Mixed Beginnings to the New Year

M ~

Happy 2017, Mali! So far, it's been an interesting first month of the new year. Daddy did what many people do at the start of a new year...he adopted a new fitness regimen and joined a boxing club. The workouts are really tough and he even brought you along a few times (which you loved)! You hung in there for the entire hour long workout and loved the attention that the staff gave you. Summer, in particular, was your favorite employee that took a liking to you as well!

getting your wrists wrapped by Summer

Early in the month it was bitter cold and we got a little dusting of snow again. Unfortunately it was barely enough to cover the ground. You didn't care though. You were so excited about using your new snowboard (from Christmas) that you insisted on hitting the slopes anyway. Us poor Ohio kids will take whatever snow we can get!

that is the smile of a happy, grateful kid

Since it was so crazy cold, (even Suzy got a little chill in spite of her fur coat), so she borrowed your old puffy vest. Cute, right?!

The next day she borrowed my sweatshirt. In spite of the awkward fit, it's obvious she enjoyed her walk on the trail.

When we came home from the walk, Daddy was outside taking down the Christmas lights. In his basketball shorts and my boots! What the heck?!

He said he liked how my fuzzy warm boots also accentuated his calves. Goofball.

Aside from the silliness at home, as you know, our country has a new president. Without going into too much detail, our family is not particularly fond of this president at the moment. We, as well as millions upon millions of other Americans, feel the same way. We are all nervous about how this administration is going to handle the affairs of this country, which of our civil rights are in jeopardy, and just how much our national security will be compromised over the next four years. Those, along with many, many other concerns that continue to come to light with each passing day. Since November, to say that this country has awoken would be an understatement. As far as I see it, for myself, I can't sit back and do nothing. So, Lao Lao and I (and many others) have joined what is being termed "The Resistance". Let me explain.

In November, a grandmother in Hawaii began a Facebook group to collectively react to the results of the election. That group, along with the Pantsuit Nation group that had already existed long before the election, joined forces and an idea was born to have a Women's March. It grew like wildfire and before we knew it, there were thousands of people wanting to march together on Washington and many other sister marches were also being organized throughout the country and even the world.

Mid-January was our first local march, a sister march in Columbus for the larger Women's March on Washington a week later. You really wanted to go, but seeing as how I am new to activism and marches, I thought it might be best for you to sit out the first few I attend so that I can get a feel for safety levels (little did I know how amazingly safe these women's marches would be).

Anyway, Lao Lao and I attended the march on our own. Here are some photos from that very, very cold day.

we all pinned these signs on our clothes,
along with the signs we carried

the banner at the very beginning of the march

there were hundreds, perhaps over a thousand at this march

this woman had buttons from marches
spanning 40+ years

these women could not go to DC next week so the two
on the ends sent their signs with Lao Lao and the other
woman so their message could reach DC

it was inspiring to see the vast age range of marchers

The next week was spent preparing for our trip to DC to participate in the main Women's March. Straight from the website, this link explains the meaning behind the Women's March on Washington.

One of the many unifying details of the day were pink "pussy hats". Many of the women had been knitting and creating these hats as a back-handed slam/symbol against tRump's phrase "grab them by the pussy" that came to light during the campaign. We were basically reclaiming the word (in a more playful way), using it from a place of power as women, and also sending a big message to tRump that his disgusting behavior will not be tolerated. Regardless of that, our pink pussy hats became a symbol of unity and power and were everywhere in the days leading up to and the day of the big march. I even made my own, and of course you wanted one too.

Even though I would only be gone in DC for a day, you made sure to make a self-portrait and a sweet note for me to take so that I "wouldn't forget you". So sweet.

"Plz be careful I hope you have a good time"
(green for good luck)

With my beautiful artwork in tow and very early on the 22nd, Lao Lao, Kristy, and I started our journey to DC. The first picture was taken by a local reporter who actually made us part of the daily news cycle. I even got a message a couple hours later that a friend had seen me on the morning news. When we finally boarded the plane, it was nearly full of pink hats just like mine. It was phenomenal and inspiring, and more than just a little hint at the impact this day would have. In fact, this march turned out to be huge, not only in our nation, but worldwide!

