A Christmas Message from us to You

Christmas is a time....

Anyone else have the tune of "Christmas is a Time" stuck in their head now? No? Just us? Ok. 

Christmas is a perfect time to reflect on the year and the many things we have to be thankful for. And this year has been one for the scrapbooks.

Here are a few highlights:

1. Chelsey had a BABY (well this technically happened four days before 2018, but we're counting it). This has been a year of Chel learning how to balance what so many of you do so beautifully. Charlie Jo has come to SoSis more times than we can count, has picked up a few too many Annie Claire Designs beads, has helped check people out while in an Ergobaby and much more. Motherhood alongside owning a business is hard, but it is possible. 
2. We went "live" on Facebook 11 times! What?! Have we worn out our welcome on your newsfeed? We hope not! Facebook Live has become a really fun way for us to connect with you. From selling clothes in the comments of the video to answering questions, we really want to make this Facebook Live thing a "thing" for us. We promise not to be too extra about it. 
3. We published four Lookbooks! At the beginning of this year, we set a goal to really focus on quality over quantity when it comes to our Lookbooks. Previously, we published every other month. This year, we published once every season and we hope you can see the amount of detail and thought put into each one of them. Check them all out here. 
4. We went to LA for market for the first time. And by "we" we mean Annie Claire and Shelby, our cousin. Chelsey stayed home with her less than three month old. It was a great trip and we learned a lot of hard lessons. We are excited to return to Vegas for Magic Market Week this February with lots of ideas in mind! 
5. We celebrated our birthdays with huge discounts. Remember Chel's 30th and Annie Claire's 34th? Yep, that happened. 
6. We popped up at Baton Rouge Blues Fest for the first time and had a ball. 
7. We got a handle on Quickbooks....kind of. This is an ongoing struggle for us because it's just not our favorite thing to do. We started this year committed to cleaning up our books and creating processes to ensure we are in a good place once the year ends. We aren't there yet, but we are a heck of a lot closer than this time last year. Progress not perfection. 
8. We celebrated Mother's Day with a few of our favorite mamas. Every year, this blog series is one of our favorites. We are so proud to work with Jill, Heather and Mandy and find them all incredibly inspiring. 
9. We counted our inventory....twice. The dreadful "inventory count day" is no fun. Like no fun at all. But it's necessary and it makes our business better. So we will continue to do it....and get better at it each and every time. 
10. We welcomed three new sistas to our family. Bailey, Jaselyn and Sierra have been great additions to our crew and have contributed to the SoSis vibe in BIG ways. From helping Annie Claire make jewelry to insta-storying and SO MUCH MORE, these sistas know how to work it and we are thankful to know them. 
11. We hosted our best birthday party yet! Our fourth birthday party was one for the books, y'all. We were truly blown away by how many of you came out to celebrate with us. It was our best day in SoSis history and for that we are beyond grateful. 
12. Annie Claire Designs hosted her first Jewelry Making Class for Littles at SoSis. It was a packed day with so much energy and good tunes from "The Greatest Showman." We had a blast and since then have planned two more classes happening at the end of this month. Check it out here. 
13. We collaborated with many West Baton Rouge small businesses to host an awesome Small Business Saturday. Small was surely "in" in West Baton Rouge this Small Business Saturday. We are proud to have initiated a collaboration bringing many small business owners in our parish together for an amazing day for shoppers and businesses alike. Most importantly, we hope that these efforts helped everyone value shopping small more than before. 

Many other fun things happened to us in 2018, but these stand out to us. Plus, it's kind of fun to stop at lucky number 13. 

So thank you for being a part of our 2018 story. We are forever thankful and excited to see what 2019 has in store. 

Until then, we will be eating gumbo, sipping something delicious and holding our loved ones tight. We hope you're doing the same.