No, wait, that’s me, peeling wallpaper.  I meant to show you this:

  

And this – these are Heather’s kids, kicking back in Florida.  She’s probably sipping something tasty by the pool!  (No, no, I’m sure she is just drinking some iced tea & taking the family photo!)

Or even this, my very own co-blogger, who left me here (WITH SNOW FLURRIES), while she and her brood relaxed in the Bahamas.

But the one that takes the cake has to be my friend Rena, who wins for best-trip ever, because she went to France with her girls.  I’ve known you for eight+ years, Rena, and this is the biggest, most at-ease, joy-filled smile I’ve ever seen!  I don’t care what it cost, I’m so glad you went.  You can always make more money, but you can never buy these memories with your girls.

 

My family, as you can tell from the wallpaper, did not travel to an exotic location this year.

But if we’d skipped the hours of torture trying to peel paper off of plaster walls from 1873, we would’ve missed these moments: