Two thousand twenty-three will be a year of winning. I will continue to pray on it, I believe it, I am claiming it. 🙂

Really quickly, I want to highlight a few significant events that happened since I last published a post.

• I, in fact, turned another year older, and it was not as bad as I dreaded for it to be. My family and friends made sure I felt the love. I showed up with flowers, cake, wine, cards, and gifts on my desk. I brought caldareta (that my dad cooked) to share with the group, and my family came over for seafood dinner.
  
• Autumn activities included our yearly visit to Apple Hill for the pumpkin patch and ciders. It wasn’t very crowded when we went, which made it a breeze to get in and out of the area. Of course, we took home a whole apple pie. For Halloween. Lucas dressed up as Boba Fett and Marley as Ariel (Little Mermaid). On the weekend of Halloween, Mike and I took the kids to Jelly Belly for a free factory and museum tour, and went around to trunk-or-treat in their parking lot. On Halloween, I took the kids to see our friend (Lucas’ Ninang) Sarah and her family. Her husband and kids were so sweet to allow Lucas and Marley to tag along for a little bit of trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. After completing their block, the kids and I went home, where we did more trick-or-treating with their cousins, Sean and Sofie. I definitely think the children enjoyed their time.
  
• We are Disneyland Magic Key holders! It was by chance and luck that I saw an Instagram post by @ mrs.galloway that they were officially Magic Key holders, and I thought, “Omg!” How in the world did I miss the announcement that Disneyland was allowing for new pass/key holders again? I immediately jumped on the queue on my iPad while driving home, then on the MacBook. After several hours, I was in! And so it became official that Mike, Lucas, and I (Marley does not need tickets yet) became Magic Key Pass holders. I got us the Believe keys because wow, it would have cost us an extra $1500 for the Inspire key. (Believe costs $1099 and Inspire costs $1599). I remember getting our first Disneyland annual passes in 2009 for less than $300! Whew!
  
• Marley turned one! What a fast, amazing year it has been with our dear Marley. Her personality is showing more and more everyday, and she makes us laugh so hard. She makes her voice be heard, and we just know we’ve got a strong one in our hands. We did not get to throw her a big birthday party; I didn’t even get to order a custom cake! I got her a cute and delicious cake from 85C, put up simple decors and balloons, family came over, and we very much celebrated her. I want to say that it was a good day. 🙂
  
• The holidays came and went in a snap. Mike and I shopped for Christmas gifts just the week before, and we tried to fit in as much as we could in the days we had off together. Can I just say that shopping with two toddlers is totally an olympic sport! After a few failed attempts, we did it. We completed the tasks! My brother Reggie’s family once again hosted Christmas Eve. We had a lot of delicious food, sweets, and opened gifts at midnight. By that time, though, Mike and Marley were already asleep (Mike because of work and Marley because bedtime). Lucas helped me hand out everyone’s gifts, which he enjoyed doing. What he enjoyed doing even more was opening his gifts. On Christmas day, we spent the evening at my other brother’s house, where we had more delicious food. Just before Christmas, we did a lot of driving around for Christmas lights, which was something Lucas just absolutely loved. We went to Candy Cane Lane, the Taylor’s Christmas house one last time (it’s their last year!), and even took the kids and Kyla to Enchant in Sacramento. Seriously, the oohs and aahs make it all worth it.

Whew! And that leads us up to the new year. Just a couple days before, Mike and I decided to bring the children to Reno for an overnight trip. It as a much needed trip for our little family, just us four away from everyone. That doesn’t mean we didn’t extend invitations, because company would have still been welcomed. It was honestly a spur of the moment. We were bummed that we had to cancel our Disney World trip, and it was our last chance to at least get out of town even just for a day just before our schedules get busy and unaligned again. We spent a lot of our time walking around, eating, and playing at the arcade in Circus Circus. Lucas’ new thing? “Card!” LOL. We spent the new year at home, where both Marley and Lucas were knocked out hours before the clock struck midnight and stayed asleep despite loud noises at midnight.

Now, life is back to regular programming, or at least “regular” of the past year. We are all still adjusting to Mike’s new work schedule, and I am just hoping that I find some sort of routine with it. I also hope to have the opportunity to spend plenty of time with my children.

I haven’t fully thought of my word for the year, but perhaps it is: Achieve.