Whelp… this has been quite a week. A bug of some sort hit various members of the family, we ran into unexpected logistical issues with our company (business “company,” not the people visiting kind) and some really big, hard things (emotional and practical) came up that kinda blindsided me.
Since my sister arrived, we’ve talked about the movie Forrest Gump several times. And Forrest is right: life IS like a box of chocolates. There are chocolates you hate, chocolates you wanted but someone else stole from under your nose. Chocolates you pick up on a whim and discover taste divine. Chocolates that are delicious but the whole almond inside chips your tooth… at the beginning of a holiday weekend when there are no dentists available. (I’m speaking metaphorically; my teeth are fine and I don’t even have a box of chocolates in my house. I’m drafting this post FROM MY PHONE – who am I??, I never blog on my phone – at 12:44 am which is scandalously beyond my bedtime, but that is the kind of day it’s been! This post goes live at 1:00 am so I need to be more succinct.)
Here’s the simple truth I’ve used way too many words to say: life is a mix of ups and downs.
While I’m being vague about some of the Hard Things, who’s ready to get specific with Happy Things??
The happiest thing in my world this week is that my sister flew up from South Carolina with her daughter.
We’ve been off exploring our area, eating delicious food, sitting in front of the fire, and catching up—so I’m going to keep this Happy Things roundup (quasi) short and sweet.
- Our house is (mostly) de-Christmassed. The mantle and wreaths are still up, but everything in the kids’ rooms is put away, the tree has been dismantled, and all the little knickknacks are neatly stored and ready for next year. It was sad to take the tree down, and I’ve had a bit of FOMO seeing other people’s trees still glowing cheerily in picture windows, but the reset has helped my mood and subtly streamlined the flow of our house. It’s far more fun to put decorations up than to take them down, but I paired the task with an afternoon (coffee) visit from my parents, which helped soften the blow.
- I’ve started on our 2025 photobook! We take an almost alarming number of photos. I love them, love the memories attached to them, and the kids (mostly Belle) flip through at least some of our old photobooks monthly. It’s a major time investment because I have a very particular way I like them done—and there are so. many. photos. It can feel overwhelming to start, but one day over Christmas break I holed up in the office and made real progress. I’m about 70% finished, and it’s taken less time than usual.
- Snow-globe snow! We had so much snow last weekend. While it made driving less than ideal, it also made for some truly beautiful walks through the woods. (Unfortunately, it turned to rain just in time for our visitors. Coming from South Carolina, snow is a novelty and they wanted to go skiing! Sledding!! Build a snowman. Alas, they missed the snow-globe snow.)
- I picked Indy up after school on Tuesday and we went skiing (just before the rain). I have been Capital “D” Dreading this first trek to the hill, for a variety of reasons which I really should blog about BUT for today all I’ll say is getting our passes was seamless (new system = a potentially whole big thing but it went smoothly), we fit in three runs down the main hill, three runs down the bunny hill, and were home in time for a quick supper and then off to pickleball! An active, fun day.
- Indy now handles showers start to finish. He’s been bathing himself for years, but always wanted us to start the shower and get the temperature sorted for him (our water can get very hot). Over Christmas (we’re still showering in the basement because the upstairs tub remains unfixed but a plumber is supposed to come THIS WEEK!) he started doing it all on his own. It is WONDERFUL and feels like a genuine life milestone.
- Instant Pot love. Lisa and I have been texting back and forth about our shared enthusiasm for this device. Her joy is well-established; mine is new. So far I’ve made mac and cheese, hard- and soft-boiled eggs, two soups, and bone broth. Consider me fully converted.
- Back to school! The kids are back to school! They had a wonderful break and—credit where it’s due—maintained impressively good moods. But after more than two weeks off and multiple snow days in December, I was very ready for routine to return.
