Extra Winter Break

The last official day of winter break was last Sunday and we went to brunch with my best friend and her husband so that she and I could commiserate about how quickly the two weeks had passed, but thanks to a snow storm, we ended up having five extra days off school! It was actually a pretty significant amount of snow for this area, and it was wet and heavy, so it caused a lot of power and transportation issues. The weight of the snow caused many of our trees to bend/fold over and we had a lot of broken branches in our yard.

We also lost power, but fortunately, it was restored after a few hours. During that time, our neighbor came over to check on us and see if my mom was ok because they had a generator and they wanted to be sure she had power for her oxygen concentrator. I was so touched by this! We explained that she was living near B1 and S1 right now because of covid concerns with me being around so many people at school each day, but honestly, how incredibly thoughtful of them to come over to check on us! (And just FYI, we do have a generator for that exact reason of my mom's oxygen concentrator, but we weren't about to use the generator just for the two of us!)

We also live on a hill and our road is private, so we don't have any snow removal services. One of our neighbors has a snow blower, and many times, when there has been less snowfall, they've cleared a path down the hill so that we are aren't all snowed in. However, this was some serious snow and it was just too much for their snow blower. They managed to find someone who would come and plow the road for us, so by Tuesday afternoon, we were able to get down our road safely. 

There are only five houses on our cul-de-sac, and we generally all keep to ourselves, but when we need each other, I know I can count on them!

I've made no secret of the fact that I absolutely love winter, and it was so unbelievably beautiful after the storm! This extra week off was such an unexpected gift and although reality will set in when I return to school tomorrow, this has been a very lovely start to 2022!

C was going around our yard
shaking the snow off the trees
in hopes of fewer broken branches

how my bun and the ears on my hat
looked after shoveling

by later in the day,
the sun was out

the day after the storm

a winter wonderland

pretending we're back in Canada

Happy Tails to you!

2021: A Look Back

2020 was not a good year. We all know that. When it finally ended, I was hopeful that 2021 would be better.

Turns out that such optimism was poorly placed. At least it felt that way when I sat down to write this post because the final three months of the year were so terrible.

However, when I actually looked back at the entire year, the first nine months of the year were pretty good, which is saying something since we're still dealing with a global pandemic.

Not only is this an excellent example of the primacy/recency effect, it also perfectly reflects how I have lost all sense of time since March 2020. It doesn't seem possible that some of these things happened in 2021 because the end of the year went by so incredibly slowly for me.

The best adventure of the year was deciding to go to all 50 states in 2021, a checklist we completed in September! So many memorable moments as we worked our way around the country...especially spring break in Hawaii, driving to the Arctic Circle in Alaska, and staying at Crater Lake Lodge. We spent hours, days, and weeks in the car together and our summer road trip was an incredible quest that we hope to do again someday! We went to WDW for C's birthday, took Ginny for countless rides, walks, and even her first hotel stays, and I got to spend a week at WDW with my mom, just the two of us. We also went to four new baseball stadiums (Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, and Minnesota Twins) and one new hockey arena (Seattle Kraken), and were so fortunate to spend a week in Portugal. We also finally saw C's parents after two years, even though the reason for the trip to Canada was to attend my grandma's burial service.

There is of course, one event from the year that overshadowed everything else. Losing our Ginny. It was not only the most devastating thing to happen this year, it was one of the worst experiences of my life. It's been 85 days and it still sometimes feels like it just happened. However, whenever we are overcome with grief, we remind each other of all of the entertaining things she did and we end up smiling and laughing at our memories of her. She was so special because she was with us when we lost our other seven girls, and because she was with us - and particular C - every moment during this crazy pandemic. She was such a gift and we miss her every day, but we are carrying those happy memories of her and each of her sisters with us into 2022 and beyond.

Happy Tails to you!

27 Years!

On New Year's Eve, we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary! We originally had a trip planned, but we decided to postpone it and stick close to home, so we ended up getting tickets to see John Oliver at the Kennedy Center! We got a hotel so that we wouldn't have to deal with driving home after the show, so we spent the day in DC, went to the show at 9:30 pm, and made it back to the hotel just in time to ring in the new year!

We are huge fans of Last Week Tonight, and John Oliver's stand up is just as entertaining! Plus, the Kennedy Center is a beautiful venue, and C and I had not been there since 1989 when we were on a band trip from Canada. That's a pretty embarrassing realization, given that we live so close to it. We are definitely going to make an effort to attend more performances there!

Since it was our 27th anniversary, I found 27 pics of us from 2021 and it was a nice little trip down memory lane! Despite devastating challenges that life sometimes throws our way, the pics are proof of some very happy times this past year! At the end of the day, as long as we're together, it doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing!

remembered to bring the sparkling wine
for a New Year's toast

forgot to bring glasses with us,
so we had to use these
LOL

thankful to be navigating
this crazy world with him
by my side

Happy Tails to you!

Christmas 2021

To be perfectly honest, I was really not feeling Christmas-y at all this year.

channeling my inner David Rose

However, we had family at our house for a week and it's hard to be grinchy when you're around your little niece and nephew at Christmas time! We read books, played, made lots of cookies, decorated gingerbread houses, and fed the birds and squirrels who visit our deck daily. Seeing Christmas through their eyes was pretty great and I'm so grateful for all of the time we were able to spend together! In addition to my mom, B1, B2, S1, S2, our niece, and our nephew, S2's parents came over and spent Christmas Day with us, which was so nice! We love them and consider them our family, too!

B2 and S2 brought their two dogs with them, and I loved having Max and Kaz here. You may recall that B2 was living with us when he adopted Max in 2010, and Max grew up with our Dachshunds and he and Ginny had an insanely loving relationship. This led to the saddest moment from Christmas week was when B2 and Max arrived; this was Max's first visit back to our house since Ginny died. As soon as he got in the house, Max frantically ran around looking for Ginny and sniffed every surface imaginable in his search. I kept telling him, "She's not here, Max," and after a while, I think he realized the truth. He ultimately climbed up into a chair, dug up the cushion, and curled up alone. It was absolutely heartbreaking to witness. He was sad, but he also seemed to sense how sad we were, because he spent much of the week sitting beside us and resting his head on our laps. I love him so much and having him here was awesome and I can't wait until he's here again for another visit. Anyone who thinks dogs don't think and understand and feel as deeply as we do has clearly never really known a dog.

To shift from the saddest moment to the very best moment that happened during this holiday...my four-year old niece and I were sitting together in my library on Christmas Eve, just hanging out and chatting, and out of the blue, she told me, "Auntie Lesley, I love you more than mac and cheese ~ that's my favorite food ~ and I love you more than Christmas." Those words meant more to me than she will ever know.

Maddy used to love sleeping in the sun
under the tree in the foyer,
so we recreated that scene

had this in the family room last year,
but we put it in the entryway because
I like it in the center of the house
rather than in a corner

the house felt whole again

missing Ginny

he was so sad

I love him like he's my own

he offered silent comfort and support all week

indescribably great to have a dog
hanging out on the couch again

be still my heart

Kaz hanging out in the kitchen to immediately
gobble up any food dropped on the floor

such a gentle giant

exhausted by all the activity

this is C's mom's recipe for smartie cookies,
which my niece renamed smarty pants cookies;
the kitchen was a disaster,
but the memories are priceless

despite the lack of standardization in terms of
the number of smarties on each cookie,
they were delicious

my niece helped set the table...

and made place cards for everyone

my brother wrapped my gift in this

so clever!

colored lights make me so happy

one of Max's favorite spots is the
landing on the stairs and I thought
he looked so cute here,
sleeping in the glow of the lights

Happy Tails to you!