“Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.” – Martha Graham

Firstly, sorry that last week’s post published late! I wrote it and scheduled it for last Friday but must have hit something wrong in the publishing process. And second, this will be my last Friday Five Things of 2021 as I take the next two weeks off from having deadlines! I hope you and your friends/family/pets/whoever take some time to quiet your lives and enjoy each other. We’ll see you in the new year and probably start talking about 2022 goals (I can hardly believe it!)

1. Feeding giraffes. This week Tyler and I took my parents to the zoo for the annual Zoo Lights and an up close encounter with some giraffes! It was so cool to feed them and get to see them in such close proximity. We couldn’t touch or pet them, so I don’t know what they feel like. But the thing that struck me the most was how HUGE their heads are! They don’t look that big in proportion to their bodies, but man, when they bend down for a piece of lettuce it’s pretty crazy!
2. New favorite salmon recipe. I tried this salmon recipe last week and loved it so much that I put it back on the menu for dinner this week! It looks and tastes so fancy, but it was literally the easiest way to cook the salmon and sooooo yummy (I think that can at least partially be attributed to the butter!) I served it with some roasted veggies and mashed potatoes, but I think it would be good over some buttered pasta or rice as well. Enjoy!
3. Tyler’s birthday! It was Tyler’s birthday earlier this week and I just felt so grateful that a) we were together on his actual birthday this years which didn’t happen last year or maybe also the year before, and b) we didn’t have anything that we “had” to do that day so we just got to do fun celebratory things that he wanted to do! It was a fun, fun day and I am so thankful to have him in my life!
4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife. One of the fun things we did was go see the new Ghostbusters movie in the theater. I found it really enjoyable and very entertaining! Without ruining anything, they definitely bring in elements from the original movies and sometimes they hit really well and other times I felt that they missed the mark a little. But all in all, I’d recommend! Definitely not a theater must-see, so I think you can wait until it’s streamable if you want.
5. Little to no damage after wind storm. This week we had one day with super high winds in our area with gusts up to 80 mph! It was pretty crazy! Amazingly enough we had very little to no damage from it, even though our fence already struggles to stay upright on a good day. I lost a few bows from my Christmas decorations and our chimney topper thingy ended up in the middle of our backyard. I’ve seen a few trees down as I’ve driven around the past few days and our neighbors had some fallen branches. So I definitely count ourselves as lucky!