We are now half-way through our annual tradition of Frugal January – 16 days and counting of no eating out, no stops at the cafe for a piping hot latte, no shopping, no non-essential spending.  And really, it hasn’t been so bad, especially when we have weekends like this one when all I really want to do is hole up inside with my Kindle and my stash of tea and chocolate, anyway.  The past couple of days might very well go down in the books as laze-fest 2012, as I spent nearly every waking moment on the couch, leaving the house only to accept a couple of dinner invitations from friends (which was perfect, since cooking would have required more effort than I was willing to put forth, anyway…).  And it. was. glorious. Sunday was particularly perfect – we’d heard murmurings on Saturday that Seattle-ites could soon expect the first snowfall of the season, and I awoke the next morning to frosty rooftops and freezing temps.  It wasn’t quite the white wonderland I’d hoped for, but I kept my fingers crossed and by 10am, big, puffy flakes were falling from the sky, draping our yard in a bright white blanket.  We watched the neighborhood kids make snow angels in the driveway, I baked pumpkin spice muffins, and we burrowed under a pile of blankets for some serious veg time.  While Shane watched football, I pulled out my watercolors and played around in my sketchbook, reveling in the comfort of our home and the pretty, bright light that came through the windows as it bounced off the snow.  It was all kinds of good.

We ended the day with a hot pot dinner at Jack and La Verne’s – a January tradition I’ve come to associate with so much warmth and laughter and fellowship – a good-for-my-soul kind of meal for a good-for-my-soul kind of weekend.