As soon as we got into the subway in DC, the protesters' energy was palpable. Even the subway trains were so packed with marchers that we couldn't pick up any more people for the last few stops and once there, the underground tunnels were teeming with hundreds of strangers already chanting in unity and strength as we slowly made our way back up to daylight again.

not even above ground yet and the marchers are getting excited

Finally we made it to the march site. It was surreal ~ hundreds of thousands of people with signs and pussy hats as far as the eye could see.

on the National Mall

To say that it was a moving and inspiring day would be an understatement. It was phenomenal to stand with all of those people who were feeling all of the same feelings as I was and sense how much power there was (and is) in our collective voice. Evidently, that collective voice grew louder and louder throughout the day. Daddy said that all day long the news channels kept covering not only DC, but march after march in all kinds of cities, big and small, in our country as well as in other cities in countries around the globe. When it was all said and done, the Women's March on Washington had stretched itself around the world (even to Antarctica!) and had become the largest single day protest in U.S. history. Pretty awesome.

There were plenty of moments when I wished that I would have had you with me, standing there together, making history. But there were also some other harrowing moments when crowds were a little too tight for comfort and I was relieved that you'd sat this one out. It was a tough call. But...at the rate this year is starting in this country, I'm guessing there will be other opportunities for you to join me in some activism. For the time being, I brought you a souvenir ~ a double shot glass with the Democrat donkey on it. Totally appropriate gift for your 8 year old, right?!

With all of the good hub bub of the marches, we had some negative mojo come our way as well in January. Poor Suzy injured her knee one night when she was running around the yard. She came back in limping and wouldn't use her right rear leg. We had no idea what had happened.

We took her to the vet after a few days and it didn't get better. We found she had torn her PCL and needed surgery. Oy. That was tough, but what's even tougher is that she has a 13 week recovery ahead. As much cage rest as we can force on her. Minimal walking, no running, no jumping, no stairs. We basically have to carry her or lift her everywhere. And she's a heavy little spark plug! But we love her...so, here we are.

I had to climb in the cage with her initially 

yikes!

Thankfully Suzy isn't the only one getting use out of her cage. When she is busy snuggling with Daddy and I and watching Netflix, you kids are enjoying your new "fort".

you, Darion, and Annabelle all fit!

And while we're busy with Suzy, you found a harness for GG to keep him busy. You are *definitely* a fan of the new harness. GG? Not as much.

Finally, I will leave you with a couple of your recent quotes. I just love growing up with you.

That last one? Awesome reminder, kid.
I love you!

Love,
Mama

See Ya, '16! ... Hello, '17!

Dearest M ~

Hey sweetheart! Last month of the year...2016 is finally wrapping up. Can you believe it? It's been a doozy of a year, especially these last two months. To be honest, I have had a more difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit this year than most. It probably has to do with the election and current state of our country right now, along with the impending doom of the incoming administration. But that's a story for another day.

It's definitely not due to a shortage of Christmas spirit on your part, that's for sure. For instance, you have been so excited to practice your songs for the 3rd grade holiday show. In fact, you have begun following me into the bathroom while I shower and sitting on the toilet lid, singing duets with me of song after song for the holidays. How can I not smile and laugh with that going on, right?

The St. Philip's Secret Santa was earlier than usual this year so our December was also kicked off with that event. You and your cousins had a ball, as usual, and you received much praise for your wrapping skills this year. The church ladies working the event commented that they wanted to hire you to help with wrapping next year. Your talents have definitely exceeded mine in that area.

Papaw dressed up as Santa again and this year, Memaw borrowed my elf costume to help out as well. How cute are they?

Also, on one particular night I received one of your Christmas presents in the mail. As I was stashing it away, you made the comment that you really wished you could have some new books to read. When I asked what kind, you replied with "graphic novels"...to which I asked, "Like, Missile Mouse?" ...and then I pulled this out of the package I had received. You were so excited! Look at that face...how could I have saved it until Christmas?

