Happy Holidays 2016

Happy Holidays!

We can’t believe it’s been a year since we wrote our last update!  Wowie, wow, wow!  That must mean a lot has happened…and boy did it!  We always think about a word to sum up our year and it truly was about resilience.  We know not every year will be the same and some years we have to weather the storm, but as we know there usually is a beautiful rainbow that awaits us.  So we will focus on our rainbows throughout this year and celebrate the fact that we are way more resilient than we ever realized!

So, the beginning of 2016 marks Christina’s 40^th birthday!  40!?!? What?!?!  That’s what she said.  She was not very excited about this milestone, but as she has come into this year she is realizing that her 40 year journey so far has taught her that through her positivity, resilience and hard work has yielded so much:  love, her kids, her dogs, amazing travels, incredible foods, beach, books, dance, life-long friends, fashion, good health and a yoga practice that keeps her centered.  

During February vacation the kids experienced their first introduction to the world of Disney…on a CRUISE!!!  If you were to ask them, it was the time of their life.  Clive loved the water slide and swimming and Natalie loved meeting the characters.  The kids scored a ton of fun loot and the best part was vacationing with one of our favorite families, the Lantaigne’s.  The kids loved Mexico and Castaway Kay.  Disney truly made it a great experience for the kids.  While Josh and Christina could have camped out for a week on one of the islands, they exercised their resilience and knew that enjoying an experience like this through their eyes was worth it as they have many vacations ahead of them.

Their 3^rd adopted child, babysitter Kailene left the U.S. to experience the world.  It was a tearful goodbye, but we knew that she needed to explore the world as you don’t always have the opportunity in life to be able to quit your job, grow as a person and travel.  We know she is resilient, strong and ready for what life will throw at her on this journey.  They all miss her tremendously, but are grateful for Face Time, text messaging and care packages.  They can’t wait for her to come home!  The guest room and welcome committee are ready!

In making a decision to pack up your life and move requires loads of resilience!  Their first full year in NH was spent getting settled in their new home, finding their favorite spots to eat, kid’s activities which a lot revolves around the beach and making great friends.  Their neighborhood has turned into a great place to play with so many young kids and always someone to play with! 

TEETH!  Clive has had a year of losing teeth!  We think we are at a count of 6 and counting!  One of which was almost lost forever, but Christina emptied out a car seat to find the long lost tooth.  Whew!  His Kindergarten year was a great one and ended it on a solid note.  He is officially a 1^st Grader and while it wasn’t as smooth of a transition, they were impressed with his knack for math and becoming a great reader and writer.  They are so proud of their son.  He is resilient.  He is strong (3 legit pull ups to boot).  He is smart.  He is thoughtful.  He is an athlete (with great soccer moves in the making!).  He continuously reminds them that kids don’t come with a manual and what is most important is to advocate, support and build a world around them filled with love.  At the end, they will be ok!

Natalie has some hip hop moves and ballet twirls to make your heart melt. It took her until Christmas to feel settled in our new home (yes Santa and Dreidels helped) and this is why they say how resilient she was.  She made some great friends and entered her 4^th year of  life.  

Coming out of their Disney Cruise, her love for Minnie, Mickey and Princesses were an easy lay-up. She is so excited to know that she is in her

last year of preschool!  She has been watching her big brother Clive get on the bus and experience the fun school activities and she is ready to go!  They continue to be amazed at how kind and nurturing she is.  She is a good care-taker, helper and a good friend.  She definitely is a silly girl and is happy when she can make us smile and laugh.

While our reason for adopting Josh’s mom’s dog Mini was a tough one, we are so happy to have her join our family.  It took awhile to help her feel settled (which involved the removal of a bladder stone her first month with us).  Talk about a resilient bounce back!  After a month, she was a happy 9 year old Mini!

We are excited to report that Dora’s partner in life, Steve has recovered from throat cancer.  It was a rough year filled with surgery, doctor’s appointments, therapy,  tears, laughter and a whole lot of fight.  Steve takes the cake in being the most resilient in our family, not to mention brave.  We are so glad that he is with us to continue enjoying our family get togethers.  We have a lot more memories to create!

Thanks for listening to our update.  If you are curious to hear more about what we have been up to or you just need a place to crash when you come up to the beach, we are here.  We love visitors, we love you and hope 2017 brings you each lots of love, good health, peace, and pure joy!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday!

The Newman’s

Happy Holidays - 2015

Happy Holidays Family & Friends!

We hope you have had an awesome year and are enjoying this last month of 2015.  December is a perfect time to celebrate the holiday season and to give, receive and most importantly pause and reflect on all that has happened.  While every year is not always filled with rainbows and unicorns, there are always bright shiny moments that we should acknowledge, be thankful for and celebrate.
As the Newman’s think about the 2015 year, it is all summed up to be about TRANSFORMING.
Let us share with you what we mean by that:

This year a lot of the Newman updates connect to Christina.  In July, she accepted a newly created position at Bauer Hockey in New Hampshire.   Making the transformation from thinking about hand creams and lotions to how to sell hockey equipment was a big change.  And you know, Christina loves a challenge!  So…how is she doing?  So far, she loves the company, the camaraderie and helping to build a new Retail business from the ground up.  The fact that their new Bauer stores have a real hockey ice rink and amazing athletes and people from the hockey industry are some fun highlights.  OH, you will LOVE THIS!  She is also going to teach herself to skate!  For the first time, she got on hockey skates and actually started skating!  She has a ways to go, but off to a great start.

