Wishing You Blissful Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Miami Beach!

Missing the Mountains...

This is Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Canada.

It reminds me of Turquoise Lake in Leadville, Colorado.

Missing the mountains and mountain air--rainy day in Miami Beach.

What are you missing?

Hope you enjoyed the last post from my friend---so powerful.

xo xo,
Danielle

pic credit

Your Best Holiday Yet: Colorado Getaway Update

Nederland, Colorado

"Ned" with snow-capped mountains peeking over...


Wintery "Ned"

After some snowy days, crisp blue skies...

we took this at the road by our "getaway"...

Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, CO on Christmas Eve


The "Flatirons"--Boulder's gorgeous daily backdrop...


snow-dusted...



We love it... it does remind this Miami girl of "Northern Exposure" this time of year!


Barefoot in the snow! Tulips proliferate here on Pearl Street in springtime...


Another Boulder tradition, and the cigar bar serves hot chocolate to the kids
after they skate...

A view from our canyon hideaway...

Mr. Wonderful picked this place out for us for our holiday... our 3rd Christmas.

The steps to our home away from home...

Perfect!

We are in Boulder, Colorado, and we are blissfully, joyfully, happy. The minute we began our descent into Colorado, we saw white-capped mountains, larger than your memory can hold, and pink glowing skies. Mr. Wonderful was even happier than I could remember, so happy to breathe in Colorado air. This 37 year old man was giddy with joy: our journey was just beginning. We boarded the bus, with no wait, from the airport, and road out among the mountains near the Denver airport, and the christmas lights, twinkling blue lights lining the road we both had traveled back and forth so many times, only 18 months earlier. Suddenly we were in the college town of Boulder, on Broadway, as if we had never been away. The Mac Shack…the fraternity houses, the Wild Oats-turned-Whole Foods.

Snow started the minute we arrived in the center of Boulder, and began our journey to the mountain lodge. The flakes thickened, and we walked from the canyon road down toward our home for the next week. The snow fell, over already snow-whitened road and ground, the skies pouring onto our world, something very dreamlike to our tropical sensibilities. As if in our own little snowglobe, we walked, forward into the dark road; the snow fell, illuminating our lodge and the path--the bridge lead us to our holiday hideaway. It seemed we were the only ones for miles; all we could hear was a creek, babbling away against its icy "roof". The snow kept falling all night and the next day,

a gentle coating of cold white beauty.

We had Christmas Eve in Boulder, and Christmas here in the Four Mile Canyon…Mr. W. made me lovely meals for which he had shopped and carried home to us only by bus and backpack…no rental car on this trip! Colorado’s public transportation is too good.

The 26th, we rode up to beautiful Nederland, surrounded by snow covered rocks and canyon walls that seemed to touch the Colorado blue sky. Layers of sunny blue sky froze at ice-coated rock, and the shadows protected snow down to the road.

In Nederland, we saw the frozen lake, and I remembered the first time I saw the expanse of Nederland at sunset--it was something beyond imagination. The glassy dark blue lake, the sky: its purples and pinks blending over the spring green, white-topped mountains. That day changed me…I learned life had beauty that could shock you, and heal you at the same time.

Here is a little background on our love story... enjoy!

More to come…trip in progress!

pic 1: from this awesome album

pic 2 and 3, google images

all the rest are ours from the last few days ;)

Vacating the "Vacation" Home...Off to Colorado!

Breakfast at the airport...on our way to Colorado!!!

my holiday shirt!

Our breakfast view


Hello, Lovely Friends!


Mr. Wonderful and I are blogging from the Miami International Airport this morning... what a beautiful place for breakfast: Illy coffee with whipped cream and Valhrona cocoa in Terminal H/J and we are enjoying a wall of palm-treed windows onto the world... TAM Brasil plane with signatures all over the plane body, Air France, Air Canada... I love airports!


Miami traffic speeds along the highway in the backdrop; in front of us the airport employees are driving the luggage trucks and vans and walking around the runway...we are all waking up.


Classical holiday music plays in the background and planes lift off...


We are in high spirits after LAST NIGHT: our bartender/angel on earth at the Blue Moon made us buttery nipples, (good holiday drink... just like the butterscotch candies!) margaritas, and finally, chocolate covered grasshoppers to send us on to our holidays and travel this morning...our friend who was with us also drove us to the airport, and texted for coffee please on his way to get us... ; )


Mr. Wonderful is tres excited for the winter storm on a "collision course" with Colorado... we are going to get there just in time!


How are your holiday adventures so far???

xoxo,
Miss Bliss

P.S. Here's the trip update!

Romance and the Christmas Season

   We will be headed for a canyon in the Rocky Mountains this Christmas. Outdoor hot tub in the snow, pine trees covered in snow, rides through romanticized mountain towns, a place to dream and write. Also importantly, some of the best chocolate known to man or woman just five miles away.

Tell us any other ideas you may have had for romantic Christmas getaways, or romantic ideas for your Christmas staycations. Where was your most romantic Christmas, or other Winter holiday escapes?

The adventures continue...

(where he proposed and where we lived as newlyweds)

To update you on Mr. Wonderful's adventures, he is now a member of the Atmospheric Club at the University! He is taking Spanish, History of Religion, and Evolution of Jazz. Seeing him take these courses and meet people, and enjoy the university makes me happier than I could have imagined. I wanted him to have the opportunity, and seeing my childhood sweetheart head off to his classes and thrive is one of the best things I've seen in my entire life.

He is going to attend the American Meteorological Society conference in Atlanta this January, as a student conference worker, and they will cover his hotel and other expenses. He will get to meet other fellow weather/science buffs! The conversations he will have...! I am so excited for him.



It has been quite a journey since we got married in May, 2007...as our blog readers know, I convinced him to leave the corporate world and return to school to follow his passion, involving a move from Colorado to Miami to do so.



I am extremely proud of this update!!! He is taking a great group of classes in the next semester, including his second composition class, with the focus of The Big Lebowsky (!), his first meteorology class, and a communications course from our amazing communications school.



In between our semesters, we are going to Colorado. I will be trading in the December Miami weather for snow in Boulder... the adventures continue!

deciding on joy: a love story just beginning

Philly Sunday School troublemakers circa 1984!

Miss Bliss writes:

We can't control a lot in our lives, but Mr. Wonderful and I keep refocusing on the joy. Mr. W and I went to elementary school (and spent all of our childhoods together) near Philadelphia, and parted ways soon after when my parents split up.

Although we only saw each other periodically in our teens, for *some reason* he stopped off in the midwest to see me on his way to California for the Coast Guard right out of high school. (now we joke about how I should have just jumped in the car and joined him for the trip across the country...that would have saved a lot of trouble for us both for the next 17 years!)

We would not see each other again until our early 30's. When our little school had a reunion, I flew from Miami to Philly to attend. Sadly, Mr. W. was not attending since he was busy moving to Colorado.

Still, he invited me to visit in Colorado, and I accepted, never dreaming I was about to have a most wonderful reunion and be visiting my soon-to-be husband.

I flew from Miami to Denver this time of the year two years ago, and he says he knew when I crossed the street where he was waiting for me. We were married two months later, and I moved to Colorado. (the orchids on the right are his photo from our honeymoon!)

Now we are in Miami, and open to adventures, of course.

I get caught up with worrying, sometimes, and he reminds me, we aren't going to worry about any of that stuff...

We consider ourselves "two years old" in love, that is. We are embracing life, and relearning to see the world fresh... so much joy to be felt. When we first hugged, he said, "Where have you been?" I knew what he meant. We had finally come home to each other.

top photo credit: zazzle