That same weekend, our cousin Marky got married and Daddy and I got a chance to get all fancy and have a night out. I have never been to a December wedding before and it was at a winery downtown that was so pretty with all of the holiday decorations.

The following week, we had a couple of late nights and for some reason, you had woken up a few hours too early as well. Needless to say, you were exhausted by the time you got home from school by midweek. The following two pictures are from your 3 hour nap on me under the Christmas lights one evening. Honestly, I could not think of a better way to spend my time that night. I loved every second of your snuggles...more and more of a rarity as you get older.

Even Pipsqueak got in on naptime.

Our elf on the shelf, Santa Claus Jr, showed up again too. Here is how you found him one morning, watching 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' on your iPad.

Normally we hit the Christmas lights at the zoo each year, but this time we changed it up a bit and headed to see the Chinese Lantern Festival at the fairgrounds. Courtney came with us and we stopped at the airport to pick up Daddy on our way down there. Of course, we had to give Courtney the grand tour of Jet Select since she is the budding young pilot in the family.

We finally made it to the festival and it was freezing but so worth it!

2008 - year of the rat!

these dragons were so interesting...made by filling little bottles
with colored liquid and fastening them to a wire frame
(you can see the bottles close up below)

Remember when I said that you were a bit sleepy one week? Well, here is something you came up with a few days later. Another Mali-ism for the books.

One particular day, you and I decided to hit the mall and do some Christmas shopping. What were we thinking, right? Since neither of us are big fans of shopping, a stop at the massage chairs was a must to help get us through the day.

shopping in jammies also helped ~ comfy and soft

And of course letting you ride the escalators a bunch of times by yourself too...

Courtney needed to head back home to San Diego for a while for the holiday break too. As the picture below illustrates, we are all going to miss her a ton!

Although it wasn't much, we got a dusting of snow a couple weeks before Christmas. You took this tiny window of opportunity to bust out your inner tube and attempt to sled with one of the neighborhood kids, Evie. She has a phenomenal hill right in her backyard.

a few runs down the hill and it was mostly slush and leaves...
but you both had a great time anyway

Slush Sledding!

The dogs enjoyed the snowfall too.

a familiar sight...the dogs heading to Lao Lao's for a
visit anytime we take them out walking

an incredibly pink sky after a fresh snow...
it was so quiet and eerily beautiful

one of our favorite houses that goes all out each year

and the tree across the street from the house above,
this year it was named the "Twister tree"

The day finally came for your 3rd grade holiday show. You were so excited and I was very moved that they had songs from all sorts of winter holidays; Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Mexican Christmas, etc. I am so glad that you not only attend a very diverse school with students from all different ethnic and racial backgrounds, but that they also respect and honor various traditions as well. I love watching these shows and I am such a proud mama...tearing up every year. 

you are front row...trying to avoid looking at
your mom taking a picture

you with your amazing teacher, Mrs. O'Reilly

silly kid

part of your fan club

behind the scenes attempt at taking a family photo
after your big show...makes me laugh every time

there, that's better

...much better

Also in keeping with traditions, we headed to our annual Garrabrant Christmas weekend and at a houseboat in Kentucky this time! Lao Lao is always putting together these fun gatherings for the family and there were no shortage of surprises this year. None of us had ever stayed on a houseboat before and it was pretty interesting. Aside from the funky configuration of the set-up, it really did feel like we were in any other house, except this one had a steering wheel and the yard was filled with ducks. Ha!

It was a bit of a drive so you were happy to snuggle up with Daddy once there and watch a little Rudolph with him. 

On the way to the houseboat (or boathouse as you kept calling it), you shared your thoughts with us and suggested that perhaps next year that maybe we should not do gifts. When we asked you why, you replied that it's because you already have a lot and that maybe you should go through your stuff instead to give some of it to Goodwill, that getting gifts is not really what the Christmas season is about anyway. Wow. Daddy and I were so surprised. How many other kids suggest this of their own volition? You amaze us all the time, M. All. The. Time.

Iroh came along too and claimed his favorite spot...
on his grandma's lap

and I've never met a dog more enamored with blankets

As we all sat around and visited, this happened. None of us were sure why there was a huge picture of Mel Gibson from Braveheart in the living room, but we didn't miss an opportunity to take a weird picture with it.

