksgiving at my sister's/grandparents' house, and it was smaller than usual this year. I contributed three small pieces to the meal: homemade cranberry sauce (why do people bother with canned?), green bean casserole (greater than the sum of its parts), and sweet potatoes.

We had many food items with our own homegrown produce: cherry pie with our own cherries, apple and mincemeat pies with our own apples and green tomatoes, and grape juice from our own grapes. I didn't stuff myself as much as I usually do on Thanksgiving. 

After we returned home, I went for a run on the Wild Rose Trail, which will likely be my last one of the season. It was muddier than I expected, but it felt so nice and Thanksgivingy up there.

Then Friday, I spent the entire day taking down Thanksgiving decorations and putting up Christmas. We got it basically entirely done by the end of Saturday. We have never done it that fast before! Now I can just relax the rest of the season (except that I don't have a single idea for presents yet). Every year, we get a new ornament that represents our life that year, so this is my ornament, because this is the year I started working for the state of Utah (and Utah's new flag came out).

Christmas is the only holiday for which my parents help with the decorating. But I take care of all the lights, because my dad hates it, and I do it better.

You know how people have dreams about finding new rooms in their houses? I had a similar (but different) experience in real life. I have had my bedroom off and on since I was five years old. And yesterday, I just happened to notice that someone wrote a phone number on the wall inside my closet! Of course, it doesn't have an area code, and it has the 295 prefix, which we had until I was in third grade, when they gave that prefix to the new neighborhoods. (I never understood that—if the new people had to have new numbers anyway, why not make them have the new number?) This phone number was probably written there before we moved in back in 1991. And whoever wrote it probably put it there because they were too embarrassed to be friends with someone named Musky. 

***

And now it's time for the final installment of pumpkinundation roundup for 2023. Remarkably, I think this year I had less stuff than usual. I'm less tolerant of sugar than I used to be, and it often makes me sleep poorly.

The Trader Joe's Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart is a savory tart with squash and cheeses. It was better than I expected, since I'm picky about cheese. I liked it, but I think I could only handle small doses. 7/10.

Big Hazy's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ice Cream was disappointing. I don't know if it had pumpkin in it, because to me, it tasted like Torani pumpkin pie syrup. 6/10.

Legers Deli Turkey and Stuffing Sandwich is a regular item, I believe, but only on Tuesdays. I like supporting small businesses, but I honestly don't understand how this little deli is still in business. It's in a weird part of town, it's overpriced, and it's just not that good. The sourdough bread seemed more like Wonder Bread. 6/10.

I like Trader Joe's Thanksgiving Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips. But I have had two bags in my cupboard for several weeks and barely have eaten any of them. I guess I haven't been craving salty things as much recently? And I remember that the bottom of the bag is overly seasoned, so maybe I'm afraid of that. 7/10.

The Crumbl Cranberry Crumb Cookie had a nice cranberry flavor that wasn't overpowering—I would have liked a little more. It's nice to get a break from pumpkin and see cranberry get some love. 8/10.

I bought three bags of Trader Joe's Turkey Sausage Stuffing Fried Rice. I love it, though I wouldn't peg its flavor as stuffing. Mostly I love that it exists. 8/10.

See you back here in September!

I've got plenty to be thankful for

 I thought I would spend my Thanksgiving evening writing about the things in my life that I am truly grateful for.

I am thankful for friends—friends who text me, invite me to game nights and dinner, go running with me, or otherwise show they care.

I am thankful for people who support me—such as this senior missionary who left this card on my desk after he asked me about my Pride flag. 

I'm thankful that I have not one but two really cool jobs. For many years, I thought it would be cool to edit for Utah Historical Quarterly, and now that's exactly what I do!

I'm thankful for the historians who have established the scholarship and the historiography to shape the way we see the world. James W. Baker's Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday literally changed my life. And I'm amazed at how Leonard J. Arrington's Brigham Young: American Moses still holds up almost forty years later.

I'm thankful for the internet and for all the sources and resources that are available online. I'm especially grateful for Utah Digital Newspapers, which has so many newspapers since 1850 available online for free! It is truly remarkable, and I don't know how historians got their work done before the internet.

I am thankful that I have practically the entire world's musical catalog so easily available to me. This month, as I've been listening to 1989 (Taylor's Version) and The Beatles 1967–1970 (2023 Edition), I've appreciated the musical genius of people in the world, a genius that I, a nonmusician, can't even begin to comprehend.

I'm thankful for cats! I just can't believe that there is an entire species with adorable faces and soft fur that purr and meow, and best of all, they like to cuddle and spend time with us! They are one of life's greatest treasures. 

I'm thankful that there are multiple trailheads within running distance of my house, and many more within driving distance. I'm grateful that I have conditioned my body to crave movement. I just love spending time in the natural world and marveling at its beauty, and there's always something new to admire: the glacier lilies of March, the arrowleaf balsamroot of April, the mulesears of May, the sego lilies of June, the Richardson's geraniums of July, the sunflowers of August, the fleabane of September, the red maples of October, and the orange oaks of November. And even though I'm not a fan of rattlesnakes, I'm thankful that they rattle so I know to avoid them before they attack. 

A Thanksgiving afternoon run

Of course, there are many other things I'm thankful for, but these are things that have been especially on my mind lately.

And I'm thankful for you, dear reader, for giving me a reason to blog!