So with the new job at Bauer Hockey, the Newman’s had to move 65 miles north to the STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.  While they loved the town of Waltham, they made the move north of the border to a beach town, Hampton.   Hampton has a lot to offer:  More house for your money, a town with a great community and school system, 7 minutes to Bauer Hockey and 10 minutes to the BEACH!  Talk about transformative (and in a good way)!!!  They are still getting settled in and finding time to make it feel like home.  So far, Natalie and Clive’s favorite parts about the house are the playroom in the basement and the outdoor shower.  They are in a great neighborhood  and slowly making friends and finding their new routine.


Little Miss Natalie has TRANSFORMED into a PRESCHOOLER!  The move was the most challenging for Natalie, but once she was used to her new room and her new school, she has truly blossomed.  She truly is a kind-hearted soul and loves to be a care-taker.  Right now, she wants to be a “Babysitter” when she grows up.  She makes sure it is known, she wants to take care of REAL babies and not pretend ones.  Do you see a teacher or nurse in the making?!?!  Her latest favorites are eating raw cauliflower, watching Daniel the Tiger on PBS, gymnastics and helping Mommy with chores around the house.  She truly is a helper!



CLIVE is a…left-handed  KINDERGARTENER who loves anything that TRANSFORMS.  Clive has grown up so much in the past year!  This past year has been a challenging one for him, but he is ending 2015 on such a high, high note!  He continues to amaze us with his agility, his mad-climbing skills and embracing being a lefty (we have no idea where he got it from!).  He was the bravest of boys starting a brand new school and has settled in nicely as a Kindergartener.  He has an amazing teacher and 14 other classmates.  He is already writing, adding and starting to read! When he is not focused on being an awesome Kindergartener, he enjoys soaking up the nice weather, coming up with new tricks with his scooter, rivaling his sister Natalie, legos, tag and playing with his toys that transform into anything his imagination can think of!

While every family has their fair share of trips to the doctor, the Newman’s had to experience a pediatric surgery.  Being in Boston, the medical care is unbelievable and this was no exception. Clive lost his tonsils and adenoids in July.  This surgery has transformed his life and has given him better quality sleep, snore-free nights and waking up on the right side of the bed!  He was incredibly brave and while it was not the most pleasant recovery, it was all worth it!  Clive is strong, a fighter and his family knows he will always fight to stay on top!  His favorite treat during recovery was Italian ice pops and chewing gum (who knew that helps with recovery?).

So what about Josh?  Well, he has made quite the transformation in his 30+ years.  He’s gone from an apartment renter to a homeowner and now a LANDLORD!!?!?!  The Newman’s weren’t ready to give up their house in Waltham and so decided to rent their house to a nice couple.  So far, so good and it gives us a good reason to stay connected to a place we hold so near and dear.  Plus, Josh is working on his lawn care skills and being such a handyman we all know he is (wink, wink).




The family continues to grow and Christina’s baby sister, Casie gave birth to a beautiful little preemie named Jemma.  To boot, her and he big sister Jasmine get to enjoy life and sisterhood in Hawaii! While we thought she was joining the world on Christmas Day, she decided to make her debut just before Thanksgiving.  Everyone is truly grateful to have a new generation of family.  Clive and Natalie love having cousins and while we don’t get to see Danica, Jasmine and Jemma as often as they would like, they are thankful that technology has transformed how they stay connected and shorten the gap (and the miles) between them!

As we look to 2016, one member of the Newman household is a bit skeptical of this new milestone. For Christina, January 2016 brings on a new decade for her…the BIG 4-0! While most of you know she tries to stay positive and smiling, something about hitting this new decade feels different. She will transform into a 40-year old woman with big smiles, laughter from her kids and finding balance with work, family, yoga, friends, good food and drink.  Add a dash of style and we’ve got a woman ready to embrace 40 like no other!

From the tops of our hearts, we wish you a holiday filled with laughter, love and joyful memories.
We hope to hear from you and the exciting transformations you have made in 2015.
Here’s to an incredible 2016!

Love,

The Newman's

Happy Holidays, 2014!

December 2014

Happy Holidays Everyone!  We want to wish you each a joyful holiday season and hope that you enjoy what is most important:  family, friendship, good food, health and peace.  

