It’s almost 9pm on New Year’s Eve-Eve and we’re up in the bonus room with the kids as they’re passing the basketball, playing XBOX, and eating candy.
What a sentence. None of these events are the norm on any given night, but maybe because it’s the holidays or maybe because it’s the end of the year that they feel okay tonight. I’m glad PJ suggested we all migrate up here for a late-night session of fun.
It’s hard to believe the year we’ve had. We, meaning all of us. No matter how seemingly good life has been for any of us, there’s still an ever-present sense of dread that looms in almost every part of life that’s spilled over from 2020. Do you know what I mean? Covid, and all of its variants, have made this year the Evermore to last year’s Folklore, a similar companion piece, only not in any kind of joyous way.
Still, there were some highlights to the year, and what is social media for if not to put the best parts of your life front and center. A virtual scrapbook of sorts: a place to keep all of your favorite parts of your life in one place. The parts you never want to forget. The parts you want to remember forever.
Also, I don’t know about you, but ever since a year and a half ago, when Covid first hit the U.S., time honest to god means absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. It’s hard to fathom that the Capitol riots were just in January, that Biden hasn’t even been president for a year, that PJ and I have only had the vaccine since May.
So why don’t we take a look back at the year that was significantly better than 2020, but still not great (except for one big, major thing that happens towards the second half of the year- keep on reading!), and the times that made it special.
January
We celebrated our daughter’s birthday and had a small party as she turned three! It’s incredibly hard to believe she’s turning four in just a few days, and it’s true what they say: the days are long but the years are short. How is our little girl no longer a toddler?! Anna Elizabeth makes all of our days brighter and sassier and we are so obsessed with her.
We also painted our living room! After years of wanting a brighter room, I finally convinced PJ to get on board with painting our living room white (White Dove by Benjamin Moore). It gets the most incredible light in the evening, especially in the winter, so now it’s this bright, calming room, and the one where we spend the majority of our time as a famliy.
February
We started spending more time at the farm and Holiday House. Though the farm brought us some much needed peace in 2020 and, in a way, helped to calm our worries and fears, this was the year we really fell in love with it. It became our refuge.
We began renovating Holiday House and tore down the wall separating the kitchen and the dining room, effectively making it one big room and so much more spacious.
PJ also started renovating The Downtown Cottage again after taking a small hiatus during the holidays.
March
In a move no one was more surprised about than me, we moved in to the in-the-middle-of-being-renovated Holiday House for the next few months. No washer and dryer. One bathroom. Not enough bedrooms. But it was a change of scenery from where we spent the entirety of last year: cooped up in our house in town with not much room to stretch our legs and run around. The farm and Holiday House were a breath of fresh air for our family this year: a clean slate for our senses and a chance to renew our creativity in all aspects. We spent every day outside and the kids loved running around the farm getting dirty and releasing all of the pent up energy.
Oh, and PJ also built us a small pond in the back of the farm that we all enjoyed walking to every day.
I turned 30 on the 30th of March and spent it being surprised again and again by PJ’s sweet gifts. It was by far the best birthday I’ve ever had, and I spent it with my mom and, at the end of the day, with my husband and kids.
PJ also finished the exterior of The Downtown Cottage! We partnered with Benjamin Moore, a dream brand of ours to work with since we’ve been using their paint for over 10+ years, and went with a red, white and blue theme for the exterior of the cottage. It turned out exactly how PJ envisioned.
April
Our oldest turned 6! Time is flying and our kids are growing up way too fast. We celebrated at the farm with family and friends and the best cake in the world. We also welcomed new family members to Ocoee Farm: baby geese and sheep! The cutest ever and it’s been an absolute joy to see them get accustomed to the farm.
Speaking of the farm, we were still living at Holiday House and were loving the early misty mornings when it was still so cold outside and the fog would settle around the trees, creating a haunting atmosphere that we both agree we love (almost more than the sunny days).
