Thanksgiving is over, which means it’s Christmas season!
(Thanksgiving comes BEFORE Christmas, this is a hill I will die on.)
Following our hastily-abandoned moving plans, Ryan and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for his parents and a few friends at our apartment, tore down our fall decor and hiked out into the forest for our second-straight year of cutting down our Christmas tree!
What a Thanksgiving week.
If you’re an avid reader (hi, Mom!) you might have noticed that I’ve alluded a bit to an upcoming move.
Well, that move won’t be happening for a little while. It’s a good thing, though!
I can’t believe the holidays are already here!
My holiday decorations will not go up until after Thanksgiving, but I like to get a head start on shopping because it feels so nice to get it done and out of the way so I don’t have to stress.
I can’t believe 2023 is almost done.
It’s been a really weird year. I had a very long summer spent working on wildfires, so most of the products I bought and used over the course of the summer were all products that helped me out with my job.
We’ve still got some wildfire activity on our forest, but it’s slowed down quite a bit, which is good.
However, Ryan and I are preparing for a move next week — which means we’ve been doing way less shopping and buying, and way more downsizing and donating.
But, I have found a few cool things lately that I wanted to share.
I mentioned it in my loooong novel of a post about all my rec gear and apparel, and here we are! Another looooong novel of a post about how to acquire said recreation gear and apparel.
When I first moved to Flagstaff and started venturing out into the great outdoors, the process was super intimidating because — while I did a lot of camping as a kid — both gear AND the gear-buying process have changed SO much in the past two decades, and buying your own stuff instead of just using the cheap Coleman sleeping bag* your parents hand you? A very different experience.
*Did everyone have this same sleeping bag growing up, or was it just me?
But, after a few years of trial and error, I’ve figured out both how to find the right gear for me, and how to save money on acquiring that gear for myself.
While I’m bummed that Ryan and I won’t get to host a Thanksgiving dinner this year due to our upcoming move, Thanksgiving is still my favorite holiday.
I mean, putting aside this holiday’s problematic origins for just a moment, modern Thanksgiving is an entire holiday centered around both food AND the Detroit Lions.
What’s not to love?
I’m still on a post-concert high from last night. It’s so rare that a band or musician that I love makes it up to Flagstaff for a concert, so I’m always very quick to grab tickets when one does.
And last night – that was Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness on his New Friends tour!
I didn’t expect to spend the first half of October assigned to a wildfire (it has been such a weird year) but despite logging more than 100 hours of overtime this month and subbing a few yoga classes for a fellow teacher, I still found time to read five books, which was a pleasant surprise!
I’m a gear person now. I don’t even know who I am anymore.
I mean. I even have A GEAR CLOSET.
Ever since moving to Flag in 2020 (thanks COVID!), I spend a SUBSTANTIAL amount of time outside.
Because, well, what else is there to do in Flagstaff?! (Well… a good amount, actually.) But: recreating outside is definitely one of the more popular things to do here in northern Arizona, and if you want to make (and keep) friends, you have to be open to the idea of going outdoors.
And if you want to go outdoors… you need the stuff to do it.
After several seasons of trial and error, here’s a comprehensive list of all of the rec gear I use and love.
Fall is forever my favorite season.
While I miss spending the entire fall season in central Michigan — Saturday afternoons tailgating my college football games with Fireball in hand, Sunday afternoons wandering through hay mazes and pumpkin patches with apple cider in hand, weekday afternoons navigating my class commute, wading through ankle-deep fallen foliage — I have to admit that northern Arizona’s golden aspen groves make my homesickness just a little easier to deal with.
So, when my friend Jenni invited me to hike up to Lockett Meadow with her this past weekend, my answer was an easy “yes.”
