2023 - Year in Review

And just like that - 2023 has come to a close! I'll finish this year out with my usual Year in Review post! I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year and 2024 is everything you hope it will be and more! 

January: A good month but a hard month. Ryan and I got in some ax throwing & traveled into DC for the DC Auto Show; Ryan was in his element. We also said good-bye to Watson. My pup was with me for thirteen years and what a wonderful thirteen years they were. We closed out the month doing some hiking to scatter Watson's ashes in some of his favorite places. 

February: A pretty laid back month! Ryan and I attended the Marriage Conference at our church in early February and in the middle of the month we went to Seven Springs for a skiing weekend. Ryan was incredible at it and I barely made it down the slope once! We closed out the month getting tattoos together; that's what happens when I tell my husband to come up with "unique" dates. 

March: What a full month! We began fostering Luna in March; she was a wonderful addition to our family for a short time! We graduated from Financial Peace University with goals to achieve for the rest of the year! The end of the month saw us traveling to Nashville for Ryan's graduation from Sales Fix Academy - we took in a Bu-cee's, downtown Nashville, Loveless Cafe and more before returning home!

April: Another month filled with activity! The month started as we were returning from Nashville, with stops at the Corvette Museum, Buffalo Trace Distillery and New River Gorge in West Virginia! We celebrated Easter and went to a DC Defenders game (shields up!) before the end of the month ... when we hopped on a plane and headed across the pond. The end of April found us in the UK!

May: What an eventful month! We spent the first week of May exploring the English countryside: London, Oxford, Lavenham, Cambridge and many more spots. It was a wonderful trip and we had a spectacular time! We celebrated Mother's Day with my parents at the Mimslyn Inn and on the last day of the month we found out we were expecting. 

June: Another hard month; really hard. After two ER visits and so many prayers, we lost our baby on June 15th. We trust and know the Lord has a plan and His ways are higher than ours, but goodness it hurt to lose that little person we were so looking forward to meeting. We soldiered on and ended the month with a weekend trip to Latrobe, Pennsylvania for an air show and to tour Falling Water.

July: I started the month with a much-needed break. I went to Florida for about a week with my mother-in-law and spent the days lounging by the pool, poking around at Lake Weir and reading on her lanai during afternoon thunderstorms. I even got to meet lemurs and play with them! It was a wonderful way to decompress from June and all it had held. We closed out the month deciding to put our house on the market.

August: We had something happening every weekend in August! We started the month fixing up our house to go on the market and the next weekend headed to Six Flags and Fredericksburg to see friends. The next weekend we were in Florida visiting Ryan's mom and we closed out the month with a trip to DC to check out the Bible Museum. 

September: Another busy and good month! We spent a lot of time outdoors with the Scottish Festival, hiking, exploring and taking in an exhibit at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. We traveled to Virginia Beach for a weekend for an air show and enjoyed getting to walk on the beach... me a little more than Ryan. I also attended our church's women's conference! Oh yeah - we also closed on the sale of our house on September 20th and officially became debt free! 

October: We kicked off the month with some birthday fun; exploring the National Botanic Garden and going to the Chocolate & Coffee Festival in DC. We explored nature as the leaves turned, I went to Luckett's Fall Market with friends and we all went on a ghost tour of Winchester the weekend ahead of Halloween. We closed the month with Halloween - we dressed as characters from Bridgerton! 

November: What a full month! My husband absolutely surprised me by whisking me away for a three-day weekend to the mountains of West Virginia for our first anniversary! We started the weekend getting matching tattoos in memory of our baby and explored the countryside all weekend long, exploring caves and hiking to a waterfall! We closed out the month with a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and a trip to Luckett's Holiday House!

December: Another full month in so many ways! We enjoyed making cookies with Katie and her family and had so much fun at Ryan's office party! We celebrated Christmas with my family a week early with a trip to DC to see the sights and lights and then celebrated a Christmas together - just the two of us. We tried to keep things low key post Christmas and closed out the year as calmly as possible.

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This year held so much - some of it wonderful and some of it absolutely devastating. We made some wonderful memories in 2023 and there are some moments I won't mind leaving behind. We accomplished so much together and I can't wait to see what out future has in store - I know the Lord has great things for us! 

Christmas Day and Then Some

Can y'all believe that there are only two days left of 2023? This year feels like it has completely flown by and here we are, just days away from a new year and a fresh start on all things! I wanted to share just a few snaps from our wonderful Christmas Day and the few days afterwards! Our Christmas was very low-key - it was just the two of us and we had a pretty relaxed day!  

We had an awesome breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls for breakfast while doing our Advent and reading the Christmas story. Then we busted into our stockings - Santa was very good to us - and exchanged our gifts! We are blessed indeed and had so much fun watching the other person open the gifts that were chosen and see their excitement! 

