Goodbye 2016

2016 I must admit I am not sad to see you go as I clean baby vomit off of me for the fifth night in a row. You've been a tough year, culminating in my baby's appendectomy, the death of my grandfather, the murder of a colleague, and all six of us getting sick in your final weeks. But I will not lose hope that your little sister, 2017, will treat us better. Welcome new year. We may be a little worse for wear but we're scrappy and determined to make this a good one.
(from my Facebook feed)

more photos from New England

These are not in order. But I think they capture the spirit of our trip. Besides being with family, the highlight for the kids was playing in snow. It was magical for them. Winter is beautiful with that fluffy white stuff. The kids received lots of clothes from their grandparents, for which I'm very grateful. It is thanks to them that my kids are warm and fashionable!

new england

That would be the Qualter brothers standing beneath a "Q's Nuts" sign at Boston Public Market.

This is mostly a photo dump as I try desperately to catch up on blogging. Our trip to New England was mostly wonderful. We left DC at 2am and most of us slept while Mike made a record fast drive to Massachusetts. Of course Truman threw up. Multiple times. Everyone got sick, including me. The night we spent at Matt's house I was in agony and was up using the bathroom every hour. That same night I found out my theater colleague, Tricia, was murdered back in DC. So that was tough. But being with family was so nice - they took such good care of us. And despite being under the weather, the kids were so happy spending time with their grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins.
And Maya and I had our annual mani/pedi outing with Tia Sandra. Clean, groomed nails are a nice way to start the new year.