Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot ... whatever that means

Last post of 2009! Wow! How time does, indeed, fly. I'm looking forward to a new year and making new goals and moving forward. Being stagnant is no fun, and I never want to feel like I am being that way. Yeesh.

Mom and Craig Christmas morning

Christmas was pretty much awesome. What made it even better was that I didn't have to wait four days to fly out of Salt Lake! My flight to Portland was delayed a bit because of the lovely weather in the midwest making my plan late, but I'll take an hour delay over a four-day wait any time. I came home to intense fog! Has Portland always gotten that foggy in the wintertime? It cleared out on the mornings it dawned foggy, but I was kind of amazed. Oh, well.

Dad opens one of his many (extremely unexpected) P90X presents

In terms of presents, wow. I think my family and friends get the idea that I like to read. (gee, i wonder where they got that idea!) I got a whole bunch of books - all ones that I have read before, but I have wanted them for my personal library. It was exciting to keep on opening up all these books! (my carry-on the flight back was just a bag filled with books) So now I've got some more reading material if ever I'm in the mood! I'm a tad disappointed I didn't get to see Kelly's family open the presents I got them, but I sure hope they liked them. And Mom was sure happy to get her Cuisinart from her children.

Isn't she adorable when she's dirty?

What a funny cutie-pie.

I loved seeing my family. Jack is getting easier and easier to understand, which makes me happy, and Lucy is walking! Wow! How are these kids managing to grow up so quickly? Sometimes I wonder how Tom and Lisa manage to keep their cool when dealing with their kids, but they're pretty amazing in that they do. Will I be such a patient parent? I sure hope so. Tom and Lisa are my models for that. Oh, well. I thought Jack was adorable when he kept talking about the Baby Jesus and when he tried on my stocking as if it were really a sock to be worn. Christmas Eve was spent at Tom and Lisa's, then Christmas Day was at my parents' house. The Tom Kellys came up from Salem, so we had a good time together. A couple days later, we went to lunch with Sean and Kristina and their kiddos, and later that day Sam and Beck showed up at our house for a quick visit. Hooray for my family!

World Tour!

I could have easily spent a couple more days in Oregon, but it wasn't a horrible experience coming back, even if it did start to snow the instant Mom was supposed to drive me to the airport. Another delay, but I still made it back. And I knew someone on my flight, too, so it made the waiting and actual air-time a heck of a lot nicer than it would have been had I been surrounded by strangers. So now I'm back and life will be going back to normal. Whatever that is.

Something tells me I wouldn't fit under the tree.

-Me

"An optimist stays up to see the New Year in. A pessimist waits to make sure the old one leaves." -Bill Vaughan