A happy lunar new year 2025! Wishing you happiness, prosperity, and good fortune in the new year. These cute little red envelopes from https://kccnj.com/chinese-new-year-envelopes/ were so much fun to make.

I know no matter what, these four love eachother more than anything in this world. What a blessing to have one another. Bels off to Disney and she’s already so missed. We are a full house and when one is missing we all feel it.

The other night while snuggling in bed and reading to Liam I said “Liam, this is my favorite part of the day, when we snuggle and ibread to you, what am I going to do when you start reading and don’t need me to read you books anymore?” And he responded “mom, then I’ll read to you!”And so he did the next day while eating olives and using a toothpick as a pointer. Whatever works!!

My favorite part of raising these kids has been reading over thousands and thousands of childrens stories together. We’ve gone on so many adventures and learned so many things together.

I found these beautiful pieces of artwork in an old sketch book that Lia had a couple of years ago. Maybe she was around 8 or 9 years old. Kids have such an imagination. So raw and natural. No limits. I miss that.

Time for rest and renewal just like a cactus in winter time. They stop growing and they get to rest over the winter to prepare for blooms in the Spring and Summer. No anxiety here, they welcome rest knowing that there will be plenty of blooming come spring time.

Nonna turned 80! We saw a solar eclipse. Lia started homeschooling. Isabel and Andrew were crowned king and Queen. We lost sweet little whiskey. We hatched our own chicken eggs. Isabel entered her senior year of high school. Lia got a bat mitzvah. Melina turned 15! And entered 10 grade. Dad started surfcasting, and Liam started kindergarten.

Oh, and I forgot my little free library we put up in the neighborhood!

May we always have reasons to celebrate together!