2014: Thank goodness you arrived!

I've been a bit quiet here lately and it's not for lack of things to write but rather that I've been focusing on other things at the current moment.

This year started off well - we spent New Year's Eve night at a hotel downtown.  Chris and Julia made a pit-stop at the lobby Starbucks to fuel up for the night and we wandered over to Reading Terminal Market to look around and see the Christmas train display.  Then we walked to Franklin Square Park for the family New Year's Eve celebration that started around 4pm with some light shows, a dance party and playground fun and culminated in a 6pm firework spectacular.  We were able to meet up with Julia's friend and her family there and the girls were thrilled to see each other over the "long" Christmas break.  Afterwards we went to the hotel, ate a very underwhelming take out meal and hit the indoor pool (which was colder than I would have liked!).  On the bright side our room was amazing and the beds were super comfy.

We were not thrilled with 2013 - it was a sad year for us with losing my Dad and Finnegan and were more than happy to say good riddance to 2013 and ring in 2014.  Speaking of New Year's Eve:  In true 2013 fashion it had to go out with a thud.  Our room was on the 19th floor of the hotel.  I stayed with the girls to try and get them to sleep because Emma is NOT a fan of sleeping in hotel rooms and Chris was hanging out at the lobby bar for a drink.  I finally got the girls off to sleep and started to doze off myself when the fire alarm sounded.  It kept going off for about 20 minutes.  Thankfully (?), both girls slept through it.  Chris was in the lobby and they wouldn't let him up to the room - obviously - considering every elevator has a sign posted on it not to be used in case of fire.  I was a bit panicked about the thought of carrying Emma down 19 flights of stairs in the middle of the frigid night with a scared Julia in tow.  I stayed in the room hoping it was a false alarm since it occurred too close to midnight for me to believe it wasn't a drunk partier pulling the alarm.  The talking, flashing hotel fire alarm said to stay put they were checking it out and then about 45 minutes later they said it was a false alarm.  Chris was keeping me posted (via text) of the fire department activity in the lobby and after everything was cleared Chris came back to the room just in case anything happened again he would be there to help.  Thankfully it all ended well and we had a good sleep after that.

On New Year's day we could see some of the Mummer's Parade outside our hotel room window so we decided to go and watch a bit before we left.  It was fun to be a part of the parade and Emma loved every minute of it while Julia was ready to go home almost immediately.   These two girls crack me up and couldn't be more opposites.  They balance each other out so well and make life so fun.  How blessed we are!

Here's to a Happy 2014!