Between Christmas and New Year's Michelle, Natalie, and I went ice skating and ate at a Chinese restaurant we had never tried before while Hubby and Danny went to a really good college basketball game and Kate hung out with friends. Michelle finished both of the puzzles I bought her for Christmas and I was mortified to see the one I special ordered had 999 pieces instead of 1,000. Luckily there was a simple process to get the puzzle replaced and they even let me pick out a new one. I chose "Central Park" to remind her of the trip she took to New York City with the middle school music program last summer.
Everything wasn't all sunshine and rainbows while we had off work and school. When I went to get seconds on my breakfast smoothie one morning and the entire remainder of smoothie suddenly fell out in a giant blob, it just felt fitting. I suppose this is a good time to remind myself that life is 50/50.
Our big outing of the week was to visit "Ice! A Christmas Story" at Gaylord of the Rockies. I loved seeing the ice sculptures and appreciated the parkas they gave us for another layer of warmth. Kate had wanted to hang out with friends but knew I had purchased a ticket for her so she called Grandma and asked if she wanted to go in Kate's place. I think my mom and I are the ones that ended up enjoying the evening the most! I downloaded the movie onto my iPad for the drive there and back since Natalie had never seen the movie and it was a joy to hear my mom laughing so very hard at the dogs eating the Christmas turkey.
Going down that beautiful slide made me want to buy a Go Pro!
A super nice family took this picture for us after I decided not to purchase the $45 green screen group photo. I think they did a better job anyway but I am glad another nice stranger offered to take our photo when we were all wearing those parkas.
New Year's Eve found us girls and Hubby at home. I had seen this game on Instagram so hit the 50% off Christmas sales at Walgreens and Target to find prizes. It produced a lot of laughs and I would love to make this a New Year's Eve tradition. Kate had her friend E over and while they watched movies in the basement the rest of us played a lot of different games with candy canes and watched not only The Princess Diaries but also Love Again in order to stay up until midnight. I had actually read the book Love Again recently and I thought the movie was better! There was no Celine Dion in the book so enough said. Oh, and I highly recommend this trio from Trader Joe’s on NYE! Don’t forget to warm the Wassail & listen to the song too.
Danny chose to go hang out with friends from school in the afternoon and then go to a former basketball teammate's New Year's Eve party. I hope he thinks it was worth it. I love that kid so very much but I wish I could teach him what priorities and goals and choices all have to do with each other in a way that he could understand and implement.
A friend shared this graphic so I wanted to write down which books I listened to from the following: Lessons in Chemistry (I'm still working on the tv show), Spare (seemed like a string of memories put together -- not an actual book), A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (per Michelle's request and I could see why she liked it so much), Remarkably Bright Creatures (my favorite of these for sure), The Midnight Library (proving there is no point wasting time on "what could have been"), and I began reading Red White & Royal Blue and it was was a really cute RomCom but eventually I had to stop reading because it got too spicy for me. I know, I'm a pansy.
If my memory and Pinterest list are serving me well, I just finished listening to book #49 of the year called Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. That is actually a huge jump from my 26 books last year but I also watched a lot less tv this year. My number one favorite book of the year was, of course, historical fiction and called The Four Winds by, of course, Kristin Hannah. I also read Home Front by Kristin Hannah and that was really really good too. That woman really knows how to bring the past alive and make you cry. Favorite cute story would be Dance of Thieves (Michelle's favorite book ever) and the sequel, Vow of Thieves. Most thought provoking would be Defending Jacob & I liked the tv show too. Most depressing was Go As A River but I did appreciate how it portrayed the birth and adoptive mothers in the story. Dune was definitely the longest book I listened to and I actually had to check it out from the library twice to finish and I think the shortest book was Blended, which was a book Natalie purchased from the Scholastic Fair. (It was like an elementary version of The Hate You Give.) Surprisingly I didn't read a whole lot of nonfiction this year but my favorite in that category would actually be Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton but The Mosquito Bowl was pretty good too. I've got to get at least one WWII book in every year, don't I?
Although the Barbie movie had mixed reviews in our house, I still think was the best movie of 2023. We also enjoyed watching other '23 films such as Mario Brothers, Ghosted, The Family Plan, and Michelle and I liked The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes but we weren't huge fans of Family Switch or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 or Ant Man Quantumania or The Haunted Mansion. I wanted to like them but just couldn't. A movie that Michelle found that I really liked and no one has seemed to notice is Purple Hearts on Netflix. (I think I’ve watched it 4 times already and I’ve listened to the soundtrack countless times.)
I've had this blog post ready for a few days but didn't feel like ending the entire year on a Purple Hearts recommendation. lol. Honestly, I don't know what to think about 2023 as a whole and I have no idea what I specifically want for 2024. So I went ahead and skimmed over our blog for a top 10 best and worst memories of 2023:
Worst:
10. Danny's Valentine's Day weekend buzz cut and paying for all the hair cuts (and a perm) afterwards
9. Watching Hubby deal with the pain of planning a family reunion (see Best #8, though)
8. Realizing I have no control over report cards/teenagers in general
7. Feeling like I'm not doing a good job showing up in the world the way I want to
6. Watching my youngest child cry her way to a school district sponsored dyslexia summer camp
5. The amount of tears shed when my oldest decided to stop playing volleyball
4. Watching my middle daughter mourn the lost of her pet rabbit
3. Seeing my son continue to struggle after his traumatic brain injury
2. Watching the domino effect of a terrible teenager temple recommend interview (see Best #1 because I wouldn't have the one without the other)
1. Y's death. We still cry for the loss of that precious 9 year old a lot. Holding the water works back now.
Best:
10. Seeing a professional artist take photos of Michelle with her viola/appreciating all the wonderful humans I know
9. Those times when my family seems happy to be together/laughter in my home
8. Having Hubby's family come visit us
7. Getting to tag along on Hubby's work trip to the Space Coast
6. Taking a trip to Omaha and seeing the magic of baseball on a whole new level
5. Watching my kids play sports/perform
4. Helping Kate celebrate her Sweet 16 at Disneyland
3. Taking my youngest to Universal Florida for the first time
2. Visiting Maine for the first time to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary
1. Learning to love others and trust Jesus & personal revelation more fully
Bring it on, 2024!
Comments