Well Cottage Fix friends, my daughter and I went down and we went down hard. I thought it might be the stress and business of the season, but really I knew it was just a bad case of a winter illness! We both got a big ole dose of that nasty flu bug that is hitting our country hard this season. This will be my second Christmas in a row stuck on the sofa missing out on some of the festivities. Yes guys, I have seen every Christmas movie you can think of this past week, some of them twice. I’m sure you’re all tearing up by now, I know, poor me. I kinda feel like the universe is trying to tell me something, two Christmases in a row spent on the sofa with cough drops and Kleenex. I just wish I could figure out what!

I’m still not feeling so great and my daughter still has a bad cough and sick eyes. There’s nothing worse than when one of your little guys has sick eyes, especially at Christmastime. I’ve made it around the block a couple of times now for a walk with Paisley—I think she was starting to worry. I usually take her on a nice long walk each and everyday and to the trail with my mom a few times a week. We both are addicted to our morning walks, rain or shine!

So while I was out on my trot around the block, it got me thinking about my hopes for the New Year. The first one is quite simply to be well enough to make it to the trail for a nice long hike on New Years Day with the family. And the second wish is one that has been on my mind often. I’d like our family to have more fun together in and out of this little cottage. That shouldn’t be so hard. It’s been a rough year in some regards with surgeries and illness. I’d just like to have some good old fashioned fun without pulling anyone’s teeth out for participation. Any of you guys have teenagers?

We used to have “family fun days” which included things as simple as going for ice cream together, maybe catching a movie or a family hike—just spending time together doing things that aren’t projects or work. Somewhere along the way this hasn’t been made a priority this past year, and that my dear friends is about to change. It’s fun or bust!

Could that be what the universe has been trying to say? I’m sure it must be! Phew, glad that mystery is solved. We are definitely worker bees at this little cottage and need a good kick in the rumpkess to be reminded to play some too.

My honey got me a super cool Christmas gift this year, it’s a micro lens and I got the chance to play around with it some today. I’ve been wondering how to get that neato Christmas light affect I’ve been seeing around, ahem… love it! I went out to pick a few flowers to use as my test subjects and as you can see there are slim pickings out there right now.

It’s a really fun lens to play around with for up close photos to get a blur in the background too. How on earth did I not know about this before now. Good thing I have Mr. Cottage Fix to stay on top of all this tech type stuff. If not for him I’d still be fumbling around town with a flip phone after all.

xoxo Sally