Marvelous Monday: Week 50

We preface the regular Marvelous Monday format with two vital announcements.

Important announcement #1
Reader, first of all: I goofed. Last week I went on about this year's Christmas tree being our second annual tree in our apartment. As I dug through some photos over the weekend, an image surfaced of the actual first Christmas tree Josh and I had in our home: the 2010 version, making this the third annual tree! Oops! How quickly I forgot about the first and littlest tree!

What is this blog for if not to provide archival records, right? Keeping that in mind, our three years of trees:

Important announcement #2
Well, you can decide the level of importance for yourself - I think it's just kind of fun - but I marked my 500th post at Miles and Laurel on Thursday without even knowing it! Fitting that it was a cloud picture, huh? I think at least 100 of those posts must involve a cloud photo in some form.

Now, on to Marvelous Monday business - but this week, let's call it 2012's First Post-Snowstorm Marvelous Monday, to be completely accurate.

1) St. Paul is beautiful right now with a big layer of snow. Today the temperature slid down, but the blue skies (and bright sun) were out in full force.

2) My favorite jeans wore out. (That's not the marvelous part.) I was hemming and hawing about buying a new pair of my JCrew favorites for a pretty penny - after all, once I find jeans that work, I stick with them. Then I looked on Ebay and found a gently used pair of my beloved JCrew favorites - for $20. Yes!

3) Reading report: I am slowly working on The Master Butchers Singing Club by local author Louise Erdrich. My mom passed a copy on to me and I think my grandma also read it, too! I'm only about 100 pages in - I've been reading 10 or 20 pages every night before bed instead of reading big chunks at a time - but am enjoying the story and the author's writing style.

4) I love holiday cookies. I am hosting a cookie exchange this week and my home is already totally flush with cookies in preparation. I tried one tried-and-true recipe (sugar cookies) and one new recipe (which I think I will tell you about post-party).

5) I squeezed in a 30-minute run tonight after work: my first facemask-wearing, icy eyelash run of the winter. It felt like a big, healthy, invigorating (and cold) dose of fresh air - and that's one marvelous reason why I try to run my miles outdoors whenever possible through the winter.

Hey! What's marvelous about how your week is beginning, Reader? Any book recommendations for my upcoming holiday travels back to Colorado? Also, if you live in Minnesota, any snowshoe trails you'd like to suggest? (Bonus points if they're within 30 minutes of St. Paul!)