happy new year!

hello again! how is everyone! happy new year!

this photo is from earlier this morning when we settled back into the swing of things with a celebratory bagel run before the older kiddos took off to school once again. the break felt very restful for all of us, although we’re out of routine and the mad dash before school drop off felt a little groggy. maybe it has something to do with the fact that bedtime hour somehow kept getting pushed further and further back as the break carried on. i have three sweet talkers on my hands who know how to bat their lashes just right when they say things like, “i’m not very sleepy yet!” “how about we play for just ten more minutes?” “we promise to sleep in tomorrow!”

our christmas break was filled with lots of lego building, dressing up time, fort-making, and movie watching together on the sofa bed in our front room. a rather lazy several days in an apartment that was hardly ever tidy but frequently smelled like homemade ginger cookies because it’s that time of year where josh keeps them coming fresh and hot out of the oven, so it sort of canceled out the tidiness factor even if i did bruise my shin in the dark one night on a booby-trapped hallway the boys put together before bedtime, because you know, the phrase movie marathon is code for home alone. other highlights included watching samson order an oyster at christmas dinner and take a liking to it enough to order a second. that late night game of kick ball in the park after dark, just our family. an 8:15 in the morning viewing of mary poppins which meant we had the entire theater practically to ourselves with plenty of room for josh and me to waltz to the end credits and realize we’ve entered a new phase of life where we actually can and do embarrass our oldest daughter. (but also, can we talk about how good that movie was? and can we also discuss how great movies at 8AM can be?!) snuck in a couple of naps which felt extravagant, and hid all my social media apps in a folder on the last page of my phone for all of break as well, which felt extravagant in its own right with the amount of free time i found myself with! something i definitely plan to do more of in 2019, and highly recommend.

happy new year to all of you and your beautiful families! wishing you a january with lots of marshmallows in your hot chocolate, snuggles from your loved ones and a way to seek out where the sunshine hits even on the gloomiest coldest january day. sometimes it means simply crossing the street and walking on the other sun drenched side. and sometimes it means stretching first thing in the morning to some madonna and throwing on a bold bright lip to carry you through the day, even if staying under the covers is all you really want. either works. let’s do this. welcome, new year!