Happy New Year, y'all! People (me) are still saying this in greeting, and will until at least February, so I don't feel too behind in my first post of the year (even if my last post was in October). 2018 wrapped up pretty great - we celebrated Maddie turning 7 with a very epic Harry Potter party (that will get its own belated post because it was just too awesome not to share), a simple and sweet Thanksgiving and ALL THE CHRISTMAS fun that we could fit in throughout the month of December. Christmas Day goes so fast (about 35 minutes by my watch) so we did a bunch of extra special stuff to soak in the magic of the season: The Boston Ballet Nutcracker, lots of walks around the neighborhood to look at lights, near-daily Christmas music dance parties, The Pop's Home Alone show, a trip to Maine and Great Wolf Lodge and spending time hunkered under blankets watching Christmas movies together. All those fun times make it not so sad when I declare Christmas to be over about 12