Christmas 2012

We enjoyed our second Florida Christmas this year and our first Christmas in our new home!  We had such fun decorating our new house this year and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We have a real wood burning fire place, a mantle, and high ceilings to accommodate our 11 foot huge tree!!  Our house was truly beautiful for the holidays inside and out.  We have been enjoying a slow, quiet week with lots of down time, days with no agenda or schedule and time to just play and enjoy each other and enjoy our home that we've worked so hard for.  We attended Christmas Eve mass for the first time in our own church here in Vero (last year the kids were both sick) and by default, we ended up near the very front which Jackson really enjoyed.  SB got a bit wiggly during mass and had to go to the back with Daddy but Jack and I stayed and enjoyed the mass together.  The sweetest part of the whole thing was how he would just chime right in and sing all of the Christmas songs.  I could not help but sing along with him as his little sweet voice was so wonderful to hear singing along.  After mass, we headed over to our friend's house for Christmas Eve dinner and a little gift exchange.  The kids played together, exchanged presents, and then we headed home to open the rest of the gifts from our cousins and northern friends, and to set out our cookies and milk for Santa, and to put out our "reindeer feed" on the lawn.  I think that is a Florida tradition...not one I remember from growing up but it was a concoction of glitter, and oatmeal with a little saying about putting it on the lawn so the reindeer knew to stop at our house so maybe that's a new tradition we start with our kids!!

After the kids went to bed and we were sure they were sleeping Santa made his grand entrance and filled the house with gifts.  It was so fun to set it all up once again in our own home and under our own tree for the kids to wake up to.  While we missed some family gatherings and traditions back in Ohio, at this stage we feel like this is important for the kids to have Christmas in their own house and the down time we need this time of year after all of the hustle and bustle of the year.  This year Jack received a big wheels bike, a real 3 lane nascar style hotwheels race track, a batman cave and cars, a Jake and the Neverland Pirates boat and many other things.  Sarabeth received a little pink wagon, and lots of Minnie Mouse toys and clothes for winter.  She has grown so much between 12-18 months in height!!  Jon got an I pad mini from me and he got me a mont blanc pen for work.  Our family gift was a new golf cart to travel to and from the beach!   

Christmas day was filled with golf cart rides, a visit to the park and playground along the beach, a visit at a few friend's houses that live near by (via golf cart) and lots of rest and downtime.  On the 26th I ventured out to hit the day after Christmas sales at Target and Homegoods and then my gift to myself was an 80  minute signature massage at a salon on the beach near our house.  This was a great day!  That night we had friends over to see our tree and to clean up leftover ham and tenderloin daddy had cooked.  We have enjoyed our staycation thoroughly this past week and even got to play tourist one day and all went to lunch at a restaurant right along the ocean.  There are a lot of people in town visiting this week and I feel like I've seen them all at the various parks, stores, and restaurants we frequent , but we are lucky enough to call this great place HOME!!

The balance of this week we've been working on getting closets better organized and cleaned out, and that darn garage put back in order after the holidays...and getting Christmas back to our storage unit for next year.  We're going out with friends for new years but nothing crazy, dinner and a party at someone's house and then home!  We're looking forward to a good and prosperous 2013 hopefully with not near the number of transitions and moves we've had in 2012!!

getting my life back and 18 month well check for SB

Phew, my commercial closing OFFICIALLY CLOSED on Wednesday 12.19.12.  I feel like most attorneys that go through a big trial like a trial that runs 3-4 weeks or something must feel like I do today.  I was running on pure adrenaline for the past 2 weeks and now I am EXHAUSTED.  Everything that took place in the past two weeks is a bit of a blur to me which is a shame because I feel as if I'm waking from a coma today or something and all the sudden Christmas is in 5 days...but I'm so happy the closing took place, successfully, and the loan disbursed and all is well.  My energy will return and I have 5 days ahead of me off starting tomorrow afternoon.  Daddy is also off all next week so he is luckier than me and Jack is off school all next week so we are looking forward to some MUCH needed family down time together.  We're so happy NOT to be going ANYWHERE this holiday.  We are looking forward to attending mass at our own parish, and to opening SANTA presents in our own house once again this Christmas morning.  After all I've been through these past few months, I'm really happy to just have some fun quiet days ahead to enjoy our new home, pool, beach, and the new gifts that santa will bring in our own time.  We've got baking planned for this Saturday and I may just stay in my pajamas as long as I want for day on end!!!

