Thoughts and Pictures

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only option"-Unknown

Dude.

Busy.

Holy cow.

I absolutely love writing, and love this little blog. It kills me that it has been so long in between posts. Somewhere in there I feel guilty about it, and I feel like I am not giving Jackson the respect and attention he deserves. I talk to him daily and love him every minute of every day, but there is something about writing on this blog that really connects it all for me. I guess you can say that writing completes my thoughts, smooths over my emotions and helps me when I feel helpless. Lets be honest here, it helps me (and us) grieve.

So this morning, I am taking a short intermission from all other things and writing on this blog. JND deserves it and so do I. Nothing else matters right now.

Thoughts of the day. What is it that I need to purge?

Here we go. Or as my dear friend says, "Pull over. I need a minute." So, pull over friends.

1) 9 months. Oh boy. Oh my sweet boy. I cannot even wrap my mind around the fact that we are closer to you being 1 year old than further from it. I just do not even know what to do or think about that. I do not know if I want to start wearing all black now or if I should roll out in something blue everyday between now and then. I don't know if I should get a cake or a straight jacket. I don't know if I want to be alone with your Daddy or with a ton of people. I don't know if I want to break all the rules and sit in your nursery and cry all day or go the hospital and cry or sit outside and cry. No matter what, I will be crying for at least 40-50% of the day. I just do not know what to do about this major milestone, and one thing is for sure, no one else knows what to do either. We are all lost on this one. For the moment, we will celebrate your precious 9 months and take it one month at a time. We love you 9 times more than last month. We miss you 9 times more than last month. We need you 9 times more than last month. We would give anything more 9 of anything with you. We hope you have mastered your crawling and pulling-up in heaven, and are smiling and laughing your way through everyday. With your Daddy's feet and hands, I am sure you have a good strong base for standing and hands for grasping onto everything. With my mouth, I am sure you are smiling and laughing every minute of everyday. Just try not to have too much fun without us, my love. We are doing our best to have fun down here, but that fun has limits without you. I am sure you feel the same way.  9 months. 9 down, 3 to go. Then so many more. Oh boy. Oh my sweet boy.

2) If Enfamil sends me one more age and stage mail flyer, I am going to write a THIRD strongly worded letter to the company telling them to stop it. Also, did you know that Target is having a Big Baby Sale? Let me go grab my car keys.......

3) I am surrounded by pregnant people and babies. I love all of them and I am so very happy for all of them (I AM BEING SERIOUS!)! I love babies and I think pregnancy is one of the most magical and exciting times of life. It is so beautiful and wonderful. The part of it that kills me is that most all of the time, people do not care to hear any advice I have or things I found helpful during pregnancy or even advice on baby gear/stuff. It is like it never existed or that my thoughts are not valid. I am a Mom too, y'all. Just because I am not in the Mom's Club pushing a stroller down the street, talking about various baby topics does not make me any less of a Mom.  I researched every baby item and every minute of pregnancy. I know how to find the best deals. I know how to find cute and cheap maternity clothes. I know how certain things feel during pregnancy. I know what to be concerned about, and what to brush off. I have run that gauntlet once now. I know how many reviews Sophie the Giraffe received on Amazon. I can teach a tutorial on how to properly wear a Moby Wrap. I understand the debate between the Chicco Keyfit and the Graco Snugride. I think there are distinct differences between the Diaper Genie and the Arm and Hammer Munchin Diaper Pail that are worth talking about. I think the Aden and Anais Burp Cloths/Bib combo are the most innovative and effective baby item you could have at your fingertips. I know it is weird hear me talk about these things, but I wish people would understand that I want to talk about these things.  I may not have hands on experience, but I do have a baby who happens to be in heaven who made me a mother. He had a tiny sweet hand in every single decision I made along the way.  I guess, what I am trying to articulate is that, I just wish people felt more comfortable having this type of conversation with me. I already got cut off of 60% of Christmas Card distribution lists, and when I realized this fact, it was like taking a bullet of a different form. Come on people, I am happy for you and your family. Send your cards and let me share motherhood with you. It means more to me when you work with me, as opposed to against me. It is even worse when you try to hide from us. Do not be ashamed of having a beautiful, healthy and wonderful family! Do not feel bad for us because we are struggling right now and that our family is not picture perfect! We love your family as much as I am sure you love our incomplete, but still beautifully imperfect family. Send your cards. Invite me to your baby showers. Celebrate life. Lets talk babies. I am really, really good at babies. Help me feel like I am not drowning anymore by being real with me on this one. Mama Emily has some pearls to offer and I want to hear your pearls too! I am stronger than you think I am.

