Oh yeah, HNY 2009

Happy New Year! Hard to believe that December is gone and January is here! So much has happened, it is difficult to know exactly where to start. Do I step back in time and post chronologically? Do I just do one of my photo recap posts? Do I just start fresh and forget the events of December all together?

Well, I am not sure exactly what I am going to do. I don't feel like pouring through the hundreds of pics taken over the Christmas festivities and uploading the best and brightest to this here blog. I don't know how to pick just one or two....so much has happened. Here it is in short bullet points with hopefully pics at a later time:

:: December 11th -- Slipped on black ice while carrying Levi....Levi was miraculously ok, but I managed to twist my ankle into so many different directions that I received a lovely 3rd degree sprain! I actually pulled my sock down right after it happened expecting to see bone poking through the skin. Off feet completely for 5 miserable days--lots of help from Tim, friends and family!! Still swollen and ouchy after 4 weeks, but able to get around!

:: Ankle put damper on final Christmas preparations, but all important things got done--Christmas newsletter and cards, gifts out in mail to friends, peanut butter balls to a much smaller number of friends. So, I didn't bake 15 doz. cookies this year, but my mom made up for that with a baking spree to top all baking sprees.

:: Tim was off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for the 1st time in our married life!! It was a great feeling! We Christmas Eved with Tim's dad and Linda and then headed over to my parents for a gift exchange. We Christmas morninged here with just us and then spent the majority of the day at Tim's mom's house before heading back over to Tim's dad's house.

:: Levi's 1st Christmas was so fun! It is difficult to believe that he wasn't around last year! He has fit so perfectly into our family and I don't even want to imagine life before he was around!

:: Mason got the whole Santa thing this year. We left milk and cookies for him and Santa even left footprints by the front door. Although we love Santa, we do keep the focus of Christmas on the True meaning of the Season: Jesus. And, Mason was excited to learn about Baby Jesus coming in a stable and his mommy Mary and the wise men and shepards. We struggled with what to call Joseph....Jesus' daddy?

:: My sister Emily, her hubby Dan, and Luke came into town the Saturday after Christmas and stayed through the Monday after New Year's! It was a great visit with them. We played Hearts almost every night until after midnight. We spent New Year's Eve here with our friends Jenn and Jed and played Apples to Apples and learned the dice game Greed....the boys played well together. The kids rolled with the punches for the most part--lots of packing up and running around and playing and late nights. We took a trip again with the kiddos to Winking Lizard in Peninsula for Happy Hour and air hockey and wings and pizza--kids had a blast....this will become a tradition....

:: Mason turned 3 on New Year's Eve!! He dressed in all his spiderman garb and had a DQ Lightning McQueen ice cream cake! Can't believe he is 3!! We'll have a joint bday party with Mason & Levi on January 18th for sanity's sake!

:: Tim turned the big 3-0 on January 4th! We had pizza and chocolate chocolate cake here and then the adults headed out to Dave & Buster's (thanks, Mom and Dad for watching the kiddos!). What Tim didn't know was that other people were going to be there to surprise him!! We had a great time playing games (I love snowmobiling and SkeeBall!) and stayed out!! So fun!

There was a trip to the Westside Market in there (Tim took Mason--I stayed home w/ Levi b/c of my ankle), Emily's quesadillas, WAY too much food and sweets!, baths in Gram's sink, gifts, gifts, gifts, laughter, CARS movie, phone calls, family, friends, and missing my brothers!!

We love all of you, our dear and very generous family and friends! May 2009 be filled with lots of time with each of you!