May
We took our first vacation as a family (and our first trip since covid) to the beach to celebrate PJ’s birthday! My mom and younger sister came, along with PJ’s mom and sister and our best friends Matt and Beau. We rented a big house and all spent the week at the beach and it was so, so needed. It was exactly what we had all been missing. This was also the first time our children had been to the beach, so seeing their faces light up when they finally saw the sand and the water and the waves was magical. Truly an unforgettable trip.
June
We partnered with another dream brand of ours, Lowes, to finally finish the pavilion at the farm and turn it into what PJ always envisioned it being. For a month straight, he (with a little help from me and the kids in the form of painting) poured his blood, sweat and tears into finishing the pavilion and it turned out better than I could have ever imagined. PJ’s talent and work ethic truly know no bounds, and I find myself constantly amazed by him.
We celebrated the pavilion being finished with a party for our family and friends and it was such a lovely, fun evening. It felt so good to see everyone out there enjoying a space usually reserved for just us (since we were the only ones going out there for the last few years). It was surreal and exciting for our loved ones to spend a few hours with us out there and finally get to use the pavilion in the way we always wanted.
July
We took our second and last beach trip of the summer for one more hurrah with our kids and Matt and Beau. Only this time, our friend Nick came with us and got to meet the kids. We rented this beautiful mid-century modern house in Florida from Airbnb and spent a week walking to the beach and eating all the food and soaking up quality time with our friends that we went too long without seeing.
It was such a fun thing to experience our kids around our friends, and to see how much Matt and Beau and Nick loved being around them in return. It’s one thing for us to think they’re the most special kids in the world, but to see our friends extend such patience, love, and care to them was truly beautiful and meant the world to us.
We also had our second event at The Pavilion at Ocoee Farm (we gave it an official name!) in the form of our cousin’s baby shower. Another beautiful evening, and again, so fun to see others enjoy the space as much as we do.
August
My brother got married and our kids were in the wedding! I was the best man and nervously gave a speech that PJ helped me write, and it luckily went well (I found I wasn’t as nervous once I was finally up there). It was a gorgeous, unforgettable night that I want to remember forever.
This was also the month we had been waiting for for two years. This was the month we finally, after 782 days of our children being in the foster care system, got to adopt Allan, Riah, and Anna. We got to introduce you to them after having to hide their faces and their names for two years since we couldn’t show you either as long as they were in the system.
Not having to put little hearts over their faces in photos or blurs in videos anymore meant way more than just not having to do a little extra work. It felt, in a hard-to-explain kind of way, like things were more official. Like barriers were down and it was now up to us if we wanted to do that or not. We were legally a family of five after feeling like one for years. We changed their middle and last names and everything felt exactly as it should.
Also, the kids started school! Though it didn’t go so well for Anna, and we ended up keeping her home for one more year.
And lastly, we bought a tiny house! You can see the entire dramatic story here.
September
The time finally came: after avoiding it for a year and a half (and getting vaccinated), I tested positive for covid. I was shocked, mostly because I had been so careful for so long, and was the most paranoid one of the family in terms of taking precautions. But alas, I had it, so I quarantined in our room for 10 days, which turned out to be some of the loneliest days I’ve experienced since we started our family a few years ago. I was grateful, of course, that my case wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and my heart broke the entire time thinking of those who lost much more than just a few days.
My ordeal with covid was only physically bad for about four days: high fever, no energy, loss of taste and smell, extremely tired all day, and chills all over my body. The rest of the time was purely mental and emotional: in short, I had major FOMO. My entire life was still happening outside our bedroom door, and I was stuck inside unable to hold my children, make them breakfast, give my son his medicine, clean the house, take care of everyone, etc. It was new territory for me to experience these feelings with my own family, but I was used to a certain way of life with them and I essentially felt useless. I was so extremely happy when those 10 days were up. I missed everyone more than I ever thought I would.
We also took a trip to Utah by ourselves (!) and it was our first flight (and work trip) since January 2020, which, coincidentally, was also to Utah for a work trip. Funny how life works out like that, isn’t it?
October
Anna took a trip without us for the first time! She went with my mom and younger sister to visit my older sister and her six kids in Georgia. It was the weirdest feeling ever to not have her home with us, but she ended up having a blast (after a short crying spell in the car on the drive there). She was able to get some much needed one on one time, and enjoy all of her favorite things with teenage girls: doing her makeup and nails and hair. She naturally gravitates to towards those things and we were both so happy she got to explore them with her cousins.
In other news, we celebrated Halloween this year after taking a break from it last year! We made food and the kids dressed up and we took them trick or treating for the first time ever. After years of talking up how spellbinding our town is during Halloween, Matt and Beau drove up here for the final time this year and got to experience it with us. It was a wonderful night, and I hope I never get tired of celebrating this holiday in our little town.
November
Riah turns five! At this point, we have officially celebrated all of the birthdays for the year and my heart swells a bit thinking how they’re all one year older. They seem to be changing daily at this point, learning new words and useful traits like sarcasm, eye-rolls, and the ability to make us laugh with the serious but cute ways in which they now talk to us.
In other news, we bought another house! PJ found an adorable house for a seriously great price right down the road from Ocoee Farm, and immediately saw the potential in it. He affectionately named it Getaway House, because it’s tucked away and surrounded by trees, and it feels like a little getaway from the rest of the world. It’s finished for now, as phase one was completed in record time after PJ hired a few things out (we’ve decided we’re going to start doing that now instead of PJ working on everything by himself), and Dixie (our best friend and farm manager) will be moving into it in a few weeks as we turn our attention to finishing Holiday House.
Also, our interview with Out Magazine finally came out! A huge thank you to Dan for the sweet write up about our family.
Lastly, we had in interesting Thanksgiving this year, as all of our family was out of town for the holiday, and we spent it in the tiny house. I shattered a casserole dish. Jolie threw up three times on the floor. It was night to remember.
December
The holidays are here! Our favorite time of the year has come, and with it, an enormous amount of holiday campaigns. Holiday campaigns are crazy every year, but this year seemed to be back to back to back. We are grateful for the work.
The boys also started basketball! They had their first game and Allan scored a basket!! He has really taken to basketball and is becoming such a good dribbler. In fact, he’s dribbling right in front of me as a type this. PJ has been working so hard with the boys to help them understand the game and work on shooting, passing, dribbling, etc. They love it, and we love watching them play.
We had plans to travel to New York and celebrate Christmas with my mom’s family for the first time in 15 years, but after several family members tested positive for covid during last minute checks, and the Omicron variant is running rampant, we all made the decision to cancel our family holiday. We were able to get our hotel deposit back, but the reality of not all being together for Christmas set in, and we were more hurt than I think either of us thought we would be.
Still, we celebrated at home with some of our family and it was so nice. A quieter holiday, but one where we were together nonetheless. It wasn’t what we originally planned for, yet, in the end, somehow it was exactly what we ended up wanting.
This has been an interesting year for us all, and something tells me 2022 won’t be much different. But I think if we’re lucky enough to live another day, then we’re lucky enough. As the seconds turn to minutes and minutes to hours, and the hours make up the days that add up to the months that equal the years we spend here on this planet, I find myself, at the end of yet another year, grateful for it all: the good, the bad, the really bad, the exciting and turbulent moments, the extremely joyous and memorable ones, and all the ones in between.
I am ending the year feeling grateful for my husband, who works harder than anyone I’ve ever met and who I somehow love more now than I did 11 years ago. My hero. My guy.
And for our children: Allan, our oldest, who is so smart and curious about everything. For Riah, our middle child, who embodies every sense of the meaning of what it means to be the middle child. And for our daughter, Anna, who has us wrapped around her tiny, almost-four year old fingers. It’s hard to remember life before them, and I don’t think we’d have it any other way.
And finally, thank you for being here this year. Whether here on the blog, on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube, in the mail or on email, and wherever else you’ve found us. Your love and support means more to us than we could ever accurately put into words. We are so incredibly grateful for you, and hope to continue making memories with you in 2022.
We’ll see you next year, dear friend. Happy New Year!!
xoxo