Christmas 2013, my birthday, and hello to 2014!

I am FINALLY getting around to posting about Christmas!  I have been so busy the last few weeks, it feels like Christmas came and went in a whirlwind.  We hosted my family for Christmas Eve, and we really enjoyed spending some good quality time with them.  We cooked a big turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, complete with an enormous, five-tiered red velvet and cheesecake layer cake with white chocolate frosting that I made from scratch.  It was AWESOME!  Christmas morning was super fun this year because Frankie really understands Santa.  He got a ton of cool gifts and he got to help his little sister open hers too.  I was very excited to get a new Kitchenaid mixer, which, I just realized as I am typing this, I still have not used!  Later on Christmas day, Frank's Mom and Grandpa Andy came over and some of Frank's cousins happened to be stopping by DFW airport, so we hosted another big dinner for all of them on Christmas day.  It was really nice to have so much family time, but it was also quite exhausting.

Frank surprised me the weekend before my birthday with a couples' massage at the Four Seasons and a fancy italian dinner.   On my actual birthday we went out for a pizza dinner with Frank's Mom and Andy, and then they watched the kids so that we could go see a movie.  We had not been to a movie together in probably at least three years!  It was really nice.  I was feeling a little down in the dumps on my birthday this year, and Frank really went all out to make it special, which I truly appreciate.  I can't believe that I am 32 years old!

2013 was a really hard year for me.  It has been the hardest year for my career and one of the hardest years on our family.  Having two kids and two professional careers is no joke!  We are constantly exhausted (will Lily EVER sleep through the night???), stressed, and busy.  I still have some Christmas gifts I need to give!  My office looks like a tornado hit.  It has just been nuts, and we are still trying to figure out how to balance everything.  Of course, we were also blessed with our beautiful baby girl in 2013, so it was not all hard and stressful.  I have really high hopes for 2014.  I see this year bringing great things for our family, and I am excited to see what the next chapter of our story will be.

Here are a few Christmas pictures: