Happy New Year! We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years, and the laziest week in-between during which Jared didn't go to work and I didn't cook. I like cooking, and I also like a good break. 5 out of 5 stars, a new tradition is born. My parents were supposed to come visit for New Years, but their flight got cancelled because of all the snow we were getting in Seattle last week. It was a huge bummer, but we're excited to see them probably within the next month or two. We ended up staying home New Years Eve and playing Jackbox games remotely with both sides of our families.
We've been reflecting this last week on 2021 and thinking about our future in the next few years. We feel really happy to be in Washington right now. We also miss Utah and Jack misses his cousins (there are 8 Haines cousins between the ages of 0 and 3--so fun!). We're happy Jared has a 3 year contract here so we can enjoy this beautiful place and living near Jared's parents, and all the great perks of Jared's dream job. We're also happy that when the contract is over we can start looking for a different dream job in Utah and get settled over there with plenty o' cousins. That's pretty much our plan right now, while also realizing that life happens and we'll take it all as it comes. Saving aggressively for a Utah home down payment in the meantime. And in case you're wondering, yes, I'm the one who's from Utah, but Jared is pushing for this plan even harder than I am. Everyone's a fan of the plan. Except probably Jared's parents. We're rooting for a Jared's-parents-retire-to-Utah setup. Fingers crossed.
My only "resolutions" for 2022 are to prepare better for pregnancy than I did last time (I'm not pregnant at the moment, thanks for asking) and have a solid plan for trying to manage what could potentially be a pretty traumatizing amount of nausea. Also to better prepare for childbirth and recovery than I did last time. I'm grateful for our healthy boy and I'm not grateful for how many times my body tried to literally kill me getting him here. Holy cow he's one spectacular little dude though. I love this kid. He's so silly and smart and strong-willed, and I love that about him, I really do. Here are this year's "Jack on the Shelf" pictures, before we take the tree down tomorrow. Click here for last year's Elf on the Shelf. Scroll to the bottom of that post and you'll find more links for his past elf photoshoots.