We slept well and the next morning checked out the top of the boat after breakfast.

family selfie from the top of the boat the next morning

The rest of the day we were going to do a bunch of stuff, but the weather was not the most cooperative so we spent the bulk our time checking out Jungle Jim's International Market before coming back to the houseboat for dinner and our gift exchange.

this was after you gave Lao Lao her special Secret Santa gift...
a flashlight you picked out and told Lao Lao, "it's because you like to
walk and for when you walk in the dark"

playing with your Chewbacca mask with Monica

The next two pictures are of Daddy and me with a blown glass carafe that Uncle Forge made...he is super talented, isn't he?

Below is everyone with your special gifts to them...portraits you painted from photos of them. You did a great job and they all loved them!

And here all of us are in our matching Christmas jammies...what has become a Christmas tradition.

We had a great time together for our Garrabrant Christmas and headed home that Sunday, leaving roughly a little over a week until Christmas.

Before work one morning, I thought you looked so sweet sleeping. I just had to snap this picture. I'm so lucky I get to kiss these soft, round cheeks every day.

With the holiday getting closer and closer, you have been doing more fun things in school. Like these ornament crafts for our tree...you were so proud of your hard work.

As holiday break from school drew closer, we decided to pile into the car one night and head out to look at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music.

the flash was a little bright, ha ha!

there, that's better

this was the coolest house of our drive...
the lights all danced to Christmas music!

all of us with the Twister tree

a perfect example of why Suzy might hate us ~ ha ha!

One night you and Daddy went to run some pre-Christmas errands at Easton and sent me this picture...I absolutely adore it. Look at those smiles! My hearts.

As Christmas break finally began, it meant more time for your friends to come over to play. One day I was listening to you and a friend talk and as he mentioned having something that he felt made him different from other people, I overheard you say, "Hey, want to see something different about me?" See...these are the little things that are actually big things about who you are and how you treat others that makes you so special. You are a truly good person.

As I mentioned before, I had a hard time (initially) finding the Christmas spirit this year. Fortunately, you continuously reminded me that Christmas is about family. And we definitely have one of the best around. (Thank you for that, kiddo). It also helped that we got lots of random "I Love You (s)" and comments from you about it being a great day/a great Christmas. Your smile makes even the toughest days better. So, in spite of my heart's slow start to feel the spirit, it definitely caught up with yours and it all turned out to be another successfully magic holiday season.

Here's some of that magic now...your video from Santa arrived from the North Pole. Very cool, as usual.

Santa's message to you.

Interestingly enough...you also surprised us with some more reflections on the presents and consumerism of Christmas by rationalizing that since birthdays are about presents and it's supposed to be Jesus' birthday, that's why there are so many presents. Huh. It's always been a difficult thing for me to wrap my brain around all the greed that can invade such an otherwise loving holiday. I love that you broke it down so simply for us. As you get older, it's neat to watch you really think about the world around you.

When the big days arrived (Christmas eve and Christmas day), we got all ready and headed off to our usual Christmas eve dinner with the family at Billy Lee's. After dinner, you got the best, most appropriate fortune in your fortune cookie. Here it is below:

And here we all are, after dinner and before heading back out into the freezing cold to go leave milk and cookies for Santa...

after dinner and before peeling off our fancy clothes to put on
comfy jammies and get all ready for the big guy in red
to stop by our house for a visit...

my perfectly wrapped gift from you (from the Secret Santa)

the one gift from us on Christmas eve

your Gizmodo gadget watch with GPS!

happy kid

carrots and sparkly oatmeal for the reindeer

GG is checking out your milk and cookies for Santa

the hearth is all set for Santa's big arrival
(by now you were SUPER tired)

Check out our Christmas eve visitor! He IS real!

ta dah! he arrived!

And oh boy were you one excited kid on Christmas morning!

cookies and milk are all eaten; stocking is full!

Lao Lao came over to open gifts with us...and give Pip some lovin'

thumbs up for the poop mug

what?! Hillary Clinton!

