A New Year

This will be my last catch-up post.  The week after Christmas, I was sick, Brad got sick--and then everyone else pretty much got sick.  We all hung out, went to some movies, and ate (and slept a LOT--well, I did, anyway).  Brad and I got to see Tron in 3D, and we kind of celebrated our anniversary.

Our 10th anniversary was on the 29th of December.  We still have to do something to celebrate.  I was just too sick to do much at that time.  I'm still a little in shock that we've been married for 10 years now.  I'll leave the mushy commentary out of here for now!  I do love my sweetheart an awful lot, though.

For New Year's Eve, we all just hung around the house.  We played games, ate, played some more games, ate, and waited for midnight.  It sounds a little boring, but it wasn't!  While I do wish that we could have gone out and done some "fancier" activities, I think for the situation we were in (lots of people not feeling well), it was the perfect thing to do.  We watched some neighborhood fireworks at midnight, and then sent the kids off to bed.

Two days later, everyone was heading out the door, this time to go home.  It was sad, but it was also nice to get the house back into some sort of order, too.  I know we'll be together again soon, so it wasn't as sad as it normally would be.

Dan left in the morning, with Brad, for the airport.  Mom and Dad left later in the morning to start their drive across the northern plains back to Idaho.  Stacey stayed for a while.  She and the kids and I headed down to the Mall of America for some fun time before her flight, and we all had a really good time together.  We did some shopping, some looking, some riding of rides, and some eating.  Finally, we dropped her off at the airport and had to say goodbye!  I was really happy that Stacey decided to come visit for Christmas this year--we haven't spent much time together at all so far, and now I feel like we know each other a bit better.  Spending time at the Mall with the kids was even better, because we got to have some girl-bonding time.  I hope we get the chance to spend more time together again sometime in the future.

So that's the end of our big holiday adventure.  I've been writing these posts over just a few days--it's been about a week since everyone left.  This last week, we haven't done much except catch up on laundry, clean up, and catch our breath again, so to speak.  I'm expecting to start school next week (which will be over by the time you're reading this), probably slowly.  The weather is supposed to be very cold for the next couple of weeks, but we're still wanting to get out and do some winter activities, like skiing and snowshoeing.  We're also in the process of beginning our new aquarium, and, as I type, it's actually got water, gravel, some plants, and a heater and filter in it already!  I'm going to show that project off on the blog too.

2011 is already off to a pretty good start for us; relaxing, mostly productive, and full of possibility.  Here's to more of the same for the rest of the year, not just for ourselves, but for you and your family as well.  Happy New Year!