New Year!

The year ended without so much as a peep from this blog. Oops! I am slowly realizing that we are one of the last houses in the neighborhood to still have decorations up, but that could be due to the variety of cultures here, some of which do not celebrate with lights and trees to begin with. While it is still so dark outside so early in the evening, I use every ray of the twinkling lights on the tree for ambiance and warmth. The cloudiness that I should be accustomed to during the winter months in the southeast is still a little surprising to me after three years of daily, bright sunshine, literally about 360 days of the year. If it weren't for the noticeably growing daylight hours, and the fact that Target already has miniature pots of strawberry seeds and bikinis out on display, I would be more inclined to believe that winter is going to last forever. I can't get on facebook without the local weatherman's page telling me more about the arctic blast that will leave us all frozen after a few weeks. It starts tomorrow. Keep telling me that running in freezing temps is not so bad, ok?

So Christmas came! We had a cozy Christmas Eve and Day with the three of us celebrating by first going to a candlelight service, through which we made it approximately 10 minutes. Hunter hadn't napped, and all the excitement and darkness and music was putting him to sleep at 6 pm (most likely to wake around 8 pm for many hours), which would not have aligned well with Santa's plans. Instead we booked it  back home to feed the reindeer and put Santa's cookies out.

Two and a half is just the right age to start to understand how exciting Christmas can be, but I still think I was more excited than Hunter was. That sweet boy didn't tear through presents, but would find one and open it and play with it so long that we had to convince him to look at others.

New BFF

 

The joy

And then we can cook soup, and baked potatoes, and ....

 

Rescue cars? Cool!

 

They actually fit?

 

You got measuring cups? Perfect, because I got food.

Just before New Year's Eve, we drove to Germantown to see my family and celebrate with them: Christmas Part 2. It was cold, so there was no horsebackriding this time, but seeing the cousins and Nana and Granddaddy of course, was plenty of entertainment for Hunter.

We are missing Ethelyn and Ethan and Austin, and most of Jeremy, and I'm a little shaky with my panoramas, but you get the idea.

H and I started to develop a nasty cold on New Year's Eve, which thankfully explained his crankiness from the day. Unfortunately it is probably the worst one he has ever had, and we are both still sick almost a week later. Happy New Year!

Next up for us is a weekend trip to Kentucky to see Jeremy's family: Christmas Part 3. I am more than a little thankful that the toddler and I will be flying while Jeremy drives the 6 or so hours. No carseat! 

A kiss for the angel

We are looking forward to an exciting 2015! Happy New Year!