GG was into the wrapping paper bag

you helped the dogs open their special "doggie beer"

you (and Lao Lao) got Daddy a fancy watch...
here you are both modeling your new watches

and here I am modeling all of the super fancy necklaces
that you (with Lao Lao's help) picked out for me

Daddy and I enjoying our new tiny little mug that you picked out
for us from the Secret Santa (how adorable is this?)

so, I guess you and Daddy are telling me that I suck
at finding my keys (you both (on your own) picked out devices to
help me find my keys when I lose them) ~ ha ha!

Lao Lao got us a family Nerf dart gun set ~ awesome!

In the afternoon, Memaw and Papaw came over to check out the gifts and spend some time with us too.

you were so excited to put together all of your Lego gifts ~
you must have worked on these nearly all Christmas day

then you decided to break in your Nerf guns...
as Chewbacca

Daddy joined in the fun too...and you both used the boxes and
wrapping paper bags as bunkers to hide behind

With all of the excess of the holiday season, we decided to begin a family gratitude journal. We are attempting to each write down three things that we are thankful for each day. You really like the idea and we are using the journal pictured below. Evidently, you are also very private about our gratitude journal judging from the label I noticed you placed on it one day when I got home from work. Ha.

If they could write, I think Suzy and GG would say they are thankful for each other.

busted wrestling!

The week in between Christmas and New Year was your official winter break and without Goddard where you normally would spend days off school, we had to arrange for you to spend days between Lao Lao and me for the next week and a half. It was nice because I got an excuse to spend extra time with you and Lao Lao adored spending time with you too, having a new adventure cooked up for each day you spent together.

of course, during the mornings I had to work, I got
sweet little texts from you like this

And here are the adventures with Lao Lao...

On another particular day when I got home from work and it was beautiful outside, the three of us decided to take a walk on our trail. Of course, you had to pee and while we were trying to find a good spot in the woods for you to pop a squat, we stumbled on this gruesome animal skull. No idea what kind of animal it is, but it was morbidly fascinating.

Aside from the adventures with Lao Lao, we had a lot of playtime and downtime. Towards the evening, this was a familiar sight...Suzy waiting and watching for Daddy to come home from work.

And as usual, with no regard for personal space...squashing you on the couch. Gotta love those cock-eyed ears though, right?

What was I just saying about personal space?

And this is a familiar scene, especially as the weather gets colder. I think I just need to give up on ever trying to make our bed again.

Before we knew it, New Year's Eve had rolled around and we were almost ready to begin 2017. This year we decided to have our traditional pork and sauerkraut meal at the Wilkinson's on 12/31 instead of 1/1. Not only did we eat our "good luck for the new year" meal, we also exchanged our Secret Santa gifts for the family members for whom we drew names. You and your cousins were excited to open gifts and treated each other so sweetly as you unwrapped each one.

obligatory cousin silliness before it was time to go

Papaw ~ the ultimate teaser of children

Since we had our New Year meal earlier in the day on NYE, that meant we got home in time to have our usual hors d'oevres with Audrey and the Garrabrant crew like we usually do on NYE. It was a bit more subdued and we mostly just ate and watched whatever New Year specials were on tv. Daddy and I had stopped at the firework store earlier in the day and picked up a ton of fireworks which he let off at midnight for Lao Lao, Kenzie, and Uncle Forge. You, Suzy, and I stayed inside because you were exhausted and fighting a really vicious cold, plus Suzy was terrified of the loud fireworks (as you can see below).

I wish we would have gotten a group picture of us all, but it was a fairly subdued ending to a genuinely weird year. I wish I could sum it up differently, but I can't at this moment. Give me another month, and maybe some distance from it will lend me a new perspective. But as of right now, I am not too sad to say, "See ya, 2016!"

Anyhoo...regardless of how anti-climactic the transition between years has felt this time around the sun, I am always and forever grateful for another 365 days with you...and Daddy...and our whole, beautiful family (chosen and otherwise). You and all the moments that add up to make another year together are what make life worth living.

Here's hoping that 2017 is full of memorable moments filled with laughter, growth and love.

Love,
Mama