Hello 2017!

We had a very small Christmas this year and enjoyed the low-key nature of focusing on spending time with family and friends.  I also realized that my usual list of Christmas things to get us into the spirit no longer works with a preschooler in the house, so we're trying to figure out some new traditions we can all enjoy together.  Making cookies on the Winter Solstice is one of them, picking out and decorating the tree together is another one.  Over the years we've also ran "Santas Little Sweat Shop" cranking out ornaments for gifts and we're finding that we really enjoy making special gifts for everyone - it feels more meaningful and is less stressful than trying to find the perfect thing to buy.  This year we felted wool ornaments and some cat toys and had a lot of fun with it.  The side benefit is that it was budget friendly since we already had most of the materials we needed (the anesthesiologist bill from my surgery arrived in December and further underscored our need for a minimalist Christmas).

Early in December, we were lucky to get a week-long visit from Papa John and Grandmama Susie who were camping nearby at Ft Desoto.  We enjoyed having them over for dinners and showing them the finished house and they returned the hospitality with picnic lunches and playtime at their campsite.  We were so thankful to have that time with them and hope we can make it a yearly tradition - except next time we'll get to camp with them (this year was too cold, boo!)

C had a few rounds of sickness in December (including Christmas Day, which we think was actually from eating a candy cane) so the month was a little hectic but we were happy to get up some decorations and a tree (C wanted ALL of the decor in her room, so it made for a challenging day of decorating).  We also had two rounds of making cookies this year which was really fun and C enjoyed being able to cut out cookies and decorate them.  We spent a fun Christmas Day at my Aunt and Uncle's and C enjoyed seeing everyone and was quite the social butterfly.  She also really enjoyed their cat and dog, and her two Christmas presents - her own sleeping bag, and a camping ice cream maker that we put to use that night (and again on my birthday). 

After Christmas we embarked on our yearly tradition - a camping trip for my birthday (it was the only thing I asked for).  The original plan was for 3 nights, but with weather threatening to get into the 40s at night (and a child who doesn't like to wear clothes at the moment) we realized we could only stay one night.  I was really disappointed to cut the trip short, but we had a treat and camped with friends this year so the joy of spending our time with them made up for the shortened camping time.  We got to paddle, cook over the fire, play, and enjoy warming ourselves around the fire.  I also go to try out our friend's paddle board and I fell in love - it was so peaceful but also a wonderful workout and I saw 6 manatees and got buzzed by a whisper-quiet flock of ducks.  It was a pretty incredible way to start my birthday!  We ended up paying for 2 nights of camping so we could stay late into the afternoon to play more. We packed up camp to head home to meet family for take out sushi (C's first sushi and she loved it).  It was easily the most content I've felt on my birthday in a very, very long time.

The day after my birthday we lit a fire all day (it was freezing out!) while we packed up the Christmas decorations and got the house ready for company and celebrating the New Year.  A lot of friends and some of the blogs I read were all talking about how they could not wait for 2016 to be over, how they were looking forward to all the awful things of 2016 being over and for a fresh year to begin.  And I felt exactly the same way - for the first time in years I was eager to celebrate the New Year.  We put up some decorations, bought party hats, and cooked up a feast with our friend Michelle and her son Gus who stayed for a sleep over.  The kids had so much fun together and we all enjoyed being able to hang out and just enjoy the time together.  Once the kids went to bed (can I say that casually now??) we watched a movie, had some dessert, celebrated the new year, and went to bed pretty pooped.  The next morning we had a lovely brunch, wore party hats, blew the conch horn on the dock, and just lounged around while the kids played.  We had so much fun and were so happy they were able to spend the holiday with us.  It was such a fun way to ring in the New Year!

On New Year's Day we went to our nextdoor neighbor's house for their annual southern-style New Year's Day dinner party, complete with collard greens, black eyed peas, chicken fried steak, and lots of other delicious things.  It was a feast and we had a really lovely time, despite being the youngest people there by at least 20 years.  Everyone loved seeing C (who got all dressed up for the occasion with a dress of her choosing) and we enjoyed talking to everyone - some were other neighbors and some were long-time friends of our neighbor whose family has been in the area for 3 or 4 generations.  C was great the whole time and eventually even worked up the courage to walk around a bit on her own and talk a little to a few people.  It was a really wonderful evening and we both marveled at how different this year was from last now that she started sleeping through the night on her own (a Christmas miracle that happened a week before Christmas!) and we can be more social.  (We realized if she didn't nap during the day she slept more soundly at night and went down earlier for bed, so we scrapped her planned daily nap in favor of having some time together at night.  It's still a work in progress but she seems to be finally getting into some sort of pattern.

On the New Year's holiday on the 2nd we headed down to see Granzie and Poppi on Anna Maria for lunch, playtime, and the beach.  We had fun building a sandcastle on the beach, flying kites, and looking for treasures.  C enjoyed her customary wagon ride, but actually walked most of the way home, another first.

So far, we're holding out hopes for a good year in 2017, and frankly our bar is pretty low since the last two years have been so overwhelming -  2015 was a tough year of adjustment and trying to make house renovations work (refinancing, drawing up plans, getting contractor quotes) until we realized we were desperately trying to cram a square peg in a round hole with not enough money to afford a jig saw to cut off the edges (you want how much money to not even build a new bathroom or kitchen?!).  We made our first offer on our current house just before Christmas of 2015 (which was rejected), but we spent the next month after that prepping the house for the market (painting, carpeting, decorating, fixing things), and 2016 was tumultuous - selling the old house, undergoing treatment for my post-partum depression, finally getting a contract on the new house, staying in 2 rental houses while we sanitized, scraped, repaired, and made the new house habitable, C adjusting to school (2 months of tears), C being sick for 3 months, potty training, my surgery and miscarriage....  we're looking forward to 2017 being a year of stability and being able to settle into our new house and new routines.

Wishing you all health, happiness, and laughter in 2017!!
 
Here's the link to our winter photos.