January began with a whirlwind trip to Florida to visit some of the friends who have become family! I got to meet little man Grahame and hug Abbie and Ryan's necks as they celebrate getting engaged!!! I didn't really take any pictures to speak of but it was the happiest of times and those days brought memories I will always treasure!!
What a treat it was to get to stay at Lindsey and Alex's new lovely home in Mandarin!
It wouldn't be a trip to Jacksonville without Friday night pizza and a movie at Mama's house!
Abbie sent me on my way with the sweetest gift for little Emma, and we got to have a girls coffee at Urban Bean :)
Our post-Christmas decorations hallway. We were missing our advent wreath and just then, the celtic cross we had picked out together came in the mail!
The beginnings of the penny floor in the bathroom!
This lovely print also finally came and I find myself sitting and looking at it often these days. It's hard to put into words just yet why it means as much as it does.
Birthday celebrations at my Mama's house were delicious as always and a fine way to end what was otherwise a normal (long) teaching day!
Sarah Beth's beautifully wrapped presents.
Some fine last feasts with dear friends before we take a little hiatus from hosting in the coming weeks.
Homemade Cinnamon rolls have been a favorite tradition of this winter and I have a sneaking suspicion that they will continue to be.
Emma's Room, growing more and more pink by the day :)
Thank you notes from the couch on a quiet Friday morning - much needed after a busy week and a long Thursday at RSA.
"Rune Dates" at home with a current craving - Taco Salad.
I made Josh a set of Norse Rune stones for Christmas (in the pouch above) and our current favorite date is to light our candles and get out the stones and spend a while digging into the history and meaning behind each of the old runes. Such a beautiful lore!
I got to have my quartet over for some Mendelssohn and cheese! We had a grand time and boy did that music sound lovely reverberating through these old walls!
The Bathroom with some of the gifts from the shower hung and in their new spots, just waiting now!
Turns out brownies and John Calvin go really well together. But who is surprised...
This picture seems comically appropriate to follow my brownie picture.
We found a great, like new jogging stroller for a super great price which was one of the last things on our list! Sometimes those smaller provisions hit home with a special weight of kindness and this was one of those things. It will be so wonderful to be able to explore all over this wonderful but very off roads little world of ours with Emma in the spring and summer to come!
It just looks so sweet sitting in the back seat waiting for her :) :)
Josh's recent acquisition: a beautiful bamboo flute! He's making great progress (in his usual way) and enjoying a new world of music!
Pajama day at RSA with one of my adult students and friends, Ms. Debbie Lawrence, who (as you might guess from the picture below) is a fellow Trekkie.
This seems to sum up life pretty well these days ;)
A Sushi lunch for the birthday man! He is reenacting a picture we have laughed at many time of me at Sushi King some time ago. We do LOVE our Sushi :)
Birthday celebrations
My Viking man with his new drinking horn ;)
A warm Sunday afternoon called for time down by the creek together!
Even the daffodils dared to poke their heads above ground that day!
A fun little trip to Target with a gift card :)
Lessons with the cutest little banjo player you ever did see
Isn't that the sweetest little swaddling blanket? It was a gift from tiny banjo man's Grammy and I want to squeal a little every time I see it :)
It's been fun to open this cabinet and think about how different it is than what we might have put in it before Emma was in our lives. A nearly identical armoire in the living room is full of nice Scotch in crystal decanters, old books and parchment paper, carving knives and sealing wax, brass candle sticks and fragile old instruments. This cupboard is full of diapers and wipes and baby shampoo and pumps and bottles and fuzzy little sleeper onesies. Both aspects of life are so treasured and both about to be so much a part of daily life in one way or another. That is delightfully strange and wonderful to me.
Mama Bear and Emma Bear bags all ready for the hospital...whenever that may be!