We had a late lunch/early dinner on Christmas day: Brown Sugar Baked Ham, Stuffing, Roasted Maple Bacon Brussel Sprouts, Scalloped Corn and Sweet Potato Casserole! It all turned out great and was delicious! Shortly before sunset, we headed over to the lake to test our Ryan's new monocular and then watched some Christmas Day football before calling it a day! 

Ryan's birthday was on the 26th - I was off work, so after Ryan got off work we headed to Logan's Roadhouse for a celebratory birthday dinner for my sweet husband! Our meal was great and the little fellow you spy in the pictures spent the meal grinning at me... until Ryan would turn around, and then he would give Ryan the stink eye! It was hilarious and we couldn't quit cracking up!

The last couple days have been a roller coaster for me and I've dealt with some health issues; again, nothing serious! My hubby brought me home flowers yesterday after a long day - and I have to say; while this year has been good, I won't be sad to see the end of 2023. It has been filled with good but the last month or so has kind of beat us up... so to speak! 

I am looking forward to another three-day weekend to celebrate the New Year - and I cannot wait to see what 2024 has in store for my little family! 

Wednesday Word

 

Happy Birthday to Ryan

 

Happy Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband - Ryan! I am so blessed by my best friend and so thrilled to have him in my life! He is a Godly leader for our family and my biggest supporter! He is kind to all, quick to encourage others, excited about life and absolutely a friend to all! I tell him all the time that every year I waited for him was worth it - and I cannot wait to celebrate him every December 26th for many, many years to come!

I love you most - Happy Birthday to you Hubs!

Merry Christmas

Almost Christmas

Can you believe it's Christmas Eve? Time absolutely flies and while I was off from work a little longer than expected (thanks illness) - it seems like the days leading up to Christmas have sped by and here we are, on the threshold of another wonderful Christmas Day celebration! 

Ryan and I spent our Christmas Eve Eve (that's the day before Christmas Eve - duh) running some errands in our old hometown of Woodstock and having a delicious and chill lunch together at Cracker Barrel. After chilling at home for the afternoon, we headed to Clearbrook Park to experience Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

  

It's been a few years since I was able to attend the lights display at Clearbrook Park - but I must say, it was spectacular as usual! I do think that it's become much more popular in the last few years; unless our visit being on Christmas Eve Eve meant that it was especially busy! We had to wait in a line to park - nothing extreme - but man, there were people everywhere! Regardless of the crowds - we grabbed some hot chocolate and enjoyed strolling the park and taking in the lights!

Sunday morning - Christmas Eve - today! We slept in and were a lot more "lazy" than we usually are! We ended up going to the 11 AM service; something we've never done before! The Christmas Eve service was beautiful and I so enjoyed being able to spend that time with Ryan and focus on the real reason for our Christmas season - the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We headed home after church and had a pretty chill Christmas Eve afternoon!

We made chocolate dipped pretzels and chocolate dipped peanut butter crackers and I worked on putting together some of our meal for Christmas Day! We watched a LOT of football and then watched my most favorite Christmas movie: White Christmas! It never truly feels like Christmas Eve until I've watched Bing, Danny, Rosemary & Vera sing that familiar tune! 

After a walk through our neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights - we headed home and hopped in bed, to be sure we were asleep when Santa came!

A Wednesday Word

 

Orchids & Cathedrals

It's me again - two days in a row! I didn't want to overwhelm the post on Monday with a million pictures; because I certainly had that many, so I split things up a bit! One of my favorite exhibits at the US Botanic Garden is the orchids and between Ryan and I - we took tons of pictures in the orchid exhibit! I figured I'd share those today - and some other photos!  

The orchid exhibit is just absolutely stunning - and they have a much larger exhibit early in the Spring. I've only been once, but it was an amazing display of so much beauty! 

How do you possibly pick one over another? They are the most stunning things - I have to say, the orchid is definitely in my top three flowers. They are so colorful and different; so many varieties and each one unique from the others!

We'd hoped to go to Zoo Lights (sold out) or the Lights at Bull Run (sold out) but neither of those things really panned out for us. Christendom College is a small college located in Front Royal and they have been building a massive cathedral on campus for several years now... and it's finally finished. We discovered after a quick Google search that the cathedral is open from 6 AM - 1 AM every day - and so away we went!

While not exactly Christmas lights - it is certainly a stunning cathedral and I enjoyed perusing the cathedral and taking in all the beautiful stained glass windows, the gorgeous altar and more - the craftmanship that has been put into the building is incredible!

So - just a short and sweet post today - wanted to share the last of the pictures from our day out in DC and our Christmas celebrations!