General Busy-ness: January 2013 and More

The end of December and start of January are always a busy time as we fill in school vacation and celebrate both kids birthdays. This year was no exception.

We spent about four days doing various projects around the house, and most importantly Marc painted and updated the accessories in our bathroom. All of this was done in preparation for a visit from my mom, who arrived on Christmas night. Since Hannah was home with us, we had three days of girl time: seeing Les Miserables (we all cried), going to the Museum of Fine Arts, and doing lots of shopping. I scored a new suit for work at a serious discount on one of our trips, and am excited to wear it soon. We really enjoyed having Grandma visit, and hope she comes back soon!

Marc and I enjoyed a night out with friends and the next day hosted brunch for some of Marc's friends from his hometown of Newington, CT. The old friends enjoyed being together while the kids had a blast playing Just Dance 4. We got a bit of rest in and then it was time for...

Birthdaypalooza 2013! Max really enjoyed finally celebrating his birthday, and took the whole "it's your day" concept very seriously. We had dinner at the Deluxe Station Diner and cake at home, and he was a very happy boy. Four days later, we celebrated Hannah's birthday, first with birthday Shabbat at synagogue, then with her party at Laser Quest, and finally with our traditional dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. She had a great time doing all of it. The following day was Max's party at Kid's Street, another great success, and a pizza dinner with Grandma Fillis and Grandpa John. Yesterday they also joined us to take Hannah shopping, and both kids ended up with very trendy fedoras...which they've both been wearing for 24 hours now. :) So another successful birthday season is complete, other than the thank you notes. I swear I'll get those done soon. Thanks for all of the wonderful gifts and wishes for both kids.

Work is back to being busy now that the new year has begun, and I'm getting used to our new schedule, even if I'm struggling with not being able to be everywhere at once. More on that soon, I promise. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to study for this licensing exam, but I need to fit that in now that the birthdays have passed.

Finally, I've seen a popular blog topic of not resolutions, but a word of the year for 2013. I've never been big on resolutions anyway, but I like the idea of choosing a word, and mine is going to be "more." I'm really happy with how many facets of my life are going right now - I think I'm doing pretty well as a wife, mother, analyst, blogger, and heck, even as an exerciser (the fact that I willingly do jumping jacks at Zumba still astounds me). So if anything, I want to do even "more" in all of those categories. Somehow, I was to expand in all of those areas in 2013, and I think I'm on track to do it.

So another busy month is on the books. What about you? How did you start the year? Do you have a word to focus on? I'd love for you to share it in the comments below!