Layla has been saying, “Thank you so much!” lately, most often when we give her fruit after dinner. We’ll bring the fruit to her and she’ll give a little gasp and say, “Thank you so much!” and seem genuinely grateful. It doesn’t make for a very long blog, but it is very sweet and funny in person!
Our friends Rich and Anita have moved from England to our town, Carmel, IN! They were our best friends when we lived in England, and now after 6+ years we are finally living in the same town, and this time each couple has a pair of kids. John and I are so excited about them being here, but what is even better is how excited the kids are about each other.
Yesterday we invited them around to ours for a few hours. We knew their things are in the process of being shipped, which will take 6-8 weeks. They currently only have rental furniture and the things they were able to bring with them on their flight over. So, John and I got a big plastic container and asked the kids to help us go through their toys for Josh and Sophie to borrow while they waited on their toys to arrive. I wondered if we would get complaints about giving up some toys, but we were so happy to see them both really getting into filling up the box, even with toys we know they really love. We even stopped them a couple of times from putting in a favorite – Hayden took heed but Layla was very insistent on a few of her favorites going in the box.
They had a ball playing together when they all came over, and at the end Josh and Hayden were telling each other that they were their best friends. It was so sweet. This morning Hayden said about 5 or 6 times how excited he was that he was going to see Josh again soon. It’s especially great that Hayden is so happy about his new friends, as he typically doesn’t get all that excited about his peers.
Christmas has already come and gone and we’re back to our normal schedule. We had a wonderful
holiday together. John and I were both able to get a nice chunk of time off. I had a little over 2 weeks and John a little less than that. It made it very hard to get back in the swing of things today!
We had a traditional Goodwin Christmas again this year. Grandma’s on Christmas Eve, our house Christmas morning, Grandpaman’s on Christmas afternoon and evening. We had lots of snow as well. John and Hayden (mostly John) made a snowman, and John did lots of shoveling. There was plenty of time for Legos and doll babies and puzzles and books and Wii video games, and Mommy and Daddy had time for running and rowing, reading, sewing, and watching movies. And eating, oh the eating.
We rang in the new year with newly 
wedded Mike and Mandy (Mandy is my cousin). They came down from Chicago with their dog Hadley, who actually made our dog Lucy tired (Hadley is 2 and Lucy is 6, but we never thought anything could slow Lucy down!). We went bowling with them – the kids first time, and Hayden loved it – went out for dinner (note to self, reservations are a must on NYE, no matter that we didn’t need them last year), and played Just Dance 4. Great time!
Hayden and Layla's Place 