Happy New Year

(the best-laid plans, and a Sunday crossword)

Dear Frog Troublers, Happy New Year! We had so many plans before we went out of town—to send all of our holiday cards, to write this post, and to tell you our exciting news. But on our last day in North Carolina, it got very, very cold and windy. We lost power, scrambled to pack up the Prius (which can hold a LOT of stuff), and then were so busy visiting cousins, aunts, uncles, Mamie, Nana, and both Grandpas; eating delicious food; and riding around on a new bike (Harriet!) and roller blades (Bea)…

So consider this our New Year’s card! It’s currently a balmy 53 degrees, moving to a high of 65 degrees. We’ve got a lot of plans for today: to eat some collards, black-eyed peas, and cornbread for good luck; to hike to the river; to go somewhere paved to ride the new bike and skates; to make and write some thank-you cards; to look through our brand-new telescope (a wonderful gift from Uncle Skipper!); and to work on the sketches for our VERY FIRST BOOK! That’s right, Bea and I are writing a book together, to be published in 2024. We’ll tell you more about it this week, but in the meantime, you can maybe find a hint about it in the holiday crossword that Richard made for you:

Do you have any goals for the New Year? I want to work on not wasting food. And continue hiking in all weather. And more running! I’d love to run five miles without stopping (I’m up to three thanks to the Nike Running Club app). Bea wants to do more skating, swimming, mountain biking, and running around. Harriet wants to ride her bike and visit Uncle Skipper and Poco the dog (pictured above) at the beach. Richard would like to do more yoga and get another crossword in the New York Times.

We’d also love to add more Frog Troublers to our list, so please share this post!