As always, our year is summed up into a word or two.  While I have REFUSED to get wrapped up into the craziness of it all…we have been forced to and I started to listen to the words and the story the behind Frozen.  There was actually a bigger message that stayed with me:  LET IT GO.  I know, I know…SERIOUSLY?  Your word of the year is taken over by Disney too!?!?  And to top it off, boy do they know how to work out licensing deals and everywhere you go, you hear kids singing this song while wearing their Elsa and Anna t-shirt  and holding their sibling dolls.  So why in the world am I using this as our word of the year?   Well, here’s the thing:  It is something that is so important to do, but innately we tend to hold onto things and some more than others.  Why?  The story behind it, afraid of what is to come, you’re too stubborn, you secretly like a little drama, and the list goes on.  On Thanksgiving Day, I went to a powerful yoga class and the message was about letting go.  She also talked about how we naturally hold on to negative experiences to protect ourselves.  We are constantly in a state of fight or flight.  So for every negative experience, we have to counter it with about 10 positive experiences in order to create the right amount of peace, calm and balance.  Man was she right.  As I have been trying to do that, you find that you naturally find the loop hole, what could go wrong, the issue…WHY?  Instead of accepting it for what it is, that it is meant to be and that you will learn from this either way.  So, what do we do?  We each have to start to try and LET IT GO.    

Let me share some ways that we have begun to LET GO this past year.

Clive has entered the FOURS.  Never would we have thought that age 4 would be so challenging.  They are strong, they know what they want and most importantly, they know what they don’t want.  He continues to amaze us with this smarts, his ability to create his own moves on his scooter, amazing split jumps at gymnastics and his down-right stubbornness.  Not sure where he got that from?  He also is testing his love for sports in real action.  He started soccer and while it was a bit overwhelming, he loved the game and mostly the uniform!  He was so proud of completing his first season and his trophy has finally escaped from under his pillow and is now on display.   Many of you know his obsession with Tom Brady.  His ENTIRE wardrobe is filled with sports jerseys.  We THINK, just THINK, he may let go of some of those jerseys to trade them in for SUPER HERO capes!  So stay tuned for SUPER-CLIVE! 

His biggest milestone this year was turning 4 and A HALF!  Who knew that was such a big deal.  He is already to let go of his 4^th year and everything is about going to Kindergarten.  How did we get a Kindergartener already?  My eyes water just thinking about letting go of my little baby and seeing him off to school with his backpack and lunchbox.  (sigh)  But that is what it is all about, right?  Giving them the love, confidence and support to grown them into being this wonderful little human that runs off into the world to shine.  So for now, we will savor those snuggles and special moments that we have with Clive.

Natalie is a sweet, sharing, won’t LET GO of her stuffed “Ducky,” and is the quintessential, “I will DO IT MYSELF two year old!  Wow, has it been different raising our little girl!  She has been a super easy-going, patient toddler.  She is not as cautious and likes to try to do things, well, because she can!  She loves her big brother more than anyone and can’t start her day unless she gets a hug from “Cwivey!”  She is definitely a care-taker and loves to push her stuffed animals in her stroller, comb her hair and help make sure that everyone is happy.  And if you have a comfy lap, she will back right up and sit in it!  She continues to amaze us with her sweet disposition and her love for dancing and singing.  Her favorite songs are “Let it go,” “All about that bass” and “You are my sunshine.”  She is a well-rounded kid!

Derby, one of our original “children,” has had to LET GO of her child status and embrace her DOG status.  Poor Derby!  The bright spot is that one of Natalie’s favorite things IS Derby!  She loves spending time with her and always cuddles with her on her bed, gives her treats and reminds Derby that we haven’t forgotten about her.

Josh continues to enjoy his new job at New England Bio Labs over this past year.  He has accomplished a lot in his first year and they couldn’t be happier with his contributions.  His work has brought him to Switzerland for the first time and he was ready to let go of his US Citzenship for life as a Swissie.  No joke.  He has also enjoyed the balance of work and life.  They support the true meaning of family and want you to enjoy your family as much as your work.  That means the world and it truly is an amazing place to work. 

While we’re talking about Josh rockin’ it, he also earned his first Half Marathon medal!  He successfully ran in Newburyport, MA this October and in great time!  He had to let go of his tired ol’ sneakers and break in news ones to prepare for the next one.  Do we think a FULL marathon is in his future!?!  We shall see!

Christina continues to work with lotions and potions at Crabtree & Evelyn.  It’s been a very busy, challenging couple of years, but you know she loves a challenge!  She continued to rack up her sky miles and hotel points, but her heart is with the family.  She would let go of it all to spend more time with the family (and get a little more yoga in).  The most important revelation she has made this year, is that quality of life is more import than anything; that each person controls their path and if it is full of love, peace, happiness, THAT is living life to its fullest.  There is no salary that can give you that.  So stay tuned to see how Christina finds ways to let go of things to make room for more of the good stuff. 

We hope that each of you continue to support the words from Disney’s multi-cajillion dollar royalty earning song, LET IT GO.  Find 10 happy things to counter the one negative thought that comes to your mind.  You will be amazed at how light it makes you feel.   Enjoy life.  Enjoy love.  Enjoy food.  Enjoy connecting.  Enjoy laughter.  Enjoy YOU.

Sending you lot of Newman love this holiday season!

Christina, Josh, Clive, Natalie & Derby