Life Lately, In Snapshots // The Mid-Winter Edition

1. in early december, essley learned to walk. she prefers, however, to dance.  //  2. i found my new favorite coffee shop. //  3. we had friendsgiving with our homies. it was great.  //  4, 5, 6. we went to the dominican republic and had an incredible week in the sun. more details on that can be found here. //  7.  morgan and i ran a 5k. i decided i might sort of like running. maybe.  //  8. essley got her picture taken with santa and didn't cry at all. (that's a lie.)  //  9. her first christmas was my favorite christmas of all time. so much wonder.  //  10. those christmas morning mimosas (milk for essley) got to us. from left to right: robbie's mom, my sister, my mom, essley, and me. down for the count.  // 11. my little baby girl turned one year old on december 28th.  //  12, 13. i flew to atlanta to meet robbie at work and celebrate new year's eve and my birthday. it was my first time leaving essley. i cried at the airport. then i realized mama had a hall pass, and i took full advantage. // 14. 2015 arrived and so did the snow.  //  15. our annual golden globes fondue party is my favorite night in january.  //  16. daddy went on jam cruise for work, so we drove down to indianapolis to visit somebody's favorite person (who happens to be a dog).  

Remember those days, long ago, when I did 'life lately' updates at least every couple of weeks? Now they appear here every couple of months, at the very most. Social media has really changed how people blog, hasn't it? This has never primarily been a personal blog anyway, but any snapshots that I choose to share publicly (especially quickly taken iPhone photos, like these), almost always end up on Instagram rather than the blog these days. Then, without fail, I'll be going through my editorial calendar for the blog and realize that it's been forever since I've done one of these posts - and here we are. My last update was in the fall, and now it's smack dab in the middle of winter, just a little over a week away from February. The images and captions you see above represent a brief glimpse into what has been happening around here between then and now.

I have to say, I really enjoy putting these posts together and taking a quick look back over the previous months. The last few weeks have felt so dragging, and these pictures are a great reminder of the fact that despite how it may feel right now, things haven't been slow at all. I think that January, by comparison, always feels a little mundane, because it's sort of this cold, gray sky induced comedown after the madness of the holiday season (a madness upon which I tend to thrive). By the first of the year I get so used to nonstop events and travel and busy-ness in general that when it all suddenly comes to a halt, I tend to feel like there's been nothing going on. So again, it's nice to look at these photos, which show so clearly show differently. It makes me really grateful for all of the great times that filled these last couple of months. (Now I just need the rest of this winter to go by quickly so the real fun can begin. I'm ready for you, spring and summer.)

Who else feels like this time of year tends to feel sort of boring and empty, even when it's really not? And what about you? What have you been up to these last couple of months?

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