Year's End

Home again home again...

Back to the pool we go, for the Heights relay meet.  It was a fun day, topped off by our boy setting meet records in two races and posing for medal photos right in front of his own Senior photo. :)

Holly and I had a fun spontaneous date night to see Peter/Wendy at Dobama because the kids did not have energy to come along.

What a sweet show!  Just a delight from start to finish.  We are so lucky to have theater like this right in the neighborhood. 

Monday- a last minute surprise when my lovely friend Jen from high school was in town and free for dinner.  We spent the afternoon doing errands and buying ALLL the food with Jen from college :) Then all of us cooked an Indian feast and drank wine and talked up a storm.  A great night.

Took Ivy and Vio out to play with horses at Mallory's on Tuesday, and treated ourselves to a stop at the ASM headquarters dome on the way home. 

Then spent the rest of New Year's Eve being incredibly prouctive, clearnig and rearranging and adding storage in the kitchen...

and cleaning out and prepping the basement for our new workout room, or the "no excuses room" as we are calling it because we are getting our lives togeher in 2025, dammit.

New Year's Eve!  

After much reflection I opted out of our traditional friends NYE party.  I am moving into 2025 committed to radical honesty and authenticity and as such, I am not spending time and energy on relationships or in spaces  where I feel like I have to hide who I am.  This is not an easy thing to commit to and comes with many emotions, but it is important.

So- we went to Studio West with some Windie friends around whom I can express all of my identity and talk about all of my relationships.  We  were surrounded by a delightful mix of humanity, people being unabashedly themselves. and it felt great. 

As we head into 2025, with the knowledge that we will be living in a changing and uncertain world after January 20th, I am choosing to focus on the light.

The light within me- letting it shine bravely

The light in others- recognizing it with compliments and kindness

The light in community- choosing my spaces where my light can best combine with others

The light in the universe- the beauty of our natural world

The light of hope and strength and resilience that is always there under the surface, even in the darkest times.

Happy New Year, loves.  Wishing you so much light. 

 

Christmasing it up

We had a whirlwind of a Christmas this year, fitting in five festive events in three days, each one picture perfect. We are a lucky crew, I tell you.

Stan Hywet on December 23rd was bustling and so beautiful that one almost didn't notice the cold drizzle.  There was still snow on the ground so we bundled up and pretended it was a nice night out-- and had a grand time.

 And then it was Christmas Eve!

A calm start to the day at home...

Then Christmas lunch with Holly's mom and grandma at Longhorn, then we picked up the kids for a Christmas-on-Christmas-Eve experience at Crestland.

We frosted cookies, did stockings, had brunch for dinner, then opened a bountiful tree-ful of presents.

These sweet kids were well spoiled and had a good time of it.

My sweet sister carries on our mom's Hallmark ornament tradition each year, and included Holly this year.   I was touched.

So glad Jen joined us for the day.

Towards the end of tree presents, I got a text from our friend Kate: "Hey, Dave and I are getting married in about 30 minutes, here's the zoom link if you want to join"  Of course we did!  So we logged on at 6 before heading to church and it was noisy and sweet and just a fun surprise. I love love, and these two are a great example of it. 

Then off to Christmas Eve services.  Without a real church "home" we opted to try the pageant at First Baptist and it did not disappoint.  Real live llamas!  In the church!!

Plus the building is super churchy and beautiful, and the music ws top notch.

And, the show was directed by one of our kids' favorite teachers, Mrs. Preston!

Then back to Superior for our traditional Christmas Eve- 

Candles, cocktails, one present, and readings of David Sedaris'  Six to Eight Black Men and The Night Before Christmas.

All is calm, all is bright...

Home to Crestland for the night and for a "just us"  Christmas morning in the early hours of the 25th...

Then over to Superior before it was light, to start Christmas morning festivitives with the kids.. poor Ivy had been up waiting for 2 hours by the time I arrived... and then had to wait longer for Jack to emerge...

We enjoyed our bounty and a good breakfast and generally trashed the place before running off to NY in our traditional fashion.

Arrived at Claire's right on time for pre-Christmas dinner socializing...

And a lovely meal with the most delicious potatoes and lots of laughter...

One more gift exchange to end the night....

It was such a treat to spend time with all the triplets in one place!  

We gotto see Stephanie's family and Betsey and Peter the next day, and went out for fancy drinks at the Argos with Jamie and Casey and Aimee and Steve.

A quick visit but we fit it all in! Headed home on the 27th to get our little swimmers home in time for their next meet....