A Quiet Start to the New Year

After Christmas, we enjoyed one of the longest stretches of home time since we've been a family of four. The boys just started back to school on Monday. Of course, I had looked into short getaways, especially anticipating the ruckus of New Year's Eve in the Netherlands. But in the end, a long time hibernating at home sounded really nice, and it was.

Lots of time to enjoy new Christmas toys, books and clothes.

Time for the kids to play together and bond.

Time to catch up with friends.

Time to visit the new baby of a new friend (from my home county no less).

Time to complete every day tasks at a leisurely pace.

Caught in the sausage aisle!

Shopping downtown with these cuties as the snow softly falls

Time for unexpected fun at the Disney on Ice show when a friend couldn't use her tickets.

Pete's youngest science students. 

And then there was New Year's Eve. A babysitter and evening spent at a band mate's house party seemed like a possibility, though I was anxious about returning home amidst all of the amateur firework displays. When the sitter fell through, I felt mostly relieved to have a quiet evening at home, binging the Crown.

It was relatively quiet in the early firework-allowed hours of 6-12pm, mostly because the weather was awful with at-times pouring rain. The quiet night was not to be though when midnight struck and the neighborhood erupted in fireworks. I recall last year was foggy so while we could hear all the noise, there were no beautiful displays. This year, the skies cleared in time for some really impressive amateur shows. Jude woke up and climbed into bed with us, but miraculously Maeve slept through.

Watching the show from our bedroom window

After New Year's, Pete headed down to Roeselare, Belgium for a tour at Rodenbach brewery with some friends. It has been on his wish list for some time and I arranged an English tour as a Christmas present. Back home with the kids, I realized how much easier it is with two now that they are older. This has inspired Pete and I to plan more solo outings in the New Year. Another spa weekend for me and hopefully a beer trip to Prague for Pete! 

Just momma and her superhereos.  

Completing the school Winter Break Book Challenge. Reading under a table while wearing hat and gloves :) 

Goat farm time with daddy

I have high hopes for 2018. Partly because I can't help but think, could it really get worse?? 2017 broke my heart with the loss of Pete's cousin, the loss of friends' loved ones, all of the stories that lead to #metoo, and the completely destructive floods, hurricanes and fires. Not to mention the political situation in the US. I am ready for an uplifting year! Please don't disappoint me, 2018.