I usually want the tree to have cute woodsy ornaments, with glass and gold accents. So pretty.
But these guys have been sorely neglected for many years.
It's pickle and potato year, my dears.
With all the changes our family has gone through these last few years, we aren't all together for birthdays anymore. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE our new tradition of singing "Happy Birthday" over facetime.
It's my new favorite!
Hey, 2023!
We aren't that sad to see you go.
You were kind of ...ALOT
2 car accidents, a knee surgery, 4 car purchases, saying goodbye to Tootsie.
It wasn't all bad, we weathered some choppy waters with the resident teens, survived our first year as gym owners, somehow managed to by 4 cars without going in to debt, went to our first Crossfit games, Megan started college, Mathew got a great job, Ethan proposed to Kassie....
We'll celebrate all of that AFTER we kick 2023 to the curb.
BYEEEE!
Year two of pickleball at the gym!
This year felt a little different with the advent calendar. We are busier. We have 3 kids gone...done up and moved away. I'm working and we often leave early for the gym. Laney leaves for school super early so as to not have to park between cars... a solid strategy for a new driver.
December 1st fell on a Friday, the only day I get up and go to work by 6 am. I figured Mark would take photos while I was gone, but they decided to get up at 5:30 so I could be a part of the kick-off!
Until next year!
The older kids are moving forward with their lives and so Christmas time feels a little different. They' are setting up their own Christmas trees and deciding which of our traditions they will carry on with and finding fun new ones.
I love getting pictures on our family group chat of their new adventures!
Mathew and his little Macy in Idaho!
Megan was happy to take our mini tree and load it up in her Mini cooper and drive it back to her apartment in Lawrence.
I love these big kids!
Oh Wallace.
You started out innocently enough, then you morphed into a whole thing.
We've been going to Wallace since 2016. This was our 8th year.
We've seen in grow and become almost unmanageable...kids running wild, teenagers flirting and "fighting", splinter groups going for hikes and pick-up football games, moms napping in hammocks.
Now the teenagers are adults and off gaining educations or getting married. The littles are moving into the teenage space and claiming their own firepits each night so they can have conversations outside of parental earshot. Little do they know we are happy to give them their space.
It makes me wonder how many more years we will go out to Wallace.
This year it was just me and AJ and Everly. Mark promised to come up for a night and wanted to use his barrel smoker to make some burnt ends. Whatever works!
Other families have shrunk down...the Flynns had no kids there at all but made up for it with a new puppy, the Peterson's were just Amy and Syd, Jensons just Heather and Katie. We're still missing the Guenthers.
It was...quiet.
That was the last photo I took...I didn't know that the next day would bring an attack of the "bees". They weren't just after our open soda cans of syrup drips, they wanted us. I got stung on the arm and AJ got one on the finger and the leg. We packed as early and as quickly as we could to avoid the warm part of the day, when the little buttheads seemed to really emerge en masse.
In the end, we pretty much frantically toseed everything haphazardly in the back of the truck and tried to drive out of beeshot. We pulled over to strap everything down and the bees were still looking for us.
Fair to say, not really our favorite year at Wallace. It might actually be our last year at Wallace!
Time will tell.
It was kind of strange. But Wallace felt different this year.
Not even my new camp stove could give me that old Wallace feeling.
Until next year, Wallace.
