Happy New Year

Happy 2021!

I make no predictions about the year ahead, but I took off work from the Dec. 24th until tomorrow Jan. 4th and it has been the most wonderful, restorative 10 days.

I thought I might ruminate a bit on the good from the prior year, focus on what I want to do more of, what I'd like to change, etc., but no.

We celebrated in high indoor style on Thursday night (the girls picked out every element of my outfit), eating our favorite foods, playing our favorite games, and watching the fairly sad ball drop in Times Square at midnight EST.

We had a really great night and I've had a really great last 4 days, but I have not been introspective for even a moment. Instead, I've played 600,000 games of Skip-Bo and a new card game my parents taught us called Golf with the kids.

I have watched the entire Bridgerton series on Netflix during cozy mornings snuggled on the couch with my new tea from James while my family sleeps in. I have re-read four books and started a fifth. I have watched the new season of Dream Home Makeover with Claire in the afternoons, played even more Skip-Bo with Cora, assisted with Lego projects, and cooked up a storm.

I marshaled my troops to clean out and reorganize the playroom and kids' rooms and I now don't have to avoid eye contact with the playroom bookshelves.

I have not exercised beyond some short, chilly walks with Maggie and she resists them as much as I do.

We've continued our goal of one activity per day and last Wednesday's was ice skating at Panther Island just north of downtown.

Usually I'm too cheap to do anything that costs money within our own city, but, holiday break goals! I set them!

And it was so fun.

Despite all our skiing and sledding over the years, the kids had never been ice skating! And thanks to their regular roller-blading on our walks, they were GREAT at it!

It was super fun, even in the upper 30's and slightly rainy, and we picked out a takeout treat for the way home and topped it all off with hot chocolate and a movie in the new living room where we spend every single waking moment together and I could not love it more.

On Friday the activity was "family games and painting" and James finished painting one more wall of our bedroom (I decided we needed our side walls to also be dark teal, instead of just the back wall, after James had already painted the side walls white; he was obviously super excited about the change in plan but it looks GREAT). On Saturday we went on my favorite long walk through the neighborhood that ends at the park we found on our first day living here.

I love that the kids still enjoy our rambles, love that we now have 3 of them along for the ride as opposed to the 2 we had when we arrived in this neighborhood we were so lucky to fall into, and love that they play hard together every second until we force them to go home.

(They move a lot faster on wheels than we do on foot, so it's now tradition for the kids to race ahead every half mile or so, go on some off-path adventure, and then join back up with James and I as we pass.)

Today's activity was a day date for James and me. As fun as it's been being with the kids every second of the last week (and I mean that genuinely; it's been really great), we needed some grown-up time, and with Landon going to bed later and indoor dining not being something we're comfortable with right now, the opportunities for non-bedroom quality time and conversation are sparse indeed.

So we left the kids at home midday and went to the new Queen Nefertari exhibition at the Kimball Art Museum. It was so great! Very spread out and safely spaced, it was absolutely amazing to see the 3,000 year old artifacts in such incredible condition and to not have to worry about anyone in our party touching anything they shouldn't. Holding hands and walking through a quiet beautiful space was deeply restorative and I'm so glad James came up with the idea as we were getting ready this morning. Though my whole body kind of freaked out after 2+ hours standing in wedge heeled boots- I'm not sure if it was the verticality or the heels, but my whole spine was wtf'ing on the way home in a way that reminded me that the one-day transition back to normalcy will be its own challenge.

I changed out of my jeans and booties immediately upon returning home at 2:30 p.m. and put back on the Vuori long joggers I ordered not long after my favorite things post and you guys, they are the greatest pants I've ever owned. They are so light and SO soft and they hug my legs in a way that is so flattering (unlike my pj pants) but that isn't restrictive (unlike my leggings). I wore them for nearly 72-hours straight after I opened the package and realized I should probably wash them sometime. This is not something I usually have to remind myself. They're pricey, but I had a 20% off coupon code and they are by far my greatest personal treat purchase of 2020.

I hope to be reflective and introspective at some point soon- 2020 was been a big year in many important ways, but with work gearing back up tomorrow and the kids going back to school Wednesday, I can't make any promises. I can tell you it's Day 73 and I toasted to the New Year with Trader Joe's Sparkling Sugarplum Beverage and I'm more proud of that than anything else.

On a light-hearted note, we have spent a lot of time watching shows this year and need some recommendations for more. We just finished three seasons of Killing Eve, which was great, and need some more gripping, smart, fun, maybe not enormously depressing shows to watch next (James doesn't mind depressing and normally I don't either, but I like to at least alternate with something not completely dark and hopeless).

My absolute favorites of the year were:
The Great- SO good and fun and dramatic
The Queen's Gambit- loved every minute; rewatched the last episode again yesterday
Ted Lasso- THE BEST show I watched this year. It really did not have to be nearly as good as they made it to be, but it was so charming and had such depth in its characters- particularly its female characters- and went well beyond the SNL-like skit setup I assumed I'd be watching. Highly recommend.

We watched a million more I can't remember now and I look forward to your recommendations! I hope you all had a good end to 2020 and good start to 2021. I'm so thankful you're still here reading along and hope to see more of you in this space in the months ahead. Happy New Year!