Blog??? What blog?!?!?

I can't believe it's the 2nd month of another year and it's been soooooooo long since I wrote anything down. So much is/has gone on in our family. Thanksgiving was short and sad since that was the day Patrick left for training.

Christmas was wonderful (but, without Patrick). We had dinner and opened presents. The kids (the ones WITH kids) were able to get home early to get home to put little ones to bed and meet up with Santa. Jake & Whitney hung around for a while and we played "Deal or No Deal" (one of my great gifts) until about midnight. We had a quiet Christmas Day with a great visit from my folks and Grandpa D (who was here for the holidays).

New Year's Eve was spent at home with the family. We played games (Settler's of Cattan) and then brought 2009 in with a lot of "pops"!! Yep. Everyone made it to midnight!!!

New Year's Day, Brent & I took Grandpa home and spent a few days with him getting him settled back in and having our ritual Chinese dinner. My cousin-in-law, Marg gave me a beautiful wind chim she made from a silver tea pot, spoons, beads and a salt shaker. Yep, you heard me right. She makes them and they are so fun. (see photo in right column.)

January went by in a cold, snowy, remodeling hurry. We remodeled our kitchen and made some changes to our family room. Exciting, fun stuff. Brent & Jake are staying busy with their remodel business. And that doesn't include what they both have been involved with on their own homes. We also got a night with Harrison to ourselves. Jennie took Jackson ice skating, so we got a couple of ours with our youngest. He was very entertaining. While I was getting him ready for bed, he decided that he was a dinosaur. He had it right down to the stooped knees, bent arms and head and then he growls. The photo doesn't do it justice. We laughed so hard, but he didn't break character!

February started with Erica turning 3, Harrison being really sick and the weather being somewhat warmer even though hazy. Then today we woke up to 2 inches and it just kept coming. Totaling 6 inches by about 2 p.m.!! It even took down one of our big tree branches, blocking our street. That kept Brent busy most of the day.

This month will be full of all kinds of surprises, I'm sure. We look forward to seeing Patrick for a few days at the end of the month. And Brent & I will celebrate our 31st anniversary. Time flies!!! I'm going to try to do better with this so that it's not so long next time. Thank you to all of you for making 2008 so much better for us and our family. We love and appreciate all of you.