- Happy 2022!!
- (Last time we did a confetti picture, it turned out fine, but the blooper is still one of my all time favorite Abby’s Saturday outtakes!!)
- Well, Christmas is over.
If that’s not the most depressing statement, I don’t know what is. I love Christmas & I wish it lasted longer every single year (maybe in 2022, we should make Christmas a multi-day event – I mean, the 12 Days of Christmas is a thing, right?)
Anyways – we celebrated Christmas Eve with my Meme & Grandpa (as our usual family tradition), had our own special Christmas dinner that night and then: Christmas morning. It was the most magical morning – Braelynn was up at 5:18am, completely ready to go. We (somehow) managed to wait until about 6:45am to wake up Leander & go downstairs!
I have so much to say & share from this Christmas – it was absolutely wonderful – too many words to write here, so I’m putting all of my memories & thoughts into a blog post that’s coming on Tuesday (so, stay tuned!)
I do have to share: Derrick pulled off the best gift ever & surprised me by having booked a week-long AirBnB in Florida & tickets to Walt Disney World!! I cried – it was epic. We’re headed to Florida this spring!!
And well, we’re still celebrating Christmas! This weekend, we’re celebrating with the Abbeys!! We rung in the New Year last night (even Braelynn stayed up until midnight!) and today we’re celebrating Derrick’s Dad’s birthday!!
I have so much more to say, but I’ll save it Tuesday when I share photos & more from our Christmas holidays! - Potty training update (since I know everyone lives for the details on our son’s potty progress): I am proud to announce that we haven’t had any accidents this week!! Say what?! Thru Christmas & being in different people’s houses – Leander has done AMAZING!!
The week before Christmas, we took a trip down to Virginia to visit Kings Dominion & Busch Gardens for Christmas & we worried that the trip might derail us, but he did SO good & took the entire trip in stride.
I am SO proud of how far we’ve come! (Now, we just need to work on pooping & peeing into the toilet instead of “out” of the toilet.) But, I’m just so proud of our little guy (and us) for making it this far!! It has definitely been a long road! - In other (super exciting) news, I was doing a bunch of my “end of year” business tasks – cleaning up all of my files, putting 2021 stuff “away”, finalizing my finances, paying my sales tax – you know, super exciting stuff. Well, one of the things I always do at the end of every year is make sure all of my business finances balance. Last year, it took me weeks to balance my accounts – it’s a long story, and I did eventually figure it out, but it took (literally) weeks. It was so stressful. Needless to say, I was a little nervous this year – but I dove in because it needed done.
I’m very proud to say that 2 hours later – I resurfaced from my accounts (fists full of “virtual” statements & ledgers) with a perfectly balanced account. I felt SO good. (Almost too good, you know? Like, wait – is that right? Am I sure I didn’t miss something?) But I slammed the book shut & declared the task done – no need to spend weeks agonizing over it this time – we’re all good! 2022, I’m ready for you! - So, here we are: the sand in the glass of the holiday hourglass draining faster than ever. We are determined to soak up every last second of the next 2 days before life settles “back to normal” next week – back to school & work!
Normally, I dread the end of the holidays because we’re now faced with a few long, dark, cold months (no traveling, no roller coasters, no weddings to photograph). But 2022 is different!! When I look forward, instead of seeing a long stretch of “nothing”, there are some really bright lights leading the way back to summer!
Braelynn’s birthday is in just a few weeks! It’s time to kick it into party-planning gear!
Valentine’s Day is right after that (it’s not a major holiday, but it’s something!)
The end of February/beginning of March will bring my sister Amy’s baby shower (another big party to plan – yay!!)
And then April will be right around the corner & our 12th wedding anniversary and our big trip to Disney!!
We’ll come home & it’ll be May!!
2022 is going to be the best year yet.