Allie in the South of Spain

Merry Christmas! Here I am again to carry on the tradition of my annual Christmas card blog. This is officially year six and you can look back at all our other posts in the following links if you are curious: 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Even though 2017 started out on a bad note with Laura being in the hospital for a few weeks and me having to leave my job, it ended up being a pretty good year. Looking back through past years´posts makes me realize how much things have changed over the past six years. We no longer travel as much, although we did get to visit Michigan this past summer. We have been living in our apartment for five years, although we are quickly outgrowing it and may be on a new house hunt in the coming year. Our lives are no longer consumed by bottles, feeding times and naps, although we are still holding on to one daily snooze for the girls. What I mean to say is that, life is good. Really good. And we have a lot to look forward to. As always, here is our top...

Hi everybody! I just wanted to log on here today to give a bit of a life update for our family before the craziness of the holidays begins. Time has flown since we got back to Spain from our summer in Michigan. I could say that I don´t know where the past three months have gone, but I do know. And soon you will, too. I started working in mid-September at a private academy one town over. I was looking for a teaching job this year that would let me stay home with the girls as much as possible and this position is perfect. I am with Vera and Laura all morning, drop them off at daycare around 3pm and then go to work until 10pm. Getting home that late sucks but for now and until they start preschool it is really important for me to be with them as much as possible, partly because I love being a part-time stay at home mom and partly because I really want to solidify their English before they start school. Even though they will be going to a bilingual school, I think having a strong bas...

Only a few days ago, Jose, the girls and I arrived back in Spain after spending six weeks back in the States. I wrote about the first half of our adventures here and about our annual GAGME family trip here but I figured I needed to chronicle the rest of what we did before school starts again and I forget. At the beginning of August we went up north to celebrate our extended family´s annual reunion (PUFO) on Lake Huron. This year was an extra special weekend since almost all of my cousins were there, plus all of their kiddos. We had a lot of children under foot for a few days and the weather cooperated enough for us to spend time at the beach. My aunt and uncle had just recently finished a huge renovation on their cottage and it was beautiful. Jose, the twins and I stayed a few extra days up north and were visited by our friends Erica and Ernie who drove over from Mount Pleasant. We all stayed at my cousins´cottage for a couple of nights. Unfortunately we didn´t have th...

Daphne's face says it all My family and I just recently got back from our annual weekend trip and this year we went to Indianapolis. We have dubbed our gathering GAGME and this was our third time escaping with as many members of our group as we can wrangle together whilst wearing themed clothing. You can read about past GAGMEs here  (Washington D.C. in 2014) and here  (Grand Rapids 2016).  We arrived on Saturday around lunchtime to Indy where we stayed at an Airbnb house in an up and coming neighborhood close to the city center. Our first day we hung around the house, letting all the girlies run around like crazy before heading to a local playground and then a brewery for dinner. It was a long day if only for the four plus hours we spent driving, each car laden with kiddos. Day one's themed clothes RACING On Sunday we went downtown and most of us headed to the zoo while a few others decided to hit up a bar and wait for us. As part of the group that went t...