Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

The holidays came and went. A quick sentence for a season that seemed to go by just as fast. Last I knew it was Labor Day and then - bam - Santa was making preparations for his visit to our house.

We had a wonderful holiday season. It kicked off in November with my mom visiting, and then 19 of our nearest and dearest descending on our little abode to give thanks. I channeled Martha Stewart and created very attractive table settings, if I do say so myself.

The turkeys on each plate had "feathers" on which guests were invited to write something for which they were grateful for that person.

Big sister, middle sister and our mom.

Cranberries in hurricanes. We ran out of room on the tables so in went the taper candles.

The kids and the dog looked especially cute on the morning of our first snowfall in early December.
And it made for a wonderful photo gift for family members.

December was a whirl-wind and before I knew it our desire to limit the number of gifts each child would receive resulted in me over-buying. I found myself saying my mom's two most used Christmas lines, "Hmm... don't know what's in that one so guessing's not going to work, just open it." And this classic, two days after the last of the wrapping paper remnants had been picked up and upon looking deep into the walk-in closet, "Oh crap. I forgot I got Saylor a Cabbage Patch Doll."

I was so excited, too, when I purchased little Nyla Ronnie, too! It is the 25th anniversary of the CPK dolls and I am proud to say, I had an original. Dale Michael was my bald little baby and I loved him. If I knew where he was, my kids would be playing with him now. He went with me everywhere during fifth grade - as did all of my girlfriends' Cabbage Patches.

Searching for that perfect Christmas tree - and one that costs less than $100.

I readily admit I bribed the kids with candy canes to get this photo.

Family Christmas 2008

Saylor, along with our neighbors' girls, enjoying the ton of snow we received just after Christmas.

In our house, if you can walk, you can clean. Hugo's even got his very own Swiffer so cleaning up is even easier.

Then *bam* it was 2009. Honestly I remember rocking out to Dick Clark's Rocking Eve when I was 14 thinking, "Wow, I can't believe it's 1987! Duran Duran looks great tonight!" And now I'm in my mid-30s. How did that happen?

A few days later, CB and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long and thankfully neither of us seems to be getting any kind of "itch" that I've heard others mention.


More happened in January, but I think I'll save that for another post... and hopefully it won't take two months for me to share it.