In the midst of the chaos and intense work I've been experiencing these past few weeks, Sarabeth turned 18 months.  18 months is a wonderful age, I am being reminded!!!  She is TALKING up a storm, saying whole sentences and new words by the minute it seems.  She repeats anything she hears and comes right out and says things we never expect her to understand, or to say.  She loves her brother SO much.  She jumps for joy when he comes home, and will love on him whenever she can.  He in turn also loves her very much.  He is patient with her and tolerates quite a bit of her playing with his things and knocking down his army men, or cars all lined up.  He has taught her to "play cars" and she will do whatever he does and follow behind him with a dump truck and make truck noises, lovely, I know but it is really cute to see them play together.  Sissy as we call her is also SUCH A GIRL!!!  She LOVES her baby dolls, loves "bows" as she says.  When she wakes up and her beautiful hair that is starting to grow so long starts to get in her eyes she says "I want bow", ha!!  She carries her Minnie purse with her everywhere around the house, she says "sissy pretty" meaning she wants to wear a dress or other pretty item, and she is very dainty and careful with herself.  She also LOVES shoes, "shoes" was one of her first words!!!  She says 'baby" and pushes her baby dolls in her stroller, or sits in my lap and says "sissy baby" meaning she wants me to rock her like a baby and tell her she is the baby, so sweet.  She loves ALL things Disney, she LOVES Minnie and Mickey and whenever she sees the notorious black mouse ears she squeals with delight and says "Minnie".  She makes duck "quack quack" sounds when she sees Donald and "Goocy" is back in our lives.  It is so funny to us that Jack also loved Goofy but called him "Goocy".  I nearly died when she said "Goocy" for the first time last week before we went to Disney for Mickey's Merry Christmas and I told Jon, "Goocy" is back, ha!!  Everyone needs a little bit of "Goocy" in their life!!

Physically she is still quite petite.  I took her for her 18 month check up today and she is barly 19 pounds at 18 months old!!!  I'm thinking Cousin Eddie is giving her a run for her money at 6 months!!!  She is quite tall now though.  I'm not so sure the measured her right but they said she grew from 31 inches at 12 months to 34 inches at 18 months so if they measured accurately she is off the charts for height and barely hanging on to the chart for weight.  Her head was 50th percentile. She is a funny, spunky, little girl, she is a CLIMBER...Sarabeth we are so lucky to have you in our lives, happy 18 months little sissy!!!

***Pictures to be posted later...she is such a climber that she climbed onto the table last week and somehow pulled the computer on to the floor...it did not fair so well so this is a new computer and I need to upload the photos to it!!

ready to close!!!

Those that know me best know that for more than 6 months I have been working very very hard, long hours, weekend days, 60 + hours a week at times most recently to accomplish a HUGE commercial closing for a client here in town that is buying 9 restaurant franchises all over the country, in 4 states, dealing with 3  sets of seller attorneys in 3 different states and time zones, and a closing agent and lender in Phoenix...the franchisor in North Carolina, a seller and seller attorney in Ohio, a seller and seller attorney in Wisconsin, and a seller attorney in California with yet another seller in Arizona...a CPA in Arizona...it has been an amazing opportunity for me to learn and grow and add to my skill set for commercial real estate transactions, and it has been an amazing undertaking.  It's been like a virtual rollercoaster ride with ups and downs and near flat lines but it has resurrected each time and WE ARE SET TO CLOSE ON 12.19.12....MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!  I will be working hard these next two weeks to complete this transaction and other client's matters that need to be wrapped up as year end nears, and as people scramble to buy/sell/transfer/convey real property, business interests and assets, and to tax plan hello CONGRESS, what are you doing??!!

I for one will be much more relieved a week from now!!  What a year this has been!!!

I am celebrating the successes of the firm in this inaugural year with my office ladies (5 in all, 6 including myself) with a holiday luncheon I planned at a nice restaurant right on the ocean tomorrow afternoon.  I've even pre-ordered special holiday dessert to be served with coffee service after lunch.  I'm happy to be bonusing each lady  with a suprise bonus check tomorrow and happy I am able to personally show them my gratitude for their dedication and service to the firm.  I am still pinching myself...what a difference one year makes!!  It has not been easy but it is worth it every day.  This time last year I was working from home and trying to set up my office in my little executive suite upstairs in the building where my office now exists!!

St. Nick's Day

Phew, we have been BUSY.  In the midst of preparing for the arrival of Mimi and Papa on Thursday night of this past week, we celebrated St. Nick's day Thursday morning.  This is a Dutch tradition and in honor of our Dutch heritage on my mom's side (my grandfather "papa" was Dutch) we always do it up for this holiday and even put out our real wooden shoes from Holland!!

Here are some photos of that morning and the small gifts the kids received.  The favorite gift for both were some of my December 26th finds from last year...Mickey and Minnie cups with straws.  Sarabeth is REALLY into "Minnie" right now and when she noticed "Minnie" on the cup, she did a little dance and said "that's a Minnie" over and over.  So cute!!

picking the perfect Christmas tree

Each year we buy our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving weekend.  This year was no exception and Aunt Megan was still visiting so came along for the ride.  We always support our local Exchange Club and buy a tree from their lot, always fresh cut frasier fir trees straight from Michigan!!!


This year we bought the largest tree we've ever had, a 10.5 foot tall and stout tree, it is BEAUTIFUL!! 

Here are some photos of the fun we had selecting our tree...unlike up north, we don't get to go cut down our tree here or go to a tree farm...the trees are kept in tents, away from the harsh Florida sun which would dry them out in a red second.  Aunt Megan said "this is not like what I would imagine picking a tree out ot be" but in Florida, everything is differnet, even picking a Chirstmas tree and they cost about twice as much too due to being trucked all the way down here.  Oh well...this is our 7th or 8th Florida Christmas so we are used to all of the quirks of a southern Christmas by now!!

more Christmas celebration photos

I had trouble adding all of the photos I wanted with my last post, here are some more!