- Bowling. On Friday, friends reached out mid-afternoon to see if we wanted to join them for a bowling outing followed by a finger-foods buffet at their house. I hadn’t bowled in nearly two decades, and Belle had never bowled at all. Naturally, after announcing my long bowling hiatus, I knocked down seven pins on my first throw. I peaked early, friends. Things went downhill from there—but John was great, and Belle (much like with curling) has a real knack. I’d love to make bowling a more regular family outing. It’s inexpensive, active, and genuinely fun. The finger foods were excellent, too. I had planned to eat a giant salad at home, but I’m glad I pivoted.
- Greek yogurt waffles. Fluffy, delicious, and deeply satisfying. I’ve cobbled together a recipe from a few different sources, so there’s nothing to link to—but trust me: yum.
Now I’m off to enjoy some special family time which I will FOR SURE be recapping in the near future (in far more detail than necessary, no doubt)!
Your turn:
- Any Happy Things of note from your week?
- Are you a take-the-decorations-down-early person or a leave-them-up-as-long-as-possible person?
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Yay for your sister’s visit – and your niece’s curls are absolutely adorable!
I’m really sorry about the Hard Things that blindsided you. That sounds heavy, and I hope there’s some resolution soon.
One happy thing on my end this week was attending an investment outlook event for 2026. What struck me most was hearing from several women in their 60s leading at a very high level (CEOs of multinational companies). So much energy, optimism, and clarity. Genuinely inspiring, and a good reminder that this season of life can be a powerful one!
Aren’t her curls the best! She has a sister with the same curl pattern. It’s a lot of work to maintain, but stunning.
That event sounds amazing and right up your alley.
Hooray for a sister and niece visit! What a fantastic counterbalance to the rough stuff.
Snowwww!!!! All our snow is mostly gone after a few days of rain. But we had several hours of sunshine yesterday which was wonderful.
Happy things: Date night tonight! And a purring cat in my bed at exactly the right time. And Christmas is allllll put away (I get it out of my house asap).
It has been so lovely to have them visit. It is SHORT (they leave Sunday), but boy are we cramming in the great conversation.
We’re supposed to get sunshine today and I am here for it.
Yay! Date nights! Christmas clean up done (always a dreaded task for me). AND LEO! A perpetual Happy Thing <3
I’m sorry to hear that there were a lot of complications this week ( and sickness! 😞) but glad you can still find bright spots.
Skiing and pickleball in one day?!? You are amazing.
Happy thing- my daughter sent me a copy of her ultrasound video. I will have a grandchild to snuggle in July if all goes well. Very much thrilled and blessed by this.
The Christmas decorations were down before New Years, though I left our créche up until Epiphany. I miss the lights at night, but mostly I’m glad for the fresh start. I did put the tree out in the city’s tree collection dumpst- they use the trees for mulch.
I hope your weekend brings good health and more happy moments!
You’re going to be a grandmother??? That is so exciting.
Our town collects trees too (for a few weeks and then you’re on your own for disposal). We have artificial now, so it’s moot. I leave our mantle swag up until February, but I’m relieved the tree is down!
Wow, Elisabeth, that was one jam-packed week! I’m glad there were so many happy things to balance out the hard ones. I hated to put my Christmas decorations and tree away this year too.
It is sad to say “goodbye” to Christmas, but it does make the house feel a bit less chaotic.
This is totally not the point but I LOVE Forrest Gump. I think the friendship between Forrest and Lieutenant Dan is the best arc written in a movie. Oh, I could cry right now thinking about it. Back in 2023 before we moved (and when I was essentially having a nervous breakdown every single day) Jake had his wisdom teeth removed and we watched it together on the couch and WOW WAS IT CATHARTIC TO CRY. LIEUTENANT DAN. Okay, I will tell you, I am crying right now thinking about the NYE scene with the prostitutes when one says “Is your friend stupid or something” and Lieutenant Dan says “Don’t you call him stupid!” BRB need tissues.