So some may read #2 and #3 and think they contradict each other. Here is the simple fact. I do not like getting multiple baby e-mails and flyers in the mail everyday. That is a reminder I do not need or have time for. Talking babies with other mothers is different because I can control that. I would rather talk about what I know or what I am curious about, as opposed to having it inflicted on me from a retail establishment targeting me and my baby and reminding me of my baby's specific needs based on age and stage. See the difference? Opening up my mailbox to a personal hell that just keeps on coming, is completely different than having a baby conversation with friends about babies. Many days I wish I had a card from a family, instead of coupons and flyers from Babies R Us, Target and Enfamil (and many, many more).

4) My photos are not really fun these days. I need a muse. My muse is in heaven, and that puts me in a real emotional pickle when I want to be taking exciting, fun photos. There is really only so many photos Russ will let me take of him. Lucy is starting to get annoyed too.

 5)Take a bow time: All "baby weight" is off and then some. Thank you very much. Did that with a ton of sweat, tears, pain and clean diet. I did it myself and for myself. Some mommies get some help from their babies in their arms and diet/exercise. I got help from my heavenly son pushing his Mama and from his Daddy the coach, while working myself into the ground everyday at 6:15 pm.  Healthier. Stronger. Better. My friends at the box call me "CBK" which stands for "Come Back Kid". They are so right. Made a comeback and still making a comeback, and it has never felt better.

Here is Russ, doing a handstand push up. He is good at everything. Me? Not so much.

Custom jump ropes at least make you feel hard core! Jumping rope is not nearly as fun now as it was when you were 6.

Below is a photo collage from when we first started working out in July (9 weeks postpartum and holding a 25 pound bar--photo on left) and photos taken this past week on JND's 9 month old day! ~22 pounds down (since starting CrossFit) and that is 100 pounds going over my head! Strong and so very proud of myself! I suppose I should say, 22 and 100 pounds, and counting :) The night this photo was taken I had just told everyone "I can't do it", and they pushed and pushed me. That very night I turned "I can't" into "look at what I just did!".  I love you JND. I can and will for you, everyday of my life.

The group during (above) and after (below) after we finished a fun Deck of Cards WOD! 

  Here I am getting ready for a tough 6K Trail Run with some new, fun friends!

I will be posting photos of something fun and exciting happening next weekend! Russ is competing in the Garage Games ONE  in Atlanta next weekend. Oh boy. He is doing the team competition on Sunday, in a very tough division. I am proud of him for taking this on, and I know he will do great. In many ways, I look at this as a triumph for our little family. It is strength and HOPE on display. It is a milestone for us, and a moment in time to be proud of. I know that our little Jackson is so proud of his Daddy and is cheering him on from Heaven. With an angel as amazing as him, his team may just take down the competition:) Can you hear the Go Daddy Go? I can.  It is beautiful.

So what else have we been doing?

Here are some fun photos of our past few weeks!

Many, many date nights! Dinner and a movie :) Russ is a sucker for a popcorn upgrade.

Dealing with lots of rain! You would have thought we had lake front property for a few weeks! That is the French Broad River in our back yard!

Enjoying time inside while under Winter weather warnings! Snuggling while watching Homeland and House of Cards (our family friend Michael Kelly is AMAZING in this series on Netflix)!

And also finding laughter and fun with friends....

 How could you not have fun with a "Beardo"!

And the Super Bowl. My thoughts on that....

It is hard to put into words how things feel right now. It is moments of complete darkness and moments of legitimate sunshine. Ebb and Flow, folks. Given that, I suppose you could say that our average is the middle. You know what, that is OK. We can live with that. If the average of all the days between May 7th and February 10th is middle of the road....that gives us a place to climb up from. The middle is still HOPEful and the middle can still be considered positive. To be honest, I think we are on the positive side of the middle. The middle has made us stronger emotionally, spirtually and physically. We are going to need everything the middle has to offer in just a few months.

"Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming".-Finding Nemo

I feel better now, having written something. It may not be my best, but I did it.

We love you Jackson. So very much. This is one of my favorite photos, taken on your 9 month old day! You are loved and missed, my sweet boy.

And Lucy has morning watch from outside your room, every single day.  She gets it. Love is love whether you have two feet or  four legs. She loved mornings with you too. She misses you, so much. I think she counts heads and she just knows someone is missing. She also knows how the middle feels.

9 months. The middle. We are rockin' the middle.

Love you JND!

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Emily and Russ

It Takes A Village

“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”- Dorothy Day

It takes a village, y'all. No joke.


We survived the holiday season with the help of many, many angels near and far. None of them had to be called and told. None of them even asked if it is was alright to swoop in. None of them doubted for a minute that their actions were the right ones. They just delivered. Silently. Swiftly. Subtly. And some how or another, all of these angels had perfect spacing in their deliveries. Just about the time when we could not take another minute, a little bit of love landed in our laps.

I dedicate this post to each one of these special angels.

The month kicked off with this very special ornamet :)

That is a beautiful angel from the market in Naples, Florida! Our friends bought it when they were visiting family over Thanksgiving. This particular ornament was given to us with love from our friends precious toddler, and her mama told me that, "She bought it for Jackson". She even said her little girl picked it out :) Maybe, just maybe little girl had some help from her amazing mama, but we chose to believe the sweet girl picked it out! Yes, this is an ornament but really, it is a beautiful light catcher. We are keeping this one out year-round and will find a spot in our house where the light can shine through it all the time. Since we know that JND is a rock star when it comes to sunshine, we believe that this angel will showcase some beautiful light in our home when we need it most.  For right now, it is hanging outside the nursery. And we are good with that. Light always shines there, believe it or not.

Love love love that ornament/year-round light catcher!

The next angel delivery is something else.

My childhood friend (and friend for life), quietly gave me a little box at my mother's 60th birthday party. She did not want me to open it right then and there. She said to open it later. So, later that night when I was alone, I opened it. I totally understood why she did not want me to open it when I was entertaining a flock of women. Here it is....

Yep. Go ahead. Cry.

Those are our Jackson's sweet feet on a beautiful silver ornament with his date of birth. WOW! We just love this ornament! What a perfect way to make sure that Jackson is always a part of the Christmas season, and always remembered by our family every year.  I could not think of a more perfect way to honor and love him. I knew that I wanted an ornament for him, and this friend knew exactly what to do. She knows me too well, and she is grieving right along side me. I can see our children hanging this on the tree every year, while sending the sweetest and purest love to their angel brother who is there in spirit. Always.

After we hung the ornament on the top and center of our tree, I looked at it for a moment and found this...

My son. My reflection. My smile. Our smile. After all, it was quite obvious the boy had my lips and mouth :) Make no mistake about it, those are his daddy's feet! What a gift to be able to find my reflection in our sweet angel Jackson. I needed to see that, and now we can see it every year at Christmas time. Next year, I am snapping a photo of Russ' reflection :)

Perfection. Love. And a side of Hope.

Amazing.

A few days later, another delivery came in our mailbox. It had perfect timing, I might add.

This one came from a family of angels, who I have known almost my entire life. Our families have grown up together and been through so many things together. The head mama in the family (dear friend of my mother's) sent this on behalf of the entire crew.....

I just love this. It is so sweet, and soft. It just nestled perfectly into our tree, like it was supposed to be there the whole time. It was the third ornament, and in many ways, it felt like it was the one the whole group was waiting for.  It truly completed the set. I like to think that this is how Jackson's angel wings look. Beautiful, sweet, and soft angel wings. Perfect angel wings. This will be an ornament that Russ and I will hang together. Perhaps more privately, and at a time where we can pause and say a prayer. We always tell him how much we love and miss him, especially during the holidays.


