Snapshots of January

I think I might be one of the rare few who loves winter. I love the cold weather. I love snow. I love the crispness of winter air. I love how beautiful everything looks dusted in white.

This January was certainly one of the more frigid ones that I can recall since living in Daegu, though nothing compared to winter in Seoul. I kept wishing it would snow more – like really really snow — but it never did. The best we got was a couple inches overnight that froze the river and turned rooftops white.

best brothers forever!

We spent a lot of family time together in January. Korean homes are heated by underfloor heating (ondol), but instead of turning on the heat, we dragged our portable heater from room to room. During the day, I pulled the kitties’ favorite beds in front of the heater and they cuddled nonstop until it was time for dinner. At night, we moved the heater into our room and the kitties followed. They didn’t leave us much space to stretch our legs, but as long as the kitties are cozy, right?

I read a lot in January in part to take my mind off of Max’s cancer, but also because there’s nothing better to me than reading when it’s cold outside. Sly made some awesome sticky buns and I made roobios tea lattes. They went perfectly with the “bad” weather, a good book, and some cuddly kitties.

We left our Christmas tree up and, needing some residual holiday cheer, diligently turned on the lights every single night. We finished watching pretty much everything on our holiday binge list. One of the most exciting things to happen was the much-anticipated arrival of our robotic vacuum. It has become our current obsession, kitties included. On any given night in January, you could find us lounging on the couch, Sly with his hoody pulled up over his head playing puzzle fighter and me reading books under about 10 blankets and two kitties stuffing my face with sticky buns.

January was bitterly cold and filled with emotional ups and downs. But it was also a good one because we were all together, cherishing the simple, quiet moments in life.