Wow did this go off on a tangent. I don’t even remember the rest of your post and I just read it seconds ago. Oh yes! So happy you had a nice visit with your sister. Her hair is amazing!
Wait, I meant your niece’s hair! The curly hair! Also you have so much snow! We have NONE at all!
The curly hair is next level, right. Some people have asked how long it takes her to curl it. Um… that is God and genetics, folks 🙂
It’s 6C here today and almost ALL our snow is gone.
Forrest Gump has something for everyone and is an enduring classic for a reason. My BIL had a cat named Lieutenant Dan. And I visited the spot of Forrest’s bench when we visited Savannah!
Well, SIGH- my decorations are down, except for a few stragglers. I agree it’s sad taking them down, but it does feel good to get it done.
I’m commiserating on the visitors from SC missing the snow. As a Floridian, I can attest that that happens ALL THE TIME. We used to go up north when the kids were little “to see snow” and were disappointed every time- we finally gave up on that. I’m sure you guys are having fun anyway!
Sorry about the hard parts… it sounds like you had some very challenging things. I hope things are resolved (?) and that you have a wonderful weekend.
My sister had two trips after Christmas this year: one to see family in West Virginia and one to visit us. Both times they were excited to go sledding and skiing and both times they couldn’t. But we’ve made the most of the weather and it’s been a GREAT visit.
How did you sister end up in SC? We took down Christmas last weekend and it’s a relief to have the house back in order. My husband has a terrible cough right now, so no fun weekend plans for us. I AM planning two trips for 2026, so that has probably been my highlight of the week, even though it can be stressful making decisions. Those photo books are such a time suck!!! I can’t believe you do one for the whole year. I did one for our family vacation in 2024 (one week’s worth of pictures) and it probably took me two months to complete. I don’t find Snapfish to be user friendly, but liked their designs best.
She went down almost 30 years ago for school, met her husband there, and settled in the state. She loves the climate and lifestyle there, but she is a Canadian at heart <3
The flus and colds this year have been horrific.
Photobooks take forever, but they are a good investment of my time I think because of how much joy they bring our family.
We took our decorations down last night so yay us, but I am here to cheer for people who leave their outsides lights on long after the holidays. It’s the little things that bring so much job to nightly dog walking in the winter.
I don’t print physical photos, but I have digital photo frames on my desk and in the living room. I just updated my desk frame for the BC and NS trips so now I have a good mix of photos of Nicole, Rex, you, and Belle plus the gorgeous sights of BC and the Maritimes! I know you’re busy with the Europe trip, but I NEED for Nicole to visit you and for you to visit Nicole so that you can both see the gorgeousness that lies at either end of your country.
I LOVE outside decor that stays up well into February. It really brings some needed cheer into the winter doldrums.
Life goals in the near future are FOR SURE to get to BC!
Your sister must have access to the fountain of youth. She looks so young and I think she’s a grandmother? I love her curly hair and I know at least one of her daughters has curly hair. It looks gorgeous!
I am so glad you are loving your IP. I would have felt sort of guilty/bad if you got it and didn’t love it… It is a great gadget and something we use multiple times a week!
I’m sorry you had a hard week. It’s been a rough week here, too. And when something hard happens, it hits extra hard because I have zero margin for hard things right now.
I showed her your comment and she was DELIGHTED. When we were out at a cafe, someone asked if we were all sisters (including her daughter). That made her happy too 🙂
The Instant Pot has been amazing.
Sending love and hugs, sorry it’s been quite the week for you! I hope everyone is feeling better soon.
How lovely to spend some time with your sister and niece.
Eek to all of the snow! All around me is getting the white stuff but there’s been none here, just a lot of rain. It looks like you had fun in it.
The snow is mostly gone today. We’ve had a lot of rain, wind, and warmer temps. I’m a bit relieved… I don’t love the snow 🙂
Can you tell me again your photo processing process? One of my goals for this year is to stay better up on cleaning out duplicates, bloopers, etc at the end of each month. I know when I was there you said you have a specific process for marking favs and picking pics for posts and I think also deleting. But I can’t remember!
