Winter Break

I think the school district we are in is still on winter break. I believe that they decided to just have the kids be off for the two full weeks of Christmas and New Years. I think that around the office people are also still on "winter break" as the past couple of days have been super quiet. The crazy snow storm that rolled through last night left us with about 3 inches or so of accumulation. It is really pretty and is a much lighter, less icy snow than the previous storm last month. This is probably why I am at work today instead of home.

The holidays were very nice. It was relaxing not having to go anywhere, to just enjoy being at home as a family with a visit from my parents. I have been on a tear trying to figure out how to make my chocolate chips soft like they used to be when my mom and I used to make them in my younger years. The margarine quarters we used to use don't seem to be available anymore and my coworker has a theory that the big cutback on trans fats has taken the chewy out of the cookies. My mom said I need to find the Land O Lakes margarine with 80% vegetable oil and the internet is giving me the same information. Now I just have to find them. In the meantime we have an abundance of non-chewy but still delicious chocolate chip cookies in our house.

We spent New Years Eve with friends. We had a sleepover of sorts. Declan and his friend Abby played until around 8:00 and then went to bed. The rest of us enjoyed a fondue dinner and then gathered around the TV to watch Miley Cyrus be ridiculous and then the ball drop. It was a nice way to ring in the new year.

Going into 2014 I am feeling less stressed than I was before the holidays. Jake is currently sick with the cold that Declan had earlier in the week but I am hopeful that everyone will be healthy for a while after this. Our condo has been relisted for sale and I am optimistic that we'll receive an offer soon. The newspapers are touting job growth in our area and a housing market that is starting to pick up so here's hoping. We've started working on Declan's room. It needs to be touched up and repainted from the ceiling down so we have a little bit of work ahead of us but it is nice to have a project to focus on. Jake has started setting up his workshop in the basement with the addition of his new miter saw. Seriously, the thing scares me. First up will be rebuilding the built-in shelves in Declan's room and installing new window trim. Once it gets warmer he will be working on building sliding barn-style doors for our shed. The current doors swing outward which gets in the way of the car parked in the carport, plus they don't really stay closed well.

We are also tentatively starting to talk about taking a little vacation, just the two of us. It would be for our anniversary but we will likely try to go earlier in the year since we are thinking tropical which in July would be pretty miserable I think.

I am very thankful for everything good that came our way in 2013 including our new home and rekindling friendships but it was definitely a challenging year, particularly towards the end. It is time to look forward though and not dwell on it. I hope everyone is getting a good start to 2014 even if it is simply remembering to write the year correct in the date. Did I mention that the Packers managed to squeeze their way into the playoffs? Yeah, there's that too.