Three beautiful things from the final week of 2015:

1. The past week has been chock full of time with family and friends. Because of a last-minute job opportunity for Rudi, I got to spend a few extra days longer than initially planned with my parents. My aunt, uncle, and cousin joined us for Christmas dinner, and I got to spend wonderful afternoons with Karen and her children (when we discovered a new-to-us hiking trail) and Laura. Tonight, Sarah and I will ring in the New Year together, because it’s good to begin the year as you mean to go on — in this case, with good friends (and, hopefully, laughter).

2. Because Rudi’s ski school had temporarily relocated to Vermont (no snow in Pennsylvania right now), he needed our car to go north. Luckily, he found me a cheap flight home, so I took a fast route back to D.C. (As a bonus, there were no lines in Hartford and everyone there was very pleasant.)

3. This has been an abnormally warm December, so it was nice to wake on Tuesday to the ground coated in white, even if it was from an ice/sleet storm. It wasn’t a real hassle to push-shovel, although I’m glad my parents have a tractor for their 1/4-mile-long driveway.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world during these final days of the year?