Christmas At Luther

This afternoon around 3, Mark and I are hitting the road for Iowa.  I've made it pretty clear that I am kiiiind of obsessed with my alma mater, Luther College in Decorah, IA.  Luther has a really great music program, and really the majority of students are involved in it somehow.  They have lots of great artists visit the college (Hello, Dave Matthews Live at Luther) and a ton of great student concerts as well.

Every year they put on a huge Christmas program and its a really big deal for everyone connected to Luther.  Tickets usually sell out really fast, and in the 6 years since I graduated, I've never been able to get tickets to go back.  This year I was able to get a chance for tickets through their lottery system and somehow ended up with 2 tickets to the Friday evening show!  What was even a bigger surprise was that a hotel room was actually available, which is amazing considering that its a small town with a HUGE influx of people for the concert.

I seriously cannot wait! The show starts at 9, so we'll have time to get dinner somewhere beforehand.  I love this town so much, sometimes I try to convince Mark to move there :)

Here is a video from last year so you can enjoy some of the magic!

Katie Hall Yoga

Well, after putting this off for way too long, I finally made a Facebook page for my yoga business.  So without further ado...

Visit me on Facebook!

It would be awesome if I could get my readers to "like" my Facebook page so you can stay in the loop about when I'm teaching!

I plan to post class schedules, any updates about my classes, and inspiration throughout the week.

PS..I originally planned to call my page "One Light Yoga" but it was already taken on Facebook.  Plus, I figured my friends might be more likely to hit the like button if they recognized the name!

Wishbones and Beer

Going back to work after a holiday is tough, isn't it? I'd rather just extend the weekend a few more days.  But since that won't work, I'll just recap my whole weekend for your reading pleasure.

Strangely enough, both my sister and I were in town for Thanksgiving this year with our husbands.  Usually one of us is with the in-laws, but we were all working on Friday so stayed in town.  We had a good dinner with all the traditional stuff, which includes breaking the wishbone.  She won this year, but immediately after this picture, she grabbed her side with both hands.  I'm pretty sure that's cheating, and I'm pretty sure cheating on the Thanksgiving wishbone battle doesn't give you good karma.   Just saying.

Like I said, I had to work on Friday and I taught my yoga class after work.  We left right after my class to head down to Mark's parents house, which is in rural Southern MN.  We got in pretty late, so basically went to bed.  On Saturday morning, we made lefse for a couple of hours.  It turned out delicious, btw.  The whole crew (including Mark's 95 year old grandma) headed to New Ulm in the afternoon to tour the Schell's brewery.  Our friend Anna was able to join us too, which was a great treat because she lives in San Francisco and we only see her every couple of years.

 

 I love being out in the country, it's so pretty and simple.  I loved living in a small town when I was in college and truthfully, Mark and I would move to a small town in a heartbeat if our jobs allowed.  

We picked up our Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon, but I was too tired to decorate it.  I'll try to get to that sometime this week!  I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend and that you're all getting into the Christmas spirit!

Thankful.

Tomorrow is FINALLY Thanksgiving!  Does it seem like it took forever for Thanksgiving to get here to anyone else??  

Oh well, I'm not complaining!  How does one complain about more time to think about all that you are thankful for?  To be honest, this year has come with its share of disappointments, but there are SO many things that I can say I am truly thankful for. 

First and foremost, these three: 

I've always known I couldn't live in a house without a cat.  But now, thanks to the sweetest golden puppy in the world, I also could never imagine a house without a dog.   And obviously, there's Mark.  I don't know what I'd do without him.  I am thankful every day for that man.

I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to travel!  So many people in the world never get to see more than their backyard, and I will never take for granted how I've been blessed to see the world. 

If you've stuck around this blog for awhile, you know I've had my share of health issues.  I am incredibly thankful that I can still practice and teach yoga despite ongoing hip and GI problems. 

There is so much more.  I could go on and on…

…and on and on.

Weekend of the Great Soup Swap.

I'm not sure where I first heard about soup swaps, but I knew it was an idea that I wanted to try.  I have close group of girlfriends that I knew would be up for this, so I hosted our first ever soup swap party over the weekend.   It was great and everyone decided that it should be an annual event!  If you want to host a soup swap, here is how we did it...

1. Decide on a date/host/who to invite

2. Everyone picks a recipe (and tells everyone what they are making ahead of time to ensure a good variety.)

3. Everyone makes their soup and divides it up into enough single-serving containers for everyone at the party.

4.  Freeze said soup.

5.  The party host makes their soup for the party....plus other goodies.

6. Consume soup.  Mine was an African sweet potato and peanut soup.

7.  Everyone gets to take home a sample of everyone else's soup!

This was such a fun idea to try out!  I've heard of other soup swaps where everyone just makes one big batch, and basically everyone chooses one that they want to bring home (with some sort of lottery system I guess...), but it seemed more fun for everyone to get to take home a little bit of each!

We ended up with the sweet potato soup I made, chicken noodle, wild rice, cream of asparagus, lentil and sausage, and ale & cheese.  Seriously, so much goodness in my freezer right now!  And the best part is that we have meals all week long!

I'd highly recommend having a soup swap party sometime this winter, you will love it!

I know this isn't a recipe (although I plan to share my soup recipe sometime), I am linking up with the ladies of Taste of Tuesday!  Visit Ashley and Jessica for more :)

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

As you can see, things look a little different around here.  I am sort of bored/confused about what to do with my blog.  Sometime I have no desire to keep writing it, but then sometimes I miss the community and connection with the people I've become "blog friends" with.

Writing in a private blog is sort of boring, but I still don't want so many people in my "real life" reading it.  Maybe changing my blog name will help to be a little.  Let's be honest though, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Patience

Here's the deal- I am a pretty patient person most of the time.  I've been working with people who have severe and persistent mental illness for the past several years, and they test my patience every day.  I have my own serious health issues that have tested my patience for the last 6 years now.  Lately though, I am dealing with something that I can't be patient about.  It's shooting my anxiety sky-high and I feel like the end is sooooo far out of sight.  

I'm practicing mindfulness and meditation.  I'm trying to live in the moment.  I'm working on acceptance and tolerance. I'm trying to trust God's timing.  Mostly I'm trying to accept God's will...but I'm failing miserably. I want what I want and I want it RIGHT NOW gosh darn!

In other news, its Friday.  And no, the weekend isn't what I'm waiting for.  I'll take it anyway though.