'everywhere I go, I take a new place with me'
                                                               -bon iver

one of my favorite books

"The first language humans had was gestures. There was nothing primitive about this language that flowed from people’s hands, nothing we say now that could not be said in the endless array of movements possible with the fine bones of the fingers and wrists. The gestures were complex and subtle, involving a delicacy of motion that has since been lost completely. 

During the Age of Silence, people communicated more, not less. Basic survival demanded that the hands were almost never still, and so it was only during sleep (and sometimes not even then) that people were not saying something or other. No distinction was made between the gestures of language and the gestures of life. The labor of building a house, say, or preparing a meal was no less an expression than making the sign for I love you or I feel serious. When a hand was used to shield one’s face when frightened by a loud noise something was being said, and when fingers were used to pick up what someone else had dropped something was being said; and even when the hands were at rest, that, too, was saying something. Naturally, there were misunderstandings. There were times when a finger might have been lifted to scratch a nose, and if casual eye contact was made with one’s lover just then, the lover might accidentally take it to be the gesture, not at all dissimilar, for Now I realize I was wrong to love you. These mistakes were heartbreaking. And yet, because people knew how easily they could happen, because they didn’t go round with the illusion that they understood perfectly the things other people said, they were used to interrupting each other to ask if they’d understood correctly. Sometimes these misunderstandings were even desirable, since they gave people a reason to say, Forgive me, I was only scratching my nose. Of course I know I’ve always been right to love you. Because of the frequency of these mistakes, over time the gesture for asking forgiveness evolved into the simplest form. Just to open your palm was to say: Forgive me."

"If at large gatherings or parties, or around people with whom you feel distant, your hands sometimes hang awkwardly at the ends of your arms – if you find yourself at a loss for what to do with them, overcome with sadness that comes when you recognize the foreignness of your own body – it’s because your hands remember a time when the division between mind and body, brain and heart, what’s inside and what’s outside, was so much less. It’s not that we’ve forgotten the language of gestures entirely. The habit of moving our hands while we speak is left over from it. Clapping, pointing, giving the thumbs-up, for example, is a way to remember how it feels to say nothing together. And at night, when it’s too dark to see, we find it necessary to gesture on each other’s bodies to make ourselves understood.” 
― Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

my cute little room in

germany.

lets go see this.

on the plane i watched

Ladies

birdcages.

eye/wrinkles

haha

whom the day was for.

love.

why so serious

sydney.

We said good bye to two of our really dear friends on wednesday. They are moving to Tahiti. As you do. Anyways the day was filled with photos and sadness and overwhelming gratefulness that our lives had been blessed by such wonderful people. 

We love Tessa and Livé forever. 

diana.

I was given this camera from the philippines team. I have no idea how they found something like this there. I'm still learning how to use it and I wish i had someone who would develop my photos for free, but I'm so, so excited about it. 

i went to the philippines for 2 weeks...

...and it was hot and busy and there were very pretty women and very short men and children everywhere.

 

 

christinas wall

open mic at the great northern

our friends stevie and nate playing an open mic. They get free dinner so they plan to do this a lot. 

'You told me I was like the dead sea; 

you'll never sink when you are with me.'

the lumineers

we farewelled (is that a word?) Susie at the vineyards.  She is currently on a plane flying over the Pacific ocean on her way back to California.

Christina took this of our lovely break wall.

wonderful:

adjective

 

1.excellent; great; marvelous: We all had a wonderful weekend.

 

2.of a sort that causes or arouses wonder;  amazing; astonishing: The storm was wonderful to behold.

merry christmas

christmas kinda blew me away this year. 

there wasn't anything overly special about this one though I guess I was a little less busy than normal. I just had so many moments where I was in love with how we get to celebrate jesus coming. 

this celebration didn't have to be this way. 

