Well, it happened. Sophia is 13! We had a small family party for her on the big day, which was a Wednesday, and then she wanted to go to a Sixers game with her friends, so the following Saturday Dave took her and three friends to a game against the Celtics. The had a heartbreaking loss, but everyone had a good time anyway.
It’s hard to even call the season that we’ve had winter because its been so mild. There hasn’t been one snow fall and I’ve barley even needed my puffer jacket, which has been fine with me, but the kids, especially Lauren, are pretty bummed. Sledding in the back and playing outside in the snow are what they live for in the winter.
Lauren had her winter school choir concert recently, which was very cute. It’s the first in person, all grade performance that she’s had since first grade.
And we went to our last Flyers game with the season tickets – the end of an era! Unfortunately they lost, but it was a good game anyway.
At the beginning of February, Dave and I took a 5-day trip, kid free (!) to Puerto Rico. The trip was a company “reward” for Dave for top salespeople and select leadership. Although we were there with about 200 other West Rock folks, we had a lot of time to ourselves, which was lovely. The weather was perfect – that temperature when you walk outside and it doesn’t feel like anything – with lot of sunshine.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve, which was in Rio Grande, about 40 minutes outside of San Juan. The resort was situated on 500 acres with lots of areas to hike around and explore. It was huge, so we were able to find beaches all to ourselves.
One day we took a hike to El Yunque National Forest, which is a rain forest about 30 minutes from where we were staying. It was lush and beautiful. At one point we hiked down to a river and Dave dove in (it was too cold for me).
Another day we went into Old San Juan to do some shopping and had an amazing dinner (at a restaurant that I will never remember the name).
I’m so thankful that my mom came up from Virginia and stayed with the girls (even the insane girl dog) so that we could get away for a bit. It was lovely to relax, not work, and reconnect 🙂
Two days after Christmas we got loaded up and headed to New York for a few days of skiing. We got an Airbnb in between Hunter and Windham mountains with the Morris and Townsend families. We also celebrated Lauren’s 10th birthday while we were there. On the 28th we had a little party with pizza and cake and a competitive game of Kids Against Maturity.
While Ally and I hung at the house enjoying some quiet time, Crystal and the dads took the kids for three days of skiing. According to Dave, Sophie and Lauren have been doing really well and they both “graduated” to ski poles.
Unfortunately there was one pretty big mishap. Crystal was taken out doing down the mountain and hit her face on John’s ski boot. She broke her nose and hand and will need surgery to fix both when they get home. She’s been a trooper, but was out for the count the rest of the week.
We had a great this year! We hosted again and had a crew of 25 for dinner. Christmas morning was nice and quiet with just our family. The girls both got what they wanted – Sophie a pair of Air Jordan’s and Lauren a make-up table (she’s been very into make-up as of late).
We’ve been hosting Christmas for a few years now and have the routine down. Dave cooks the dinner, with his mom making the ham at her house, I get everything set up, and from there everyone shows up and enjoys themselves. The crowd only stayed until about 9 this year, so we had plenty of time to clean up and enjoy the evening.
On December 14 we lost my sweet Nana. She was 97 years old.
She had been sick for a few days with Covid, but was getting better and was actually back home at Bellingham. It was very sudden and a surprise to all of us.
I’m so grateful that we had just spent some good time with her to celebrate her birthday in October and at Thanksgiving in Virginia. She was a regular on the weekly Rainer family zoom calls on Sunday nights and I felt like I was closer with her these last few years because of that.
She was the matriarch of this family and will be deeply missed.
December has been filled with recitals and holiday celebrating. I decided that this year instead of taking the kids to see the Nutcracker again, we’d try the Philly Pops Holiday Spectacular at the Kimmel Center. It did not disappoint. The music and singing were great and it was a very entertaining show. Beforehand we did the holiday brunch at the Union League which was very festive.
Sophie had her winter band concert mid-December, which ends up being her last one because she decided she doesn’t want to be in band anymore. They were impressive for a 7th grade band, and Soph was smack center playing base drum.
The following weekend were two holiday concerts for the Philadelphia Girls Choir – one in a performing arts center in New Jersey and the other at Temple Performing Arts Center. As always, the girls were amazingly impressive. I’m continually blow away by how professional this choir sounds.
And finally we got together with the college friends at a Christmas party at Justin and Steve’s house. It was great to connect with everyone again. I hadn’t seen Erin in over a year, and Vahid even longer.
I love December and everything leading up to Christmas. This year did not disappoint and we’re all in the holiday spirit.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we headed out to Yaeger Farms to cut down our Christmas tree, which has been our tradition for years. The weather was pretty crappy, with cold rain, so it wasn’t too crowded. But no hay rides either. We made short work of finding our tree, cutting it down, and getting it loaded up.
We headed down to Charlottesville for Thanksgiving again and enjoyed the regular festivities. The weather was pretty warm and beautiful and we got to spend a lot of time outside. Dave cooked the dinner, with Uncle Doug deep frying the turkey per usual. It was a delicious feast like always. This year Chris joined for the first time and Quinn came in from Arizona, which was great. Becky’s boyfriend CJ was also there. It was a great crowd.
The rest of the weekend we enjoyed activities around town including holiday lights at Boar’s Head, hiking to the quarry, and wine tasting at King Family Vineyard.
In November we all went down to St. Pete Florida to celebrate Dad’s 70th birthday. It was a nice warm break from the cold weather back home. We stayed in a resort right on the beach that had pools, a huge blowup slide on the beach, and activities for the kids like paddle boats and zip lines. It was a really nice, relaxing getaway and a fun celebration.
For Dad’s birthday dinner we went to a seafood restaurant that had a huge aquarium in the dining room.
I think Dad enjoyed the weekend having the whole family around and just chilling on the beach. Happy Birthday, dad! We love you!