December 2018 Family Update

Thankfully I was able to spend most of December in Nashville with Mike, Skylar, and Onyx. I’m so thankful for the community of family and friends in Birmingham who helped with mom this month so I could be HOME to celebrate the holidays with my people. Even though I’ve been here for a few weeks the time really did fly. For starters, we were catching up on dentist, orthodontist, eye doctor, and vet appointments for all of us.

We did manage to squeeze in some holiday fun like Ice Skating, Chad’s Winter Wonderland, Christmas at the Gaineys, and the Mt. Juliet Christmas Parade with New Tribe. We also decorated gingerbread houses and worked on a little sewing project.

We found out that Boy Scouts of America will be forming a girl’s troop in our area starting in February and that pretty much consumed Skylar’s thoughts for most of the month. I could hardly get her to do anything else other than reserch BSA! We are so excited about the possibilities for her in Troop 934. She’s already gotten her uniform and I’ve sewn on her patches. She has big aspirations to achieve the rank of First Class this year and we’ll be cheering her on. Mike and I are both volunteering with Good Neighbors Funding at the Pred’s games to help outfit their troop and get them off to a good start.

For Christmas, Mike was off for 4 days and it was so nice to have him home. My mantra for this month has been to “Slow Down” and to really love on my people. It basically resulted in a to-do list a mile long but the time we had together was sweet and not rushed. We kicked off the weekend with the Harry Potter marathon, which has become a tradition. On Sunda,y we spent the evening with Mike’s family opening gifts and enjoying yummy appetizers. On Monday we went to the candlelight service at New Tribe, which is always so special and I enjoy it so much!

On Christmas morning, we opened gifts here before heading to Mike’s sisters for breakfast. We did all “experience” gifts for Skylar this year in addition to her stocking (this is her favorite). Mike got an air fryer and I got the Oregon Trail board game. We had some friends over on Christmas evening to play board games and had so much fun! Afterwards, Skylar and I stayed up watch the Call the Midwife Christmas Special, which is one of my favorite traditions.

One of Skylar’s first “experiences” was to go to the Music City Bowl where Auburn crushed Purdue. It was her first Auburn game and her first bowl game. We also got tickets for Mike’s parents and our nephew, which made for a fun day all around!

The rest of the week has been spent cleaning up Christmas and trying to get things ready for me to go back to Birmingham. We did find out that mom has been approved for home healthcare so we should have a nurse starting soon. This will allow me to feel better about being home and I can get Skylar re-enrolled in our homeschool co-op and other activities including youth group and scouts.

Overall, 2018 has been a great year. It was definitely full of challenges but, ultimately, I really do believe this was our #BlessedYearEver. I can’t wait to write my 2018 year in review! A few highlights were reading 25 non-fiction books including the entire Bible in chronological order. I traveled to DC, Atlanta, Panama City Beach, St. Louis, and Las Vegas. I won a car and paid off all of our other vehicles (as well as Skylar’s braces) and still managed to put $10K in savings. Mike changed companies and I started a new business. I was also able to spend 5 months helping mom in Birmingham. My word for the year was “community” and I definitely experienced that. I’m so thankful to live a life that’s an equal mix of predictability and adventure. Here’s to 2019!