clearly, i need to learn more about gardening

While there were some great things about 2013 (getting a new house, seeing how excited everyone got that we might become parents), I'm pretty confident putting it into the "Bummer" category.

After the baby stuff, my college girls gave me a beautiful fuchsia hydrangea from a nursery in California, and it was beautiful. After the blooms died away the stems stayed pretty green and healthy, even sprouting offshoot buds! But then through the move and the change of seasons, it started drying out. The buds fell off. And it looked like this:

I finally resigned myself to accept that this plant didn't make it. Last week, I was about to finally get rid of it--I was going to try using the potting mix to add to my struggling orchid, when I discovered:

 

 And this is basically how I feel about 2014.

Thank you all for the love and prayers you've always sent our way. Happy New Year, everyone.