December 2021 Update

December… the last month of 2021. Finally! It’s been a while since I’ve been so eager to see a year go (ahem, I’m looking at your 2017) but here we are.

This month, Skylar and I watched season 10 of Call the Midwife and we all rewatched both seasons of Ted Lasso. That show was one of the best things to come out of this year. Laura got me a Ted Lasso T-shirt for my birthday and I absolutely love it!!

Honestly, not a whole lot happened in December other than our usual traditions. Skylar’s tutorial held their annual ice skating event. It was so fun to see Skylar zooming around where previously we both held onto the rail for dear life. I’m now convinced this is a skill every kid/adult should learn even if just for this one time a year.

We lit the menorah every night of Hanukkah and watched all of the Harry Potter movies again. We had our 2nd annual Christmukkah dinner on December 24th and it was even better this year. I made the challah from scratch using GF flour and I was really happy with how it turned out. We swapped the brisket for teres major and Mike did an excellent job with that (it also makes a great steak-and-eggs breakfast!) We also served our Christmas wine that we saved from our visit to the Biltmore along with our usual fare of latkes, matzo ball soup, and donuts. Plus, I served roasted rosemary parsnips picked fresh out of the garden.

Speaking of the garden, I had quite the luffa harvest this year. Several friends stopped by to purchase but I still have 2 totes full. I didn’t do a final count but it was well over 50, probably closer to 75. Garlic, rosemary, and brussel sprouts are the only things left for this year. Soon I’ll start thinking about what seeds I want to order for Spring. It will be here soon.

For my birthday, Mike’s parents cooked my favorite meal – shrimp and grits – and it was so yummy! We also spent the weekend before Christmas with them and had so much fun playing minute-to-win-it games with the whole family.

Ben spent Christmas with us again for the 3rd year and now I just can’t imagine waking up on Christmas morning without him. He’s naturally become a part of our family. Part of my shopping goal for this year included buying from small businesses or brick-and-mortar locations. I would say that I did about 75% of it that way but did have to rely on Amazon for a few things. Stockings remain my favorite part of Christmas morning and I just can’t help myself when it comes to stuffing those things to the brim! Our Scottish neighbor invited us over on Christmas Day and we enjoyed some new foods and traditions with them.

 

Skylar received lots of camping, backpacking, and hiking gear this year. We are lucky to have several trails near us and were able to test out Ace’s new hiking backpack right away on Christmas Day.

Because of the way the holidays fell, we ended up with a whopping 3 weeks off of ALL hockey practices. That in and of itself is a Christmas miracle! Skylar was able to go to Winter Camp with her troop to Camp Pellessippi. Her friend, Frances, also joined Troop 934 and came back to Nashville for a few days to ring in the new year with us. She was a delight to have around!

I had a little bit of an epiphany towards the end of December and it has completely changed my mindset and outlook as we head into 2022. The short version is I’m ready to get back to traveling. There are a host of reasons why we haven’t traveled a lot in the last 2 years but I won’t go into detail here. I realized that travel is an integral part of what makes me happy and I am now hyper-focused on travel and already putting steps in place to make that happen.

Cheers to the new year!