fill up our cup: entry 4

woah. what a busy week. it’s funny, for a person who doesn’t like routine, how reliant i (alex) have become on one, particularly when it comes to his blog. hannah, on the other hand, loves her routine. she’s much more of a homebody than i am and cherishes her time much more in that way.  but as she works in the retail sphere, so this is the busy season for her. 

we met up for lunch today, by her work, joking about how we haven’t seen each other in awhile, because  her schedule has been so all over the place, even though we were with my family for the holiday. 

alex: not surprising this week, my pick is family time and being away from our routine.

and this photo I took after our thanksgiving meal. it perfectly incapsulates a donnelly holiday. where other families, sit around the table chatting about whatever they chat about after they're done eating, we've always headed straight to the beach.

as a reminder to my future self, this, as it always is, is a post-eating ritual among my people. this was the first time hannah had experience this tradition. she was sure to inform everyone how bizarre it is to take a 30+ minute walk after what is often the biggest meal of the year, dragging far behind as she was not accustomed to this...at all. us donnelly's laughed and laughed, having never considered how weird this tradition may indeed be.

hannah: on thanksgiving day morning, alex and i went for a walk just the two of us before his family arrived. we brought the dslr and the polaroid, and walked to the beach and around his aunt's neighborhood. we took photos, and i think both of us cultivated gratitude for being able to get out of the city, go somewhere that felt familiar and like home, and spend an hour in nature centering ourselves and being with each other before the day got rolling. that walk was the happiest i've felt in a few weeks. everything was beautiful, joyful, and full of life. i've tried to carry that feeling with me as i've moved through a super busy weekend and week at work.