2023 annual review, kids edition

I ran my kids through a Tim Ferriss style annual review. Here are the raw notes, just because:

(Last year’s post is here: 2022 annual review, kids edition. A big takeaway from that is that time/money spent on vacations is well spent so we tried to focus more on that this year and I think it went well.)

What made you happiest this year?

William (7):

• Vacations, especially the one to visit Great Grandaddy
• Halloween and trick-or-treating
• Christmas was really fun
• Going to Costco with Aunt Jessica

Thomas (5):

• Great Grandaddy
• (he was distracted – that was all I got)

Henry (10):

• The last day of the Dollywood trip because he got over his fear of rollercoasters and suddenly loved them
• Getting Poppy (our new puppy)
• Going to visit Great Grandaddy
• All of the vacations really
• Getting his own iPad for Christmas
• Having family dinners together
• Staying up late to play with Charlie and Baylor (his cousin)

Charlie (13):

• School year has been better – chill teachers and less drama
• Getting Poppy and playing with her especially outside when the weather was good
• Going to Dollywood, especially because his cousin Baylor was there with us
• Getting over his fear of rollercoasters
• The parts of the lake vacation where we boated around in a pontoon
• Working on his room and customizing it and keeping it clean
• Zeus’s new tank with more space (Zeus is his leopard gecko)
• Special time with mom and/or dad without his brothers

Nancy:

• Getting anxiety under control
• Traveling with our family
• Helping out at the school more
• Coloring
• Getting a nice cordless vacuum

What do you want less of next year?

• Less vacations with tons of people in the house (they like it more when it’s just our immediate family, or a couple extended family members, not a ton of people and chaos)
• Less being mean to each other and fighting (this one was seeded by me and Nancy…)
• William: Less going to the pavilion bounce house (they always think they want that and then it’s always a let down or someone gets hurt)
• Henry: Less hiking (everyone else loves hiking except for Henry)
• Charlie and Henry: less procrastinating

Goals for 2024:

• Go on an airplane
• Take more day trips to Asheville or Atlanta, etc.
• Charlie: Get better at fishing and buy better rods
• Henry: Go to the mall more
• Nancy: Get ears pierced
• Henry: Go to Aunt Jen’s house
• Charlie: Learn how to enjoy sleepovers and actually sleep at them
• Charlie: Have a cliché picnic with cherry pie and white bread sandwiches and a basket, etc.