Happy 2010!

I haven't yet had to remember to write "2010" or "10" for the date yet. I'm sure I'll screw it up the first few times. Speaking of the new year, poor Dick Clark. He really needs to retire.

I had a very exciting Christmas holiday. It was full of family, which is just how I like it. Leslie and Bryan were in town for the week leading up to Christmas. So that, of course, was great. We started their visit by celebrating my parents' 39th wedding anniversary (by having a fancypants dinner). Later that week we all went to the ranch and split logs. For whatever reason, I find that very fun. I know I already posted the picture on Facebook, but it's just too impressive to not put on the official blog.



Matt and I had our usual intricate dance of family events - Christmas Eve dinner with my family, a visit after with Matt's, presents Christmas morning with my family, then presents with Matt's, followed by the Stimson family gathering on Christmas night. Oh right, and then the Roberts extended family Christmas on January 1. Whew. A good time was had by all, except that I had a cold most of Christmas week. We had our first white Christmas in 80-something years here in Dallas, which was very cool except for the havoc it caused to my extended family trying to join us for Christmas Eve dinner. When Matt and I drove home that night, we actually slid backwards a bit while stopped at a traffic light near our house (and when the light turned green, we didn't actually manage to go anywhere and had to sit through another light cycle and try again). Oh, and I hosted cousin Lisa and Lyla the Monday after Christmas, which always makes me happy. :)

Christmas present breakdown:

• Most fun: bowling ball (Matt and I both got one from my dad. Matt has owned one before - it broke - but this was my first ball. I've used it twice so far...maybe I'll finally get better at bowling)
• Most practical: emergency car kit (I asked for it...I decided maybe it's a good idea to have jumper cables in one's car)
• Pleasant surprise: Anise wall decals (I had asked for this, but didn't think we'd get it, and then I forgot it was on my wishlist)
• Favorite present given by me: poppy stained glass needlepoint (see what it looked like here) that I worked on for about 6 months, given to Leslie and Bryan. I thought it would look great in their house as a pillow or framed.

Matt's back to work now after a nice break. It's officially busy season, so we're both mentally preparing for long hours and lots of time apart. One of my activities planned to keep me busy is taking another class through DCCCD - astronomy! I hope it is neat.

I'm excited about my friend Brian visiting on Friday. He's moving to Austin, so he's stopping by here on his way through. It's going to be really fun to have him living only a few hours away!