2020 begins and winter break ends

my final recap from 2019 is our new years eve: 

we had a relaxing, fun night with vanessa, matt, and ewan at our house. i made charcuterie board, meatballs, veggies, chips and guac and they brought some food too. we had way more than we needed, but it was all delicious. 

the kids ran around with their party hats and blowers and we watched the coverage from times square. since we live on the west coast, the ball drop is at 9pm :) their family headed out by 9:15 and we got the kids to bed. thatcher and i didn't stay up much later. NYE success! now onto the roaring 20's...

on new years day, thatcher had off work. i went to the gym right away in the morning, since it's been hard to find the time with the kids off school. january 1st marks 1 year since i started going to the gym. i've gone 2-3x a week for the past year (except if we've been on vacation). i do 25-30 min on the elliptical and 10-15 mins of weights. it's been so good for me mentally and physically. i haven't lost weight (ok, maybe like 3 lbs), but my goals were to increase my endurance, build some muscle, and clear my head - and i've succeeded in all 3. and i genuinely enjoy going. it's great "me time" while listening to music, i can walk there from our house, and it's inexpensive as far as gyms go. 

as you can see january did not bring throngs of new people - haha! 

when i got home, we took down our christmas stuff (wahhhhh). i hate doing it, but new years day has always felt like the "right" time to me. 

i had the brilliant idea to take all the christmas wrapping supplies out of my regular wrapping stuff and put it with the christmas stuff. why didn't i do this sooner? am i the only one?

we mostly hung out at home all day and relaxed. thatcher took azalea on a couple errands to the park with her scooter. for dinner we made home made pad thai and it was so good! 

on monday, tuesday, and thursday last week, the kids were enrolled in a half day gymnastics camp together. it was worth every penny :) it gave me a little breather and time to concentrate on my work, go to the grocery store alone, etc. and they had a blast! 

there was lots of bickering (sooooo much bickering) between these two the past two weeks and on many occasions i didn't think i could make it through 5 more minutes, but there were sweet moments too that i don't want to forget. i took a picture of them sharing a pancake on one plate with one fork. azalea has also been a life-saver when it comes to comforting ashford when he is feeling anxious. she is so patient with him and has laid in his bed with him til he falls asleep many times over this break. she's such a sweet big sister. 

the rest of the week included a park meet up with some families from ashford's class, a trip to mcdonalds for lunch + playland, a birthday party that both kids were invited too and it was optional drop off, so i left for an hour to do this: 

and now we are back to the school routine! a few days ago we booked a trip for the kids mid-winter break in february to go to washington dc and visit thatcher's sister and our nephew who are living there until they move overseas in the spring.