Happy Tuesday, you guys!! I’ll be honest with you, 2017 has been a liiiittle slower in starting than I’d have imagined. What began as a head cold last week morphed into a full-blown respiratory infection, and we spent a combined THREE hours at Patient First on New Year’s Day trying to get antibiotics. I’ll tell you- nothing says “true love” like being willing to spend a national holiday in a doctor’s office with your sick wife (thanks, Matt!).

I think I finally understand what people are talking about when they refer to “holiday stress;” Matt & I counted it up, and realized we had SEVEN family Christmas events/gatherings in the span of six days! We love our families and are so fortunate that most of them are close by. But man, after five, we had to call it- we needed time to be home and relax and RECHARGE.

And add to that, the fact that were also planning to launch something huge the first week of January? Our Christmas break was a LITTLE more crazy than anticipated! But it was awesome all the same :).

As always, lessons learned/events that transpired over the past [two!] weeks:

• We got Lily a pocket bed (like this) for Christmas… and she has no idea how to get into it. We have to pick her up and stuff her into it- she’s happy once she’s situated, but it’s just getting in in the first place that she’s having difficulty with. Oh Beebs, you’re hilarious!
• Christmas week is for French 75s, Moscow Mules, and mimosas. That’s a scientific fact.
• Christmas week is also the time I turn into a 90-year-old man and start rueing the day the neighborhood kids got out for break and couldn’t WAIT for them to go back in January. Because anytime they run by the street outside our house, our dogs go nuts.
• I started playing with watercolors again! The off-season is generally pretty quiet in terms of photography, which gives me time to play for the sake of playing. And for some reason, playing with watercolors is really relaxing for me!
• It’s January 3rd and we still haven’t taken our tree down. It’s time, I know, I just haven’t seemed to be able to find the time to take all the ornaments off!
• You guys- I SWITCHED TO DECAF. Regular coffee, it turns out, was turning out to cause a lot of anxiety that I was attributing to work! So we switched my Nespresso pods to decaf and I’m all the better off for it!
• I think it may be time to go on a sugar purge/fast- I’ve found myself craving chocolate & gummies a LOT since my Christmas stocking candy ran out…

TBH? I didn’t really take many photos over the Christmas break! So here’s an oldie, but goodie from the archives. Because, really- ballerinas are always appropriate.

P.S. That huge launch? Check it HERE!