Stokes in Peru

Wanting to stay on the cutting edge of what's cool, I've decided to write my annual Christmas letter this year via my blog. Happy Holidays! I have been sending out a Christmas letter for a number of years now, doing my best to capture the essence of my year while keeping you all entertained. Upon writing this year's letter I reflect back to a time not so long ago, when I was single, living in a basement apartment, and hawking books at a now defunct book store in St. Paul. That, my friends, was a challenge to my creative writing skills in producing an interesting, entertaining letter. Then there are years where the letter really just writes itself. 2008 is such a year. Didn't make the cut for last year's Christmas photo: A year ago at this time, I was still single, living in St. Paul, speaking mangled English most of the time, and savoring my time on the couch. A lot has changed-the love for the couch hasn't diminished, but I now find myself married, livi

Greetings again everyone, I hope life is treating you all well and that you are staying nice and warm up in the States. I promise, I'll try not to rub in the fact that we're currently on the cusp of summer in Peru. I won't go into detail about the beautiful day we enjoyed today, where I was able to go for a long bike ride. It's probably best that I just update you on what's been going on with us here in Peru lately. We've actually had quite a bit going on, so without further ado: Thanksgiving Dinner As you know, Thanksgiving is an American holiday, so it is not celebrated by Peruvians down here (their holiday involving people with ties to Spain in their country take on quite a different tone :)). Thanksgiving is right there with Christmas as a favorite holiday, so Marianella and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner, which doubled as our first dinner party at the new apartment. We held our Thanksgiving dinner on a Saturday night in December, due to the f