brdgt | Memories, not things.

Things to remember about this Christmas:

-First day of travel started with the most stunning moon-set I have ever witnessed and ended with the most orange moon-rise I have ever seen. Roadtrip in general went very smoothly, even the 20 straight hours of driving through the night on the way home.

-We have so many wonderful friends who went out of their way to make time to see us in our short time in Madison - people who had to get up early, normally never go out, or had a million other commitments made time for us and made us feel loved.

-Despite a huge snowstorm, commencement went off without a hitch and I got to see three wonderful people, all with different special relationships to me, become doctors (officially).

-My hand-knit gifts were greatly appreciated - perhaps most surprisingly by the person I least expected (Nick's step-brother, who tries very hard to be very cool). Also, they resulted in bonus bragging by future step-mother-in-law to everyone else at the family Holiday party the next night.

-Playing board games with Nick's step-siblings, especially the youngest, who is finally coming out of her shy stage and really enjoying her first year of college. We totally kicked ass as a team for Buzzword.

-Had two different "heart-to-heart" talks with my future mother-in-laws (mostly consisting of them opening up to me about something - but made me feel special that they think of me as someone they can do that with).

-Gift-giving was totally subdued and had a high amount of gifts that involved spending time together (my favorite gift: opera tickets from Nick).

-This: