Step One

Dear Dash,

I've been writing about you here since you were eight months old and were literally Little Dash. Now you're 10 (nope), nearly five feet tall and built like a linebacker. You're old enough now to make and maintain your own memories, and to be mortified if any of your friends ever found this blog. I think it's time to pack up this space and let you create your own records of your childhood (or not) from now on.

Love,
Mama

To those of you who read here who aren't Dash, I'll be documenting our family's move from LA to Kansas here: http://hellotoallthis.com/

Ten

When Dash was little, we literally would not allow the word "gun" to be spoken in our house. We pulled him out of a preschool because another little boy taught him to make finger guns and say "shoot." This is how we celebrated his 10th birthday. Proud moment for us as parents and left wing liberals.

Resolved

I went to look at how I managed with my 2015 resolutions and found that I didn't make any. So I'm calling it a win.

I did knit one and 1/8th sock and read twelve books, though, and I'm sure both of those would have been on the list had I made one:

1. My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1), by Elena Ferrante
2. Luckiest Girl Alive, by Jessica Knoll
3. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
4. We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart
5. At Home in Mitford (Mitford Years, #1), by Jan Karon
6. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
7. Them: Adventures with Extremists, By Jon Ronson
8. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
9. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
10. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
11. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin
12. The End of Vandalism, by Tom Drury

2016, I'm coming for you:

• Read 15 books
• Reopen Fox vs. Squirrel. Inventory or no, made to order or off the shelf. However, whatever.
• Pay off 3 credit cards
• Go to London with the fellas
• Start running again and do 3 5Ks. Don't worry about time, just run.
• Indulge in a bit of vanity and deal with my face
• Start and keep an art journal
• Be kinder to my mother

Xmas Wishes

I don't mind admitting that I'm pretty fucking pleased with myself for this year's card.

The teardrop is a Christmas bulb.

Tea Towel 2016

 

Lit

Presented without comment except to say this is the first year I put whiskey in the latte I was drinking while we did the tour and it became even more magical if that's possible.

Crazy Lady Christmas Village Close Ups

I got a new phone and now I can take super-close-up pictures of my Crazy Lady Village! I cannot express fully how much this pleases me. (If 20-year-old me could see what she would eventually become, I'm pretty sure she'd die of sheer mortification).