Oh, but the village is not done taking care of us. No way.

Remember our angel L&D nurse? Well, she sent us a care package that is true to her personality and style.

Anytime someone starts a note with "My Dear's"....You know this person is heaven sent. I opened her card and could her hear talking to me. I could feel the way she stroked my head and how she looked at me with her head almost resting on her shoulder with giant tears in her eyes. I read her note and could hear her talking to me. It was so powerful. She has grieved and continues to grieve right along with us. She marks time the same way I do. She might even be keeping track of weeks better than I am, at this point. She lost something too that day.

She sent us this....

Beautiful. What is so special about this clay image is that it came from her "shrine" in her home. It is something that comforted her as she has been traveling down this tough road, and she felt like it was time for us to have it. What we love about it, is that it looks like our Jackson and it has her name all over it because this is something only she would have. It looks a lot like our sweet boy based on the few times we got to see him on the monitor and a few precious moments in our arms. Oh, those unforgettable sweet cheeks, precious button nose, and that big heart. The strong and steady heart that was too big for this world. We just love this. She also sent us this packet...

This is our nurse saying, "I totally get it".

I like it when people get it.

She found this laying in the L&D waiting room. Someone had left it behind. She read it, and knew we needed it. She was right. I like that she added "JUST" in there. Another true to form move from our angel nurse. Yes, not all holidays are JUST happy.

The part about "grief rituals" was the most helpful and comforting. There is tremendous value in creating grief rituals to help us remember our loved ones in loving, healing ways and with a sense of peace. Many times when loss occurs, we feel like we must hold onto pain (forever) in order to remember what is lost. When what should happen is the creation of a ritual(s), albeit individually or with family, that will have the most meaning and healing significance. These loving activities help us remember our loved ones, and give us a sense of connectedness, healing and peace. Ultimately, these grief rituals should help release pain and unpleasant feelings, thus freeing up space for us to make our memories a positive influence in our lives. 


The hanging of these ornaments yearly is a grief ritual.


The footprints we wear is a grief ritual.

The photographing of the sun is a grief ritual.

Making deposits in our memory jar is a grief ritual.

Our love for the color aqua is a grief ritual.

Writing on this blog is a grief ritual.

Grief rituals are perfectly normal. They should be embraced and welcomed, not stifled and shoved to a place where you cannot find them. Rituals empower people emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Those who create rituals through traditions, and their own will to invent a new ritual that provides meaning to them, have the opportunity to extend their loved ones presence beyond death.

And you know what?

The village around you may just have grief rituals of their own that they want to share with you because your loss is their loss too. No one is alone.

More village love...

Stunning pottery. This one is on Russ' nightstand. An angel. Our boy. Aqua. Absolute perfection. This one came from our family in Tennessee. More on this crew to come. I have a big-fat holiday adventures post on deck. I took some fun photos of our tour-de-south!

Thank you to all the angels. Thank you so much.

Thank you for these wonderful and meaningful gifts.

Thank you to everyone who called, e-mailed, texted or just squeezed my hand and asked me how we were doing.

Thank you for praying for us, especially during this holiday season. I selfishly ask for more prayers, because Winter time is just depressing.

It takes a village, folks. It just does. We are so thankful for a strong and powerful village. We love all of you, very much.

Here we are saying good bye (and good riddance) to 2012, and HELLO LUCKY 2013!!

Lets do this '13.

If you are on Instagram, you can find me @emilydeloach. I am having fun with that app now! It is my kind of program, as y'all know I love to take pictures and edit them! You can find us documenting our life adventures there too!

Have a great week!

Love,
Emily and Russ

Sea Island Beach bike ride with some of our village people :)

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house

Not a baby was stirring, not even a mouse.

The three stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that we might wake up from this nightmare;

Nightly, we cried softly while snug our bed,

While visions of Jackson danced daily in our heads;

All clean and in our jammies, after working out to the fine music known as rap.

Time to settle down for the evening after considering a night-cap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

We sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window we flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

To the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow

Gave the lustre of the mid-day to objects below,

When, what to our wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and nine tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

We knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

 And he whistled, and shouted, and called the by name;

"Now, HOPE! Now, HAPPINESS! Now, FAITH and BELIEF! 

