It's been busy and it's been a roller coaster. It's been cold. It's gotten warmer. It's gotten colder again. Monkey had her choir concert (which was absolutely lovely) and we survived the last few weeks of school before the winter break. We went to 2 Christmas Eve church services (one with the Pentecostals, one with the Anglicans with frankincense) and then the Christmas morning service again with the Anglicans.
It was our first Christmas without the Magic (after a deep conversation with the youngest after last Christmas) and my Christmas morning was a lot more emotional than I was expecting. I woke up abruptly with vivid images of blond curly hair, holidays past, and I had a difficult time keeping the tears from flowing all morning. Survived though.
We took a very serious approach to the winter break this year, with the goal being hibernation. We ate, we slept, we hunkered down. There were a handful of times that we went to the track to just move our bodies, but for the most part we enjoyed the warmth of the house and the took advantage of the darkness. It fed our souls.
Smarty and Sergeant worked through the last 2 weeks and that added some structure to the days somewhat. Tomorrow school and work starts back up for everyone else and I think it's going to be rough for a couple of days. Last night most of the Littles slept in the living room and everyone has been sleeping later when they have a chance to. So tonight will be an earlier bedtime and alarms will be set for the morning and we'll try to hit the ground running. At least that's the goal.
Tomorrow also marks the beginning of my next semester of classes. At Hubby's suggestion I took this last term off to help with the family transitioning to the move. I'm looking forward to checking three more courses off my to-do list and getting closer to realizing some goals of mine :) Plus it's good modelling for the Littles that learning doesn't stop and it's important to work steadily to reach goals.
I think that wraps up 2024 for us. New Years Eve we went to the Mess for a family pot-luck and watched some fireworks from there. Then we went home, changed into pjs and played cards for most of what was left of the evening. It was a quiet midnight celebration and very different than we've celebrated in the past, but it was perfect for the year we've had.
Hoping the year ahead of us has fewer upheavals and more smooth roads than the last year! But even those have been positive in the long run, just challenging for the shorter term.
