Nothing Every Day

This month has brought about many cold days in the warmth of homes of family and friends. We created an advent calendar last month that we started the first day of December in preparation for Christmas too and it was nothing short of magical. Amity would often ask to read what was inside the flap for that day early in the morning, and anticipation would only build as the day progressed and we waited for Papa to come home and see what adventure was in store for us. Some of my favorites were having hot cocoa for the first time together, bundling up and heading down to downtown O'Brien Park here in Parker to see the lights in the park and take a family picture, giving away some toys to others that we don't play with anymore, and building a fire together as a family. Some days we read stories related to the season, watched Charlie Brown Christmas, White Christmas, Frosty, and the Grinch. It made the month fly by, but it felt great being so intentional with our time. ...

We hadn't named our little guy yet and we wanted to get it figured out so we could send out an official announcement. At some point I'll explain his name in depth, but the short version is that I had been thinking of using Wright for a middle name for quite a while, and we were both pretty comfortable with Ephraim for the first name. Looking at him though, it just didn't fit quite right. We also thought that there weren't many good options for nicknames. Everest had come up a while back on our list of consideration - we really thought it fit him, and the short form of Ever felt right as well. I suppose the mountains out the window might have lent some inspiration. We had been planning on having Amity come and meet him right before we all went home together, but now that he was here we realized we wanted her to be the first besides Kim and I to meet the new family member. Bob and Patti brought her to the hospital, and she was ecstatically happy when I went to get her,...