{"id":1020,"date":"2005-12-27T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-27T23:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2013-10-06T21:09:16","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T02:09:16","slug":"ces-petites-soirees-tranquilles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1020","title":{"rendered":"ces petites soir\u00e9es tranquilles"},"content":{"rendered":"

In keeping with tradition, may I now present my sixth (!) annual LJ Christmas update, this time with a veritable deluge of pictures. I had a lovely weekend skiing up in the mountains and at home and received far more than I was expecting Sunday morning. People were far, far more generous than I deserve, and I’m beyond grateful.<\/p>\n


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L’aube.<\/i> Dawn Friday morning, looking out the back porch of the cabin to the east.<\/p>\n

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The cabin. It belongs to a church family, friends of the Kiefers. Many groups and families have evidently visited–there’s a nearly-full guestbook in the kitchen. Downstairs from the main living area is another bedroom, along with a gameroom, complete with air hockey and ping-pong tables. Matt Kiefer ended up kicking my butt 4 games to 3 over the course of the time we were there. The boy is quick, ’nuff said.<\/p>\n

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Aaron + kitchen area.<\/p>\n

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A grainy fireplace picture. Matt and I slept on futons in the living room, right next to the fireplace. Falling asleep to smoldering embers is the best.<\/p>\n

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Beech Mountain. Looking up at the main common area and the slopes.<\/p>\n

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A view from the top. The weather was cool, clear and beyond compare. Ideal.<\/p>\n

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Another view. Every once in a while a plane would fly by, leaving a sharp contrail in the crystal sky. I felt much closer to them than I would have at a lower elevation.<\/p>\n

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Aaron’s ready to rock and roll after lunch.<\/p>\n

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Again, near the top of the mountain.<\/p>\n

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The wonderful Kiefer family. From left to right, Mr. Kiefer, Lydia, Hannah, Aaron, Mrs. Kiefer, Matt.<\/p>\n

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The boys, pre-departure on Saturday morning. I was loath to leave.<\/p>\n

* * * * * *<\/p>\n

And now for a Christmas gift gallery:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Modeling three gifts simultaneously, a dark blue v-neck wool sweater, my leather coat and my new headset for the airplane. All three should last me nearly forever.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My Leatherman\u2122 tool in closed configuration.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The modern-day Swiss army knife. Very handy for on-the-spot fixes to the airplane during preflight inspections.<\/p>\n

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My VFR kneeboard. Will come in handy (knee-y?) for the upcoming series of cross-country flights. Organization is key.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wholly unexpected–a new DVD player. I had been using the PS2, which would only play about half my DVDs half of the time and finally quit on me about three weeks ago. I can watch movies again :)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The requisite calendar. Astronomy-themed, with monthly star charts and astronomical events.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A new wall covering.<\/p>\n

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I love Shel Silverstein. This was a gift from my mom to whichever of my brothers and I wanted it, and I immediately claimed it (with no protestation from either of them). We used to play little word games like that all the time on road trips with store names and such.<\/p>\n

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My favorite in-car trip game. I have about two other editions which are getting seriously long in the tooth and scribbled over, so this is a lifesaver.<\/p>\n

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A very cool book my mom picked up during her recent trip to New York and MoMA. It’s about the art of Pixar, the animation company. Gorgeous renderings and industrial design sketches. Makes me a bit nostalgic for the design school.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And of course the stash of cookies my parents packed for me to save them from themselves. I could have taken more, but well, y’know.<\/center><\/p>\n

I received several more books, an auburn scarf from David (just need the sunglasses now to complete the aviator ensemble!), more stocking knick knacks and lots of clothes, shirts and socks and the like. I’m so grateful.<\/p>\n

Got to spend some time with more friends over the weekend too. Leslie and I went to Panera last night and talked about her recent trip to Asheville for Christmas, and David (not my brother) and I went to a great pub in downtown Durham called James Joyce. I relish the times I spend with my friends more than I ever thought I would. I’m really on the fence about whether to stay here in town or go back to Chapel Hill for New Year’s Eve. I have groups of friends in both places.
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Merci, Elyse<\/a>, pour les disques compactes! Je m’amuse bien \u00e0 \u00e9couter Les Wacky Chansons de No\u00ebl<\/i> et j’adore Pauline Croze. J’ai re\u00e7u ta carte postale aussi! Merci pour tout, et rassure-toi que ton cadeau de No\u00ebl vient aussi rapidement que je peux trouver une bo\u00eete pour l’emballer. Je t’embrasse!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In keeping with tradition, may I now present my sixth (!) annual LJ Christmas update, this time with a veritable deluge of pictures. I had a lovely weekend skiing up in the mountains and at home and received far more than I was expecting Sunday morning. People were far, far more generous than I deserve, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2109,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/2109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}