Chloe and Sophie let us sleep until 7:20 this morning.  And then it was time to open the presents. Thanks to all our family and friends for sending the girls some lovely gifts.  They are very lucky children.  And we are very lucky parents.

In other news, we have booked our summer trip to France.  We are going to take the girls on an adventure – covering what will likely be a 2,000-mile odyssey across the Loire Valley, Ile de Re, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Provence and Paris.  We will visit some places my husband and I explored when we were younger, and some places we’ll discover for the first time as a family.

I am determined that we start living our lives more deliberately and thoughtfully. That we take nothing for granted. To that end, we plan to make traveling a priority.  To my mind, there’s no better gift we can give the girls than providing them opportunities to develop a passion for travel, history and art.  And if that’s where we spend our money, then I’m willing to forego lots of other creature comforts in order to instill in them a love for exploring the world.