New Year's Day

For New Year's Day, (since we really didn't stay up that late and needed no recuperation)...we hit the park with the kids for a nice and casual play time! Chris went across the field to play football with some friends: Dean Mattsson, Eddie Kluber, Ross Biesinger, Brigham Curran. And I pushed Mavy and Ainsley on the swings (their absolute favorite) and watched Walker and Aubrey take their new scooters down the skate ramps. It's funny to think that across the nation, it is raining, snowing, and storming, and we're outside basking in the 70 degree weather. As I'm outside feeling the cool breeze and listening to the birds, I often remind myself that this is why we live in the desert. I need to remember days like this when the summer temperatures reach a cool 115 degrees and I question our location!
The whole Christmas break has just been fantastic. Because we didn't have to travel anywhere, and because we didn't have to pack, drive for hours, unpack, sleep in foreign beds and referee our kids in the aforementioned situations, we got to focus more on appreciating one another in our own comfortable environment. This is our first Christmas break to do this and we really enjoyed it.
With that said, we did however miss: Seeing family (the major Con of staying home), Playing on the Playplace at Carls Jr. in Lost Hills, looking toward the backseat of the car to see 4 sleeping kids, watching the kids play with their cousins, going shopping with our siblings, reminiscing on the times we were kids, repeating the same stories of those good times over and over again, seeing the looks on the faces of those to whom we gave gifts, and staying up late with all the adult siblings talking and laughing and teasing each other while the kids are all asleep.