I go through all my photos and mark everything I want to keep with a heart (favourite), then I go back through and delete everything that doesn’t have a heart.
In terms of blogging, once I post a photo that has been hearted, I will go back and take the heart off so each week I can see what new photos are hearted and those are the ones I’m going to be uploading.
I should try to write a post about it because it’s fairly simple, but I’m not doing a great job of describing it in this comment. I also take all my photos off my phone each month and then have a fairly detailed method of organizing them on my computer!
Sorry, a bug visited your home, uninvited of course!
Yay for your sister and niece visiting—the weather difference must be alarming for them. LOL
I love that you fit in a random afternoon of skiing, then pickleball. You are such a fun, athletic mama!
You have inspired me to make a photo book—I’ve not done one in ages (decades?), and this should be a thing!
I have to admit the words athletic have never been used to describe me, so I am flattered.
I make one photobook a year. I dread the process a bit, but once I get started, it really is a wonderful walk down memory lane and the finished product is beautiful and so beloved by our family.
I’m glad you could focus on a list of happy things in spite of some hard stuff. You are amazing with the skiing, pickleball, and bowling! Go you!!! I took down my decorations a couple of days after Christmas, but I love it when people leave up their outside lights. They could leave them until spring, and I’d be happy!
Like you, I adore outdoor lights being left up. It’s so dark and can actually feel much more Christmassey later in the season anyway!
The cousin visit from SC sounds so wonderful. Plus finishing photo books. I cringe to think about how behind I am in photo albums. I’m still team photo album and I like to order physical photos and stick them in books. I should covert to photo books, because so much less space and I can order mulitple for the kids. Hmm.
Happy things this week – Curly’s team beat a team that we lost to over Christmas break and it was the kind of game that was epic. My legs were shaking on the drive home. After being down by 12 most of the game – Curly hit a few back to back 3 pointers, and her bestie his a 3 (she rarely scores). I also connected with a family friend who adopted two girls years ago (girls are my girls’ ages) and she has agreed to serve as a support system when needed and I am delighted.
Yes! Photobooks are so wonderful in many ways. I also love that I can keep a digital copy of it in case they get lost/damaged. And it’s AMAZING for printing off multiple copies.
Those are two HUGE happy things – the amazing comeback by Curly’s team and some emotional and practical support from someone who understands with regard to the girls.
Your sister is there. How wonderful. I hope you have the best time (and she’ll enjoy the snow a little more than you do! 😉 I love that you went skiing though.) Photo books are so fun, but A LOT of work. Kudos for getting on it and pushing through.
I love that Forrest Gump quote because it is so true: Life is a box of chocolates, and they’re not all of the same kind. My week was pretty mixed, too (I wrote about it) but the comedy show that Jon and I went to last night definitely was nice “distraction” from some of the latest realities and who would say not to some belly laughs anyway?
I worked on the photo book some more today and it IS a lot of work. Phew. My eyes are spinning but it’s also a great way to remind me of all the things we did this year.
Hope you have a wonderful sister and niece visit! Sorry your week had so much Stuff in it and I hope this upcoming week is an easier one!
Glad to see you are loving the instapot! It’s such a great and useful appliance!
My sister made supper for us last night… IN THE INSTANT POT. It was delicious 😉
Happy: the mountains were fantastical this week, so clear, so visible from all over the valley
Not happy: A craptastical week of tech “help” phone calls—broken website, took down email too, lost all blog posts from 2026 (several documenting progress on my latest mural, dang it), hours and hours on the phone, over and over and over. (Is it fixed now? yes no yes no yes no. . .
Happy: today I went to a party for my mechanic of the last 43 years who just sold his business and retired. Saw old friends, made new friends, and we all exchanged stories of how we found Mark. I have been with him the longest, since he opened in 1983.
