Holiday Wrap Up

Hey there! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New year. The holidays were a great excuse to slow down, spend a lot of time together and check a few things off the to-do list as well. The only thing I was bummed about was the lack of a white Christmas. Every year we watch It’s a Wonderful Life and for some reason that movie is always better when snuggled up inside a warm house while the snow is piled up high outside. Every time I watch George Baily run through those giant snow drifts screaming Merry Christmas to everything in sight, it really makes me nostalgic for the cold, snowy Christmases of my childhood. But still, we had a great time. Like many of you probably did, I found myself drinking in moments of abundance and love letting my heart swell in gratitude for this sweet little family of mine.

Being in a new city and really the new city we found ourselves trying to figure out our Christmas traditions again, sometimes with a new twist thrown in. For example we went to go see Santa at Entertrainment Junction (not a typo). After visiting Santa we ended up in some sort of fun house, circus-y type room. Santa and mirror mazes? OK, we can roll with it… the girls ate it up and of course didn’t notice any incongruity in the festivities. And in typical kid fashion we dragged them there kicking and screaming (This is going to be boring! I don’t want to go!) and then dragged them away kicking and screaming again (I don’t want to leave! That was so fun! I want to go back again!!). Le sigh.

Zuzu was sick Christmas Sunday, so no family photo that day… but I believe this is Charlie the elf’s first photo bomb.

We ended up getting many more cards that didn’t fit onto our card tree, but still I smiled every time I walked past this wall so grateful for all the wonderful people we’ve crossed paths with in our life.

Zuzu’s first birthday was uh…very low key. The obligatory cupcake, birthday song and a few presents. Done and done. Throwing a birthday right into the holiday festivities isn’t easy, hopefully in a year or two I’ll be on my A game. As a little tip I made 2 cupcakes from this one bowl 2 cupcake recipe and so glad I did! I mean you’ve got to have the cupcake moment but a whole batch was too much work and too much sugar on top of all the other holiday treats. This was the perfect solution.

Remember the DIY Christmas gifts I linked to? Well I tried my hand at the Jess Brown style rag dolls and made these for the two little girls. I think they turned out great! I was really pleased and the girls like them. But of course Zuzu just happens to love the doll I didn’t give to her. Babies.

PSP’s favorite gift was the violin from her grandparents. Her dad has been playing since he was 4(!) so this was a great moment to watch these two violining together. Of course it wasn’t all laughs and giggles. Remember that movie the Cutting Edge where an ex-hockey player learns to be the other half of a figure skating duo and the experienced yet snooty Kate keeps saying, toe pick to the rugged yet sensitive Doug over and over again until he wants to punch her in the ovaries? Yeah that was the way it went with PSP in these first few violin lessons with her dad, except for toe pick it was bow hold. I think she handled the constant reminders rather well for a 7 year old, but a little frustration may have leaked out here and there. We haven’t started lessons yet so I’m just hoping she can make it through the un-fun part of learning an instrument so she can enjoy the fun part because baby girl, that is life in a nut-shell. Moving on…

Oh look, I was there too.

I love Zuzu’s shirt and pretty much want to shout it from the rooftops. I think it’s a great reminder for me and everyone and the year to come.

You

Tiful.

Migs