Christmas card supplement: 2014 in bullet points. :)

I would supplement my Christmas card with more stuff, wouldn't I? ;)


Merry Christmas!

For years we have carefully typed up a list of wonderful memories and printed them on the back of our Christmas card on our unreliable HP printer. This year we realized that this practice, while beloved, could be much more easily executed on the blog. :) So here is 2014 in bullet points--it was a good year and we are so glad you could share in it with us!

• The 2014 Winter Olympics! (and kid commentary)
• NC’s “Snowpocalypse 2014” (the most snow of my life--but still not that much snow)
• Sledding down the back hill

• Hand written notes from Gracie
• Mermaid scales and sparkles scattered through the house
• Charlie’s R2D2 walk

A video posted by Jamie Walton (@jamie.anne.with.an.e) on Jan 1, 2014 at 6:32am PST

• Fondue by Steven for Valentine’s Day
• An impromptu backyard drainage project (thanks for digging, Mark!)
• EM Conference Wednesdays
• Making granola and homemade bread with Charlie

• The Y
• Steve finishing intern year of residency!!!
• Jamie making paper cut portraits
• The beginning of
• allowance,
• morning routines,
• “Mommy Time,”
• the fighting step,
• formal apologies, and
• “family contributions.”
• YNAB!
• Dash opening day
• General Conference on the couch with the kiddos

• Eric’s spring visit!
• Gracie’s Singer’s Company performances
• 1176-mile, one-weekend road trip (with Juliette!) for Webb’s wedding
• Everyone calling Juliette “Squish” (including Charlie's preschool teacher, the childcare providers at the gym, and a mom (who I had never met before) of a boy that Gracie goes to school with. Her reputation of squishy preciousness seems to precede her. :)
• Juliette learning to roll, crawl, cruise, and talk

She crawls!

A video posted by Jamie Walton (@jamie.anne.with.an.e) on Aug 8, 2014 at 3:30pm PDT

• Izze sodas
• Chubby baby legs
• Crock-pot "Crock-o" burritos on cook-them-yourself tortillas from Costco (try them, you'll never go back!)
• Our 8-year anniversary :)
• Saturday morning sugar cereals (faux Waffle Crisp from Walmart was a hit!)
• A snapping turtle in the backyard (don't touch them! They bite!)

• Mother’s Day fruit bouquet
• Emails, letters, and grandparent packages
• Steve becoming a 2nd year resident
• Silly faces on iMessage and other creative family bonding

• Jamie’s first 5K!! (Color Me Rad with Steve!)
• The biggest stuff-purge of all Walton-household time
• Afternoons off (window shopping World Market and chocolate pastries at Panera) for Jamie, courtesy of her very helpful, loving, super cute husband
• Thrifting
• Costco trips

• The Lego Movie!!!
• Dewey’s bakery for free-cake-square Mondays and the occasional cupcake party
• Amazing glorious beautiful Holt reunion in Florida (beaches galore!)

• Power of Moms and Elise Gets Crafty podcasts (Jamie) and EMRAP podcasts (Steve)
• Beginning of Jamie’s Learning Circle
• Steve’s 30th birthday!!!
• School supply shopping and a breakfast date with Gracie

• Jamie and Steve team teaching 12-13 year olds in Sunday School
• Playing in cardboard boxes
• Juliette discovering fridge magnets and playing in the tupperware cupboard
• Coloring-dates with Gracie
• Kitchen and minivan dance parties (Milky Chance, Taylor Swift, and everything in between)
• Charlie learning to draw smiley faces

• Family games of Jenga and Spot It
• Gracie’s 1st grade Stone Soup performance
• Kiddos and Steve building the Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!!!
• 7 days (only) of having an iPhone
• Our little loves playing together (best thing ever), G and C talking across the hall after bedtime, and Friday Movie Nights

• Gracie and Charlie being mommy and daddy to Puppy and Ellie-brons
• Instagram
• Family park dates in the summertime (on Daddy's days off)

Photo by Gracie!

• Birthday flowers from Gracie and Steve
• Hotel stays with happy kiddos
• Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street
• Firehouse Subs
• Laundry folding and sock-ball fights, and Charlie instructing us on how to fold

A video posted by Jamie Walton (@jamie.anne.with.an.e) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:05am PDT

• Gracie’s Frozen birthday party
• The “Budget Monster” presentation
• Steve heading up resident interview dinners (and subsequently taking the wifey on free 4th Street Filling Station date nights)
• Gracie starting 1st grade with a wonderful teacher (Mrs. Riley!)
• Steve’s TOUGH MUDDER! (Where’s Dennis!?)

• Re-watching all of the Office (again)
• Gracie’s guitar
• Anniversary roses
• Charlie starting 2-day preschool
• Cumberland Knob picnic
• Kiddos bike and scooter riding on our street
• Helix and Psych (season 7) on Netflix

• Juliette’s 1st birthday (she cried about her frosting)
• Asheville date-weekend for Melisa and Jackson’s wedding! (Sodas & walking all over in Asheville, dressing up, a mini-med-school-reunion, and a gorgeous hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway with Jamie in flip-flops)

• Emmet (Lego Movie), Elsa (Frozen, duh), and a baby cow (just cute) + Mom as Minnie Mouse and Dad as "Facebook" on Halloween
• Halloween tradition of Chinese food (Sampan) and a scary movie )Invasion of the Body Snatchers) for the grown ups :)
• Small business Saturday: Edward McKay's books, Frogurt, Dewey’s, and a Moravian star for the porch (at last!)
• Decorating the Christmas tree

• Tanglewood Lights
• Being weeks from reaching the halfway mark of Steve’s Emergency Medicine residency!!!
• Charlie's fourth birthday (ice cream cake, Firehouse Subs, and fun gifts from grandparents)
• Tons and tons of reading (Steve - the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes, Gracie - Clementine, Ramona, Boxcar Children, and Magic Treehouse books, and Jamie - lots of how-to and some Liane Moriarty fiction)
• Cutting coffee filter snowflakes
• Decorating Christmas cookies
• Fires in the fireplace
• Christmas cards to fill up the wall of our breakfast nook :)

This gorgeous bunch of people loves you. ;)

We have had a truly blessed year and we feel so lucky to have beloved friends and family all over the country. We are thankful for the constant and tender guidance of a loving Father in Heaven, and especially for the most miraculous gift He has given us--a chance to be redeemed and return to Him because of the birth, life, atonement, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  We love you and hope that our Heavenly Father will bless you with a truly meaningful and lovely holiday season. Merry Christmas!!!!

love,

the Waltons