i hope your holidays were wonderful, relaxing and filled with happy memories. and truly hope you entered this new year feeling refreshed and ready for what is yet to come. any resolutions? maybe a resolution to be more organized this year? my wish is to help if you have resolved to get rid of your clutter and simplify in 2013!

as for our family, we had a wonderful break! busy, hectic, fun….harried at times – but still enjoyed mostly every moment.

i took a little blog break while we enjoyed a post-Christmas getaway…as hinted at in the above photo…

*can you guess where we went? if not, i’ll tell below!

although i am not one that enjoys traveling around the holidays (it’s so wild traveling by air during those times), the trip was a needed break from what has been happening in our life. before i took the short blog break, i mentioned i’d check in periodically via instagram and facebook. also said i’d be sharing a big announcement on my facebook page while i was away. now that i’m back home, have a little Christmas break recap and a few more details about my announcement to share.

on Christmas day/night we had freezing rain, followed by about 12-15 inches of snow. the area we live in (which i do plan on sharing in the coming weeks) is familiar with sleet, freezing rain, ice storms and the occasional snow fall. however, it had not snowed like this on a Christmas day/night since the 1920’s. here we are Christmas night in our driveway…

i didn’t grow up in an area where it snowed on Christmas day, so this was a magical night. it was incredible to share this memory with the kids. they spent almost 2 hours outside sledding, building snowmen, making snow angels, throwing snow balls, exploring the snow-covered landscape and using the bushes as forts/hiding spots. it was an incredible night!

even lightning mcqueen enjoyed our winter wonderland…

all while charlie and i enjoyed the view and snapped photos from inside the garage…

while the snow was amazing, we still had a trip planned – the following day!

and wouldn’t you know it – the power went out around 11pm Christmas night. between the power outage and the amount of snow on the ground the next morning, I wasn’t sure we’d make it out of town…or the house/neighborhood! look at this snow!…

the house looked like a gingerbread house…complete with icicles hanging from the windows…

we managed to get ready and packed by candlelight to get out of the house by 7:30am. it was hard to drive away from what would have been an amazing snow day…

what we didn’t know was how bad the roads would be. believe it or not, under all of this is a 4-lane parkway…

had to get out of the car to move that tree above…and there were plenty more trees down along the way…

another 4-lane parkway with cars zig-zagging their way through the make-shift road…

we were so sad to see the amount of trees down on the ride to the airport. this is what happens when you get freezing rain for several hours followed by inches of wet, heavy snow.

miraculously, our flight left town…although a bit late.

and good thing it did, because our trip was to disneyland…

her every wish came true when she had the opportunity to meet every last princess on her list.

the memories made on this trip? too many to list and all of them – priceless.

now onto the meat of this post….

as mentioned, the trip to disneyland was a welcome distraction from what had been on the last several months. which brings me to my announcement. an announcement i have been dying to talk about in here for months. now that everything has been finalized, i can finally share the news!

the big news of 2013 is that simply organized is moving. not moving from blogger to wordpress – yet, at least. we are physically moving….

and not just anywhere in california – we’re going back to my hometown…San Francisco!

if that news wasn’t big enough – for me at least (!!) – we sold the house in less than 4 weeks!

and because our home sold much, much quicker than anticipated, we are temporarily moving to a rental house here in the same area we live. the move to the rental house will happen soon….as in NOW. the move officially begins tuesday of this coming week. we are staying in this area so the boys can finish the school year. then, in june will make the big move across the country to california. my big job for the next 6 months will be figuring out exactly where to live, schools, etc.

needless to say, for simply organized 2013 will be the year of organized moving!

and oh boy, do i already have a lot to share. including what you guys didn’t know behind the scenes here and just how stressed out i was and how chaotic life had been – going all the way back to the summer when we found out a new job may be immanent. once we knew the job was ours, it was literally hit the pavement and run….from getting the house ready to go on the market, to actually selling the house (we accepted the offer on Thanksgiving day!), to fixing all the odds and ends on the inspection report, to prepping for Christmas, and all of the usual stuff a mommy does day in and day out in between all of it…and soooooo much more!

looking back, i can’t believe i managed to do it all AND keep up with the blog as much as i could. it really was a whirlwind.

let’s not forget, there are 3 little ones + a mommy that has a strong emotional connection to this little home. i’ll share those details too – it’s great to be organized and keep the chaos as hidden away as possible from the kids….but they are more aware than you know and there has been a lot of talk about how positive this move is and how much they have to look forward to. but we still have to care for the worries and emotions of these little guys. all sorts of changes, all sorts of feelings. for them and me.

there are so many new reasons for me to have an organized year and can’t wait to share the details. happy new year everyone!