Behind Infinity

I’m on vacation–my first one since becoming an actual salaried full-time member of the workforce. I have scrupulously saved my last 3 days of paid time off in order to take them now, in this week between Christmas and New Years’ Day, thus maximizing their impact because when combined with holiday days, it means that I won’t see the inside of Acton’s offices for over a week. (Well, except for Wednesday morning when I go in to send out the weekly commentary…um, right. we’re just going to pretend that’s not happening.)

I’m Not Doing Anything. No work, no freelance, no travelling. And revelling in it. There are a few personal projects I’ve wanted to accomplish for some time and maybe I’ll get to those. Or maybe I’ll just lie in bed in my pjs and read books and surf the internets and eat chocolate all day. If that’s what I’m doing, it’s going great so far. It’s 11 am, I’ve barely eaten breakfast, and now I’m back in bed. Littlest bro is on the floor, keeping me company while Momz is out on some sort of errand. Currently he’s pushing buttons on my cell phone. He’s either calling Slovenia or deleting my entire phonebook–I can’t actually tell. Whatever.

Littlest bro likes electronic things. Like my iPod shuffle, which kept him thoroughly intrigued for about 15 minutes while we waited for our food at Applebees a couple of weeks ago.

“If I puts these thingies into my ears, i hears noise. When I takes them out, no noise.
Weeeeeeeeeeird.”

It’s a balmy 43 degrees today and sunny, which means I should probably take a horse out for a ride. It would kind of be a crime not to in such lovely weather. I know I use the term “lovely” quite loosely here, but really, it’s all relative because at this time last week, we were still trying to dig out from the Great Blizzard of 2008 which (to many peoples’ chagrin) forced the cancellation of church and various other activities. It was a bummer to have church cancelled. But honestly, it’s nice to have a day when you’re forced to just slow down and stay home and do very little.

This is our house, in the blizzardy aftermath. I took this picture when it was largely clear, but the wind was still blowin like crazy and eventually started kicking up the snow into a whiteout winter wonderland again. All that white stuff? 3.5 feet deep. Underneath? our driveway.

This is why Mr. Hunter couldn’t get to church to unlock the building last week.

Mr. Hunter has ice in his facial hair. It was that cold out.

Those orange stakes denote where our driveway is supposed to be.

Ethan digs out the front walkway.

That's me in the middle. I know I look funny. I mostly wanted to stay warm, not win any fashion shows.

Brycen watched from the house. Probably a wise choice considering most of the snowdrifts were over his head.

After putting forth their best attempt to clear the driveway, the gentlemen spent the rest of the day in a technologically-induced stupor.

We also took the opportunity to do some Christmas baking.

Before the day was out, we had produced gingerbread, shortbread, sugar cookies, peanut butter balls, and butterscotch fudge. It was all sooooo tasty.

And that is how you spend a snowed-in Sunday in the Hunter household.

A few weeks ago my longsuffering Mother helped me take some Christmas photos with my unruly herd. I wanted to do some lovely Christmas cards…bought all the stuff, designed the card, but never got around to printing the photos. Maybe I still should this week even though it’s after Christmas? What do ya’ll think?

It took over 200 shots to get the right one. Here are some of the funnier rejects…

um, not so much….

better, but still problematic…

Max: about to bite mom.
Jezebelle: looks like witch mare from the underworld.
Starr: Spaz!

“If we gang up on Mom, maybe she’ll take off the ridiculous hats.”

notice the *chomp* in the corner

Mr. Maxling is so gorgeous in this one.

Wheeeee!!

“That’s It. We’re getting OUT of here.”

Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

Last night I took my two younger sisters for a very special evening out: we went to see the Nutcracker performed by the Grand Rapids Ballet at DeVos Hall. This event was made possible by a generous person who often provides ballet tickets to Acton employees. The girls, I think, were thrilled because they’d never been to see a ballet before. I can’t remember the last time I was either–I think I recall seeing Peter Pan or Peter and the Wolf or something with my mom and cousins…this would have been when I was about 6.

Not only were the tickets free but–as you can see–our seats were AMAZING. We were in the third row, center. Close enough to see every detail of the dancers’ finery and every chiseled muscle on the tights-clad legs of the male dancers. Um….yeah. Moving right along…

The show was beautiful. The girls loved it I think (in fact right now they’re in the other room enthusiastically describing every detail of the show to mom.) Dancers amaze me…I cannot even begin to comprehend how a human being can use their body so gracefully! Maria Kowroski and Charles Askegard, of the NYC Ballet, were there to perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker, and John Varineau conducted the Grand Rapids Symphony in the pit. When I was in high school I was lucky enough to play under him in the Youth Symphony, and I got to catch up with him a little bit at intermission–he couldn’t believe I’m all graduated and making money already. I told him that makes two of us.

And here’s the curtain call (with Varineau and all). The curtain call lasted forever (I think the performers had to bow 7 times) and involved a standing ovation, perpetuating what I’ve noticed to be a disturbing trend in Grand Rapids over the past couple of years. Every single show I’ve been to lately has ended with a standing ovation. Call me an unappreciative curmudgeon, but really, I ask, is that entirely necessary? I know that the people of West Michigan love our performing arts and are wildly appreciative of our dedicated performers, but seriously–when you give an ovation after every single performance, it defeats the purpose.

But, like I said, maybe I’m just an unappreciative curmudgeon.

Anyway, it was a really lovely night.