NYR 1-5-14

We've been enjoying a visit from Bogota friends who arrived on Friday.  Suzanne teaches at the school Mac attended and we met and became friends with her and her husband Rory early in our time in Bogota.  

Tonight we ate dinner out with them and dear friends from Guadalajara days 15+ years ago who now live in Panama.

The Panama friends' children attend a school whose current principal and primary school director held the same positions for the first year Mac attended his school in Bogota, all of which we have known.   It was interesting to add the third level of interconnectedness since Suzanne worked for both of these folks in Bogota.

I am thankful today for another reminder of how small our world really is.  

NYR 1-4-14

Today we went with our visiting-from-Bogota friends Suzanne and Rory to Liberty Mountain in Pennsylvania to snow tube.  The website said anybody from 5 to 92 could safely snow tube, but it didn't mention the steep drop at the start of the track nor did it mention the speed at which one flies down this track. It looked like a roller coaster ride without the safety features. Have I ever mentioned to you that I'm scared to death of roller coasters?

Making that first run was so super scary to me. I screamed like a little girl the whole way down, and my stomach flipped and flopped a couple times.  But I had so much fun and did it over and over and over again until our two-hour window expired.

Today I'm thankful for conquering fears.

NYR 1-3-14

1.  We pay what I think is an exorbitant monthly fee to park our car in the garage of the building where we pay what I think is an exorbitant monthly rent to live here.  

However, on mornings like today, when Mac and I decided to run errands on his snow day, and the temperature at 11:45am was 22 with a windchill temperature of 1 degree, I decided what we pay is just about perfect. 

I got in a car today that was relatively warm and best of all?  I didn't have to thaw out my car, wipe off snow, or scrape ice, like these poor car owners had to do at some point:

Today I am especially thankful for covered garage parking, no matter the cost. 

2. I have never owned snow boots in my life.  Even when we lived in Baltimore, where it most assuredly snowed and where I most assuredly shoveled snow, I didn't own snow boots.  I have no idea why that is.  Mac was little then and I guess we didn't go out much when it snowed.  The one time we took Mac sledding, he wore yellow rain boots.  Classy. I know people thought we were negligent to not have a toddler in warm snow boots, but I'm sure we put two pairs of socks on his little feet to keep him warm.  We are, after all, the people who used to Scotchguard our jeans before going on the annual church youth group ski trip.  We are cold weather morons. Scotchguarding jeans works nearly as well as wearing two pairs of socks inside rain boots.  Morons.

Fast forward 8 years and we're in a snow-producing area again. I went out and bought myself some cheap snow boots as soon as the snow started falling.  They are not very pretty but they're decently warm and that's good enough for me.

Mac has been wearing his hiking boots in the snow up until now.  Last night after playing in the snow, he pointed out what looked like a seam issue to me.  This morning, upon closer inspection, I realized there was actually a hole in the boot.  

He was desperate to play in the snow right then, so I did what any cold weather moron would do:  I wrapped his socked foot in kitchen plastic wrap and we slid his protected foot inside the holey boot.  Morons.

We bought him very fancy snow boots this afternoon and he's worn them outside now two times to play in the snow and he's declared them perfect.  And they're so big that I can wear them when he outgrows them. 

For warm feet in very cold and snowy weather, I am so thankful.

NYR 1-2-14

This afternoon it started snowing around 4:30.  I have seen more snow in the last month than I've seen in the last decade.  And I'm really pretty done with it all.

Except that my boy loves it.

I mean LOVES it.

It's like he doesn't have cold receptors in his nerve endings. He can spend hours with it falling down his shirt collar and melting down his back.  

Really, he's a freak of nature.

And even though I hate the snowy, wet cold, I love anything that makes my boy this giddy.

           (Mac behind the snow fort he made tonight in the 34-degree temperature)

Today, I'm thankful for yet another snowfall that brought my boy so much happiness. (But really Arlington County, he needs to go to school tomorrow.)

NYR 1-1-14

We hosted our traditional New Year's dinner yesterday for friends from all different points of our lives.  One of Jimmy's Carolina friends from 20+ years ago, a girlfriend from Brasilia days in 2005, and new friends we've made here in Arlington all crammed into our little apartment for an afternoon of great conversation, a lot of laughter and some good food.  

I am so grateful for each and every one of my friends, whether we've been friends for 20 years or 2 months. In this crazy life we lead, friends become family and I've got some stellar friends-as-family.

Attitude of Gratitude

My New Year's resolution is a repeat of one I did a few years ago. 

No, not the running a marathon one.  

The "attitude of gratitude" one.  

Every day I intend to blog about something that happened that day for which I'm grateful.  We also intend to share this resolution as a family where we'll share our gratitude over dinner.  (Jimmy doesn't exactly know this plan yet but Mac and I agreed on it today.)

I think willfully acknowledging gratitude is a surefire way to see more positive in the world because you're constantly looking for it.  So here's to my attitude of gratitude in 2014. 

Happy New Year!

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here's to a great year of me being me and you being you!