Summer bookends and bonding over an election loss

1. I watched La La Land on the airplane on the way to the US in June. I had it more or less stuck in my head the whole summer. Then, the night before we left to come back to Finland in August, I was downstairs in my parents' house when I heard a mystery someone start playing La La Land music on the piano upstairs. To my knowledge at that moment, no one who both a) plays the piano and b) had seen the movie was in the house at the time, so it was kind of a neat moment to hear that music magically seeping through the ceiling.

I went up to see who it was and it was my brother Steven (who both plays the piano and had seen the movie). The movie on the plane and the mystery piano music were the perfect bookends to my summer.

2. You don't really get to choose your in-laws, do you? This summer I was reminded again and again how lucky I am to have such wonderful in-laws on both sides. Here is a group of people put together almost entirely NOT by choice (either birth, or married to someone related to you by marriage or birth), and we could have a good time!

My SIL Kristi (far right in the photo) has been an in-law for a few years now, but it was only when HRC lost the election that I felt like we were close. Is that weird? She was a die-hard HRC supporter and it was something we could talk about and be excited about and then, when the time came, commiserate about. And you know what Kristi did about it? This woman, my SIL, cross-stitched that lovely HRC quote ("To all the little girls...Never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams") on a wall hanging and gave it to our niece of impressionable age. I MEAN.

So today I'm grateful for atmospheric, perfect, musical summer bookends, and in-laws who are just the best.