I've always wrapped gifts in brown paper, ever since I found a commercial roll of brown paper and metal dispenser in my apartment when we first moved in after college. I finally ran out a couple years ago and have been using Scotch brand rolls, but forgot to restock before preparing to wrap this year. In a pinch, I went with grocery bags and festive stamping and ribbons…

A few months ago, my trusted desk lamp broke as I was adjusting it. It served me 6 solid years, and Chris even used his electrician chops to make it continue working even without the articulating stand, but that meant propping it up awkwardly in a basket, which made it less effective. This past weekend, Chris gave me a replacement as an early Christmas present, and I tested it out by doing this year's holiday card….

Every December I spend a Sunday at the toy store where I formerly worked wrapping presents for donations to the MSPCA. I went with December 9 because it's close enough to Christmas so that there is a lot of shopping, but not close enough to the last-minute frenzy that I'm overwhelmed. Plus Sunday works best because hours are 10:30-6 instead of 9:30-7, so it's a bit more manageable for one person. Today we made $218!

This weekend, Chris and I went out and got our first full-sized tree. This has been a dream of mine since I first moved in, though there was at least one year where I settled for decorated a floppy houseplant, and several with a four-foot tabletop tree…

This is my parents' cat, Link. Six years ago, he followed my brother Andy and his wife home one day and they adopted him. Shortly after, Andy needed to move to a different apartment that did not allow pets; my parents "temporarily" took him in…

This is the first time I've been home for Thanksgiving since 2011, when I was still in college…

The company I work for recently added another building to our Kendall Square campus; we now have five floors in the former Microsoft building. My parents and I toured it recently (read: I walked them around without knowing where I was going) and it is pretty swanky!

We also stopped by the Montague Book Mill on the way home!

We celebrated a (rainy) election day by hitting the polls before dinner and then grabbing a pizza to munch on while anxiously watching the news coverage…

It's finally fall, which means Halloween themed paper chains have been hung (by toy company eeBoo), mums have replaced our pansies, and pumpkins have joined the ranks. Hasn't scared this bumblebee away though…

Our friends Nick and Rachel got married yesterday! The ceremony was in a beautiful athenaeum in Providence, RI. The officiant made quite an apt comparison between a hall of learning like the athenaeum and the friendships and cultures of those around you, which are all collected in one room during a wedding…

Here are a couple of photo updates on the comic I've been chugging away on. I haven't shared much about it in writing because I am still figuring out where I want to take it…

This afternoon a couple of friends and I went to Honeypot Farm to pick apples and grab cider donuts. It was pretty crazy because the weather was so beautiful, but I tried to avoid including the crowds in the pictures. Afterward, we got a tour of our friend's farm and got to hold some chickens and pet some sheep!

Saw some pretty memorable works of art in Vienna... Vermeer, Klimt, Matisse, Peter Breugel the Elder (was nerding out following my Northern Renaissance studies)... also enjoyed a lot of the photography in the contemporary sections.

Just going through some more photos from Austria. Here is a delicious soup, a soufflé, and a small serving of gazpacho. Yum…

Deidre and Sam's wedding was on Sunday, out in Western Mass on a beautiful farm. On Sunday morning, I drove an hour north and met up with Chris, who was getting ready to take photos with the other groomsmen…

Some highlights were Sammy's dad making a hilarious speech during the rehearsal dinner regarding a photo on Sammy's phone, Jess's dad making a speech that revolved around Harry Potter and his daughter's resemblance to Hermione, Jess and Sam's adorable, heartfelt, and tearful vows, and their first dance (which started traditional and then ended with a lot of jumping and a lost boutonnière).

We ended up doing a lot of touring in the city, so I'll try and keep my writing short and sweet here, but heavy on the photos…

Catching up at this point because the wedding really took it out of me! It was a perfect storm of jet lag, Schnapps, Austrian beer and wine, and staying up chatting with wedding guests until 5:00am…

We had an amazing wine tasting last night!! Reunited with the cousins, and finally met Lukas (Katie’s fiancé). The founder of the hotel directed the tasting, and even gave us a sample of a wine from 1914! …