Yet, the world celebrating our savior coming is made up of everyone stopping, gathering, and being incredibly generous to each other. 

i love it.

tree hugger.

hug your christmas tree today

gingerbread feeling. literally.

note the gingerbread ninja.  christina's cookie cutters.

our little chalkboard

feeling that gingerbread feeling

more pictures from my house in ohio at christmas.  just because I can.  And because, like in the words of songs from home alone, I want you to 'feel that gingerbread feeling'.

we normally put up two trees. this picture is the slightly more ghetto tree.  the village is a pop-up book, it has the macaroni ornaments and the ones made out of colored paper that my mom doesn't like putting on the extra nice tree.

a fun thing about my dad is that he makes a point to decorate the back yard as well.  His thinking is that you can't see your front yard in most of the house, so he decorates the back so when you're washing the dishes, or sitting at the kitchen table, you can look out at lights.  The lit up deer were considered too cheesy for the front yard, but perfect for the back.  He put in a little pond this year and in the pictures I've seen of this years backyard, the little fake deer are drinking out of the pond.  good stuff.  

SIDE NOTE:  everyone.  download the home alone movie medley.  holy cow, that's some heartwarming stuff. Thankfully I've also included it on this blog so you can listen to it RIGHT HERE. 

SIDE NOTE 2:  Have you watched the video of Mariah Carey and Justin Bieber singing 'All I Want for Christmas is You?'  Mariah is pretty sketch in it...like, really innappropriate considering Justin is 17, but at the same time, I personally find it really hard to dislike Mariah Carey.  

it's christmas which means......

...i can  post excessive amounts of christmas imagery.   
look out. 

not the greatest photo of mi casa

ahhhh....home.

-soooooooo pretty!!!!!

stories from the side of the road (in action)

we didn't keep the horse.  We're classier than that.

we almost kept the stickers.

christina.  our getaway driver.

there's no way to make this look good.

while stalking stuff, we stumbled on a good view.

christina and our good view.  we do appreciate some nice things.

that's right.  we're a good looking bunch.  you'd be happy to see us prowling around your neighborhood.

banksey's christmas.

I live in australia where thankfully Black Friday does not exist. I don't miss it.  In all the news sites I follow, Black Friday was all over the headlines and I can't explain exactly what it is, it just all seemed a lot more sinister this year.  I read about stores opening at 9pm on Thanksgiving day and being open all night and I thought, wait...9pm?  Isn't that the time you're supposed to be spending with your family?  What in the world could be so important to purchase that people would need to shorten one of the best family holidays there is?  As someone who grieves missing those unique family times, it blows me away that you would have the option to be there, and choose going to...WalMart instead, with all it's terrible lighting...

I absolutely love Christmas. To me, it really is the most wonderful time of the year!  My Christmas's were literally out of a movie.  Beautiful decorated homes, huge family gatherings with lots of good food, and gifts and more gifts and more gifts.  I'm so thankful I grew up with that. I'm in no way against the giving of gifts, or spending money to get something special for someone you care about. It's a very real way of expressing love, one that my family is so good at. I actually want to be more like that. I want to be more generous with my money. I want to value my relationships so much that at times I'm willing to spend extra money to show that.  I see that displayed around me by people who don't stress about how much a meal costs because the return of having spent 2 hours with people they care about was more than worth it. My dad is a lot like that.

As a lot of Americans are realizing though, the pursuit of more stuff as a main reason for existance is just becoming sad.  There's no relationship attached to the spending. It's stuff for the sake of stuff.  This Christmas season has that feel.  Everything you read talks about how retailers are worried about their books balancing, so they're encouraging people to buy more. In our times where family isn't coming through as much as it has in the past, I doubt most of that spending is happening to better a relationship, strengthen a father/daughter bond, or bless a home.  

Banksey is a famous graffitti artist from England and I found this picture of Jesus by him.

 

movember.

In Australia, the month of november is fondly known as 'movember'.  In the states some people do 'no-shave november', but it's kind of informal.  In Australia, it's something very, very official.  The whole nation participates in 'Movember' where the guys grow out their 'mo's' and raise money for prostate cancer research.  You can upload your photo to the official website and people can sponsor your mustache.  If you don't believe me, you can check out the website:  Movember Australia.  

The guys in the house we live in always get on board.  I didn't get the best photos of the mustaches and some of the guys hadn't trimmed up the rest of their facial hair recently...but you'll definitely get the idea. 

Take a moment to admire some mo's.

Mr. Jesse Lee (USA)

Mr. Sam Street (Australia)

Mr. Andreas from Sweden

Mr. Josh Irwin (Australia) and Mr. Stevie Lujan (Hawaii/Australia)

Mr. Jeff...something (Hawaii)

Mr. Jack Narvel (USA)