It’s that time of year.  Now that we’ve navigated Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, and by the time this posts, New Years Eve, looking back at The Year That Was seems all the rage.  I’m going to jump on that bandwagon and regale you with a random list of my favorite things from 2022.

Favorite Thing I’ve Read I promise I get no fee from this recommendation.  My favorite thing I’ve read over this past year is a substack newsletter from Matt Labash called Slack Tide.  I get a lot of newsletters, mostly on current events.  This one is far and away my favorite mostly because while his essays are inspired by current events, they are not really about current events.  They are about the human condition.  On the surface, you would be forgiven for thinking that my favorite newsletter would NOT come from a politically conservative Evangelical Christian.  I love everything he writes, enough to plunk down the $50 for an annual subscription so I can read each essay, not just the free ones.  He makes me want to be a better writer, which is the highest compliment I can give someone.

Favorite Thing the Cats Have Done Beau has this toy that his foster Mom gave him.  It’s a plastic stick, about a foot long, with a short elastic string tied to the stick on one end and a catnip-filled fish on the other.  Beau loves to carry it around with the fish in his mouth and the stick dragging behind.  The other night, we were watching TV and heard the strangest sound.  Being in a different house, we weren’t sure what major appliance could be breaking.  Just as I was about to get up and go investigate, Beau came around the corner with Stick, fish in mouth.  The sound we heard was the stick being dragged down the wooden steps from upstairs and across the wooden floor.  I love him!

Favorite Kitchen Hack Being a relatively new cook, I am constantly on the look out for kitchen hacks to make my life easier.  Last year’s favorite was the onion slicer Trish got me.  I chop a lot of onions.  This year, my sister-in-law introduced me to the joy that is parchment paper.  I have only used parchment paper in the past to wrap up breakfast burritos that go in the freezer.  Meg showed me the trick (that most of you probably already know) of using parchment paper to line a sheet pan.  I know that bakers do this when they bake cookies.  It somehow never occurred to me to use parchment paper when I roast vegetables.  And I roast a LOT of vegetables.  I hated tossing used aluminum foil in the trash and I also didn’t like the silicone baking sheets.  This use of parchment paper has changed my life.

Favorite Weekend Getaway This one is a tie, but both involve the Poconos.  The first was when Trish and I went up to spend a weekend at Lake Minisink, the small lake she grew up on.  We were staying at the cabin our step-daughter’s family had bought last fall and got there early on a spring Friday.  We got out kayaks and spent the afternoon silently paddling the lake and just breathing in the peace.  Then we got to spend the rest of the weekend with Sarah and her family.  The other was a weekend late fall at our friends’ house at Lake Wallenpaupack.  The air was crisp but not cold.  The trees were just starting to turn.  Most boat owners had already pulled their boats in for the winter, but our friends like to enjoy the lake as much as they can.  We took their pontoon boat out on a sunny afternoon and just about had the lake to ourselves.  Lynn took us in and out of countless little coves for hours.  It was the most peaceful I’d felt since that weekend at Minisink in the spring.   It’s a good recipe: people you love + a beautiful, quiet lake = peace.

Favorite Day Trip In late February, on a surprisingly warmish day, Beth and I took the train into DC for the day and visited the African American History Museum.  The museum is really impressive but that’s not what made this a favorite day trip.  It was about spending a day with my bestie and creating shared memories: the drive to 30^th Street Station and going around the block several times until we figured out how to get into the parking garage; the Amtrak ride; Ubering around DC; finding somewhere to eat; a selfie with the Washington Monument; totally missing the pick-up point with our Uber back to Union Station.  It doesn’t matter what we do.  It just matters that we do it together.

Favorite Moment on a Big Trip We took a trip out to southern Utah in March.  There were a ton of what could be favorite moments.  We visited Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, Grand Escalante, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Parks (or Monuments) and a number of state parks.  But my favorite moment was when Lynn and I hiked out to the Corona Arch outside of Moab.  The trek was about a mile and a half and that last half mile was a real challenge.  Well, it was a real challenge for me.  The five-year-olds bounding about, fearless, on steep inclines and perilous cliffs seemed to struggle less.  When Lynn and I finally got to the Arch, though, we were alone.  We were blown away by the grandeur of structures, the remoteness of the vistas (couldn’t see anything related to humans), and the silence.  We were breathless from the climb and effort to get there, which made the moment that much more special.  I felt small and insignificant and at the mercy of the power and beauty of nature.  Those are always important moments.  We would all benefit from having a few of those each year.  Humility is a good thing.

Favorite New TV Show Let me say right up front that I am not a binge watcher.  “Binging” for me is watching two episodes.  As such, not many shows hook me.  But I fell in love with the sitcom Ghosts.  I don’t know why I love this show so much.  Maybe it’s the premise of being able to connect with those who are no longer with us.  Maybe it’s because I love the idea of having a bunch of friends from very different time periods throughout history.  I know it’s because the characters have depth and interesting stories and they just keep adding more facets.  And it’s because I love the character of Isaac, the gay Revolutionary War soldier who absolutely hates Alexander Hamilton.  Best line: “If you don’t gasp at that, you’re just not a gasper!”  Try it.

Favorite Activity The week before Thanksgiving, during our first real cold snap of the year (of course), Trish and I went on an Owl Prowl at a local Nature Center.  I have a thing for owls, just as Trish has a thing for eagles.  As usual, it was us and a bunch of five-year-olds with their parents.  We started with a half hour presentation about “owls of the area” which included recordings of the different owl calls.  This is THE time of year to go looking for owls since they look for mates around now and then nest through the winter.  We went outside into the year’s first snow fall, all bundled up.  We walked a little way into the woods in the pitch dark.  The leader played a saw whet owl call a few times, hoping one would answer.  And then.  Out of NOWHERE a very large barred owl buzzed us, thinking there was a saw whet that would make a nice meal.  It all happened in just seconds.  There was no sound.  None.  Just suddenly a shadow and a large raptor coasting just above our heads.  The only noise was the quick intake of everyone’s breath.  In the dark.  In the snowfall.  I will never forget that moment.

A bit of a theme, then, to this essay.  Time in nature.  Time with animals.  Time with people I love.  Time in the kitchen.  Yeah, it was a good year.