Not happy: husband’s b’day and he is in a FOUL mood due to ongoing complications from October surgery, not wanting to go anywhere, but I had to go to the party so add staying home alone to the FOUL mood.
Happy: tomorrow I get to give a beginning drawing workshop. I told the sponsor that I didn’t want to do it if there were less than 7 participants, but when there were only 5, I couldn’t bear to let them down so said yes. Then 2 more signed up! I love helping people learn to draw.
Not happy: had to pay too much $ for gas because the E light came on when I was up the hill and I don’t know how many gallons remain since it is Mom’s car (well, it is mine but I don’t know it well yet.)
Happy: learned to make vertical emoticons. (ˇ-ˇ)
Not sure where things stand with your e-mail address now. I responded to the e-mail you sent me and received notice that it was not accepted. Hopefully your e-mail is back up and working. Argh. Tech issues are so incredibly frustrating and I’m so very sorry you’re going through this.
I’m so sorry your husband is still struggling with the recovery. You always want to be the positive statistic for that sort of surgery. I hope he turns a corner soon.
Enjoy the drawing workshop!
sorry to hear about the downs. I believe that life is more interesting and fulfilling when there are ups and downs than flat. when there’s down, up is not far away, hopefully.
so great that your sister and niece is visiting to balance It out! she’s so cute with her curly hair and her smile.
we haven’t taken down our tree as we left on 12/25. a lot to do when we go back.
happy thing yesterday: watching people we met on vacation with husband in our hotel room, alone, during a rainy day, alternative plan to go to the waterfalls. it was so nice.
Your vacation posts are always so joyful to read; it sounds like you’ve had a truly incredible time away.
Sorry to hear about the bug and the Hard Things, but I’m glad you had a lovely sister & niece visit to brighten the week. I must learn more about this Instant Pot! A happy thing is my parents are back home after almost 7 weeks away! So good to see them today, also we had a picnic with some new friends (a colleague and her family) yesterday, and it went really well. Hooray for new friendships.
I’m so glad your parents are back and I hope the transition into the new year is going smoothly!
I am LOVING the Instant Pot so far.
Yay for sister visits! Amazing! We took down our wreath today. Now all that is left is the lights around our front window, and I suspect those will stay for a while, they brigthen things up a bit.
It is amazing what some twinkle lights can do – for both the mood of the space and the mood of the inhabitants!
Instant Pot eggs are the way to go around here. They come out just how I like them, and I can cook so many at once!
I hope you had a lovely visit with your sister and niece!
We didn’t decorate for Christmas this year because we were travelling, but when we do we take things down after Epiphany. I’ve always been reluctant to decorate too much because I find having to take everything down kind of makes me a little sad. Plus it’s a lot of work. But the Husband and the kids love decorating, especially lights outside, so I put the Husband in charge of it all.
It’s been kind of a bonkers week both on the National and personal/work front, but I would say a happy thing is having good colleagues. Also the Chicago Bears winning Saturday evening’s game was a very happy thing for us.
Taking things down is NOT fun. When I see houses where people go all out I’m depressed FOR them when I think about the sad work of dismantling all that festive stuff.
The world is so topsy turvy right now, so I’m glad you have grounded, supportive colleagues <3
Oh I’d use Slidebox for this. It’s so quick and easy.
I just looked it up – seems SLICK!
I’m sorry it’s been a rough start to 2026 for you! I’m glad you had a fun visit, though. As a fellow southerner, I too would be disappointed to come to Canada in January and not get snowfall! I was BESIDE MYSELF the year we went to Tennessee and got snow flurries, HA.
My happiest thing is my new routine and actually FOLLOWING IT. I’m getting so much done! It feels good.
There is something so wonderful about New Year Energy. I don’t really feel like I’m in a set routine, but I’ve tried to tweak a few things in my schedule to that I’m doing more time blocking and that has been good!