On, FORWARD! On FUTURE! On LOVE and JOY!"

In front, well who could it be?

A new baby reindeer, JND!

"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With a sleigh full of promise, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, we heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

The sounds of giggles and coos of our of boy,

Oh the bliss, Oh the joy!

Sweet music to our ears,

A moment that stops the endless tears.

As we drew in our heads, and were turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came abound.

He was dressed in all fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of positivity he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes--how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

 The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And we laughed when we saw him, in spite of ourselves;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave us to know, we had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings right up to the brim; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But we heard him exclaim, ere he and JND drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

And we shouted back, "Merry Christmas to you Jackson Neil DeLoach, the love of our life!"

Love,

                         Emily, Russ and Baby Jackson 

 

Holiday Mash-Up

"Loved with a love beyond telling, Missed with a grief beyond all tears"-Unknown

Ok, so I checked out for a bit.

No joke, we have been taking on life at a blazing pace these days. It has been absolute craziness on our end. We are thankful for the packed schedule, but it comes with pure exhaustion and a solid appreciation for downtime when we get it.

SO. I have a few precious moments in front of the computer this afternoon, and darn it, I am taking advantage of it. 

The holidays are hitting us with every emotion under the sun, but we were braced for that. Thanksgiving turned out to be fun. My Aunt (the greatest ever!) and Mom (she is pretty awesome too!) decided to dip into the Scotch and Beer (respectively), and that turned into dancing, singing, and laughing our way through preparing casseroles and the big bird. My sister and I just casually sipped wine and watched those two get down with the Thanksgiving spirit! We watched football and ate too many appetizers. Every year we say we will not eat so much before the meal, but that never actually comes to fruition. Oh well, maybe next year ;) All in all, Thanksgiving was not so bad and we more than survived it. We would have liked to have our lil turkey all dressed up for the day (already had an outfit bought, washed and ready) BUT we know our lil turkey was there in spirit helping us smile and have a good time with family who loves us so much. We found ways to count our blessings and be thankful, and that is some serious progress folks. We will take it.

And now, it is Christmas.

THE holiday of all holidays in my book.

A month long holiday at that. It is constant and never ending. It is a nightmare, to put it lightly.


Sometimes, I want to have a rant like this one. I take that back. I totally let one out like this out while helping deck my parent's halls after Thanksgiving. I think we all have a little Clark "Sparky" Griswold in us, and that is just awesome. Everyone laughed after my rant. We all get it and it is totally justified. I cannot guarantee another rant like this one will not come out again over the next few weeks. Sometimes I let it out writing. Sometimes I let it out privately. Sometimes you need to gurd your loins because something is about to get projected on you that you did not see coming.

So, I found the box with the stockings. Yep. Last year at Christmas I was blissfully pregnant and not knowing the sex of our baby. We needed new stockings, and I just was not ready to commit to cute monogrammed ones because our family was and still is not complete. I found some cuties that fit the bill at the TJ Maxx boutique. I bought stockings for Russ and I, and then I bought and extra boy one and an extra girl one. Yeah, opening up that box was a real treat. After a kicked the box across the living room (ouch), teared up, and gave it some time...I decided to tackle the stockings with a game plan. I was hanging up three, gosh darn it.

 

There I am, with both my boys beside me. No body puts baby in a corner, or in a box for that matter.

One day, those stockings will get filled with more love and joy than they can handle.

Right now, they are empty and will remain that way through the holiday season. Right now, it is a miracle they are even up. 

 It is hard to explain how this feels right now, and when you do attempt to explain it....you feel crazy. Walk with me....

I want to go to Babies R Us and buy him presents. I want to blow stupid amounts of money on a 7 month old.

I want to wrap said presents and put them under our beautiful tree. 

I want to buy an ornament that says "Baby's First Christmas".  Heck, I want to buy him an ornament every year.

I want to go see Santa with all the other happy families.

I want to do some Christmas baking with him right beside me. I want to make his Daddy cringe by eating the dough/batter (he has strong feelings about eating that...I ate it my whole life and I am fine....we think). I think cookie dough is one of the finer things in life, and one of my favorite things. I used to love to bake.

