After my parents headed home from our Thanksgiving week, my brother stayed for a couple extra days to hang out and help with construction projects in the house. I was a little hesitant about this, mostly because a) while we care very much about each other, we also have our button-pressing sibling dance, and because b) sometimes help isn't all that helpful. As it turns out, I needn't have hesitated. The three days we spent together were hands-down my favorite memories we've made together as adults.

The project we tackled together was this: designing and building the three upper kitchen cabinets. I'd already done loads of thinking about how to make the kitchen efficient, aesthetically-pleasing, and organized for my purposes. I wanted an open shelf at the bottom for storing jars of flours, sugars, and grains, and I knew I wanted some sort of narrow shelf running along the very bottom for spices.

Lian helped me design and build better cabinets than I was even imagining! He was thoughtful and clever, teeming with good ideas, and better able to visualize what we were making than I was. More than anything, it was just fun to work on something together, not as older brother and little sister, but as peers and friends.

Lian, you're a champ, and I love you! And I love the cabinets we made together!