I want something Christmas smocked in my life right now. I am a sucker for smocked apparel. Especially holiday smocking. A little John John with something smocked on it? Well, just slap me silly!

I want to sing Christmas carols, and teach him how tone deaf people rock out to the sounds of the season. I have hardly listened to Christmas Carols this year.

I want to put a little Christmas Tree up in his room, because I grew up having a tree in my room and still do. The same tree I grew up with is currently displayed in our room right now (it has seen better days, and looks like a Charlie Brown Tree but I will never throw it away). I love the warm glow of a tree during the month of December to lull you to sleep. I feel terrible and empty knowing his room is closed, cold, dark and tree-less. 

I  just want so many things. I can let go of the wants and say what I need.

I need my son.

I need my family to be complete.

I need happiness to fill our home again.

One day. One day. One day.

As I mentioned, we have been keeping busy. Or as I am trying my best to look at it....we have been busy.....AKA....putting our best foot forward.

After Thanksgiving, some of our dearest friends came to spend the weekend with us. We had the best time! On Friday, we decorated Gingerbread Houses :) I went all out and got the best supplies possible. It got competitive....naturally. Before photo:

And after:

Lets break that down: The girls....

  

VS. The Boys....

They are funny little houses, built with laughter and ton of icing. I cannot wait to do Gingerbread Houses every year with friends, family and one day, with all of our babies. Talk about a fun tradition in the making. I can see it now :) HOPE, baby. HOPE.

How's that for some festive Emily?

The next day, we hit up the Biltmore! I LOVE the Biltmore at Christmas!

And then we hit up the winery....

We had so much fun. When I count my blessings, I always include these two because they are that wonderful. Thanks sweet friends for spending the weekend with us! Come back soon! Our home is always open for you! Morning coffee is best with you two.

The next weekend we threw my mom a fun 60th birthday! We invited her girlfriends to come join us at the house for a few hours! We made lots of desserts, and we joked that the party favor would be insulin shots because of the sheer volume of sugar consumed by each attendee. Cue the famous Razzmosa's....

And a parade of desserts....oh my.

 

And the finished product....

She had a great time. We all had a great time! It was so much fun to host this event! My dad even wore his tux :) He looked super and it fit him great! Still got it Dad! I have to admit, whenever he talks about wearing it (he likes to wear it!), I do think of this scene from Father of The Bride :)

Here is Mom, with her birthday "facinator". Isn't she precious?! She referred to herself as "Kate" (Middleton) all day. I am not seeing the resemblance, but who is to argue with the birthday girl! Yes, that is a martini glass on a headband....complete with feathers and subtle netting around the face for some drama. Mom in a facinator and Dad in a tux....that is how we put our best foot forward, people! Too cute!

Happy Birthday Mom! Cheers to many, many more years! You are the best! We love you!

Now, we are at home for the weekend and are gearing up to start 2 weeks of traveling. It has been nice to be at home with not a whole lot on the agenda. We have not done that in nearly 2 months! These next 2 weeks will be challenging, as we were not supposed to hit the roads this Christmas. We had so many plans for how our home would look and feel over Christmas break. We are devastated these plans look different than how we planned, but we do look forward to seeing and spending time with many family and friends. It is the time of year to surround ourselves with all those that we love, and let their energy and love lift us up. The road plan: Asheville to Jackson, TN to Atlanta to Sea Island and then back to Asheville. What a trip! This sleigh will be all loaded up and hauling around the Southeast!

Hug your family extra tight this Christmas. Hug your babies tighter.

Take time to enjoy the littlest of things.

Start a new Christmas tradition. No one is too busy to start one. Put your best foot forward.

Check-in with someone you know could be struggling this Christmas and just let them know you are thinking of them. It goes a long way. Trust me. It may help them move forward.

Tragedy has struck too many people in 2012. I pray for a better 2013 for everyone. Lucky 13, as I like to say. We need something to believe in, and that is about the best I can do right now. I HOPE it is a Lucky 13 for so many people.

Merry Christmas and Happy Lucky 13 to you all.

Love,

Emily and Russ