HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And! Happy Anniversary to me. Happy Birthday to Michelle and Quentin. Happy almost-anniversary to the Van Ryn’s. And happy almost birthday to Jasmine and her mommy! What an eventful time the new year is!

Our anniversary was awesome! My folks watched the boys and got us a hotel in Loveland so that we still only had to make the long drive once. We got to have dinner out ~ thanks to a gift certificate from my folks as well! Bonefish Grill is new to Loveland, and jam packed full of people who have been waiting for such a trendy place in town. (I still prefer Chilis.)

We went to see Juno. There were a lot of questionable things in it from my moral standpoint, but it was the closest thing to “a triumph of the human spirit” that I’ve seen in a long time. I wept pretty copiously through it. I’m thinking it would have been ten times worse if I’d been pregnant while I saw it. Seriously. It’s by the same director as “Thank You For Smoking,” which I think was the last movie I recommended on my blog. Considering that those are the only two movies he’s really directed, I think I might have a new favorite guy!

Then we crashed at our hotel with some Ben and Jerry's, watched a couple episodes of “Bones,” and slept in the next morning until almost nine o’clock! I seriously don’t remember the last time that happened! It was GLORIOUS!

Then Chris and Alisa were going to watch the boys for us on Sunday, our actual anniversary, so that we could go to another movie. But they gave Jonathan a 55 gallon tank and stand with some beautiful African cichlids, so there was a lot of work in transporting it, and by the time it was set up, Jonny and I were exhausted. (We’d slept until almost nine – why were we so tired?!) So Chris and Alisa stayed for the evening and we played Munchkin!

Oh, and for Christmas, Jonathan’s old boss gave him some game money, so he bought a new fun one – Ninja Burger. And he used a birthday gift certificate to buy another game at B&N – Carcassone. We’ve sure been having fun with all the games!

And games were certainly played on New Year’s Eve! We always have kind of a last minute party and invite people to our place, and this year we ended up with a dozen people! We started with Ninja Burger, then some people broke off to Carcassone, and at about eleven-thirty, we started a ten person game of Nerd. (Multi-person solitaire for anyone who doesn’t know what it is.) It was unreal! We had to stand up around the table because we couldn’t fit that many chairs around.

Yesterday, the 2nd of January, marked two years after I had to take my son Caleb to daycare for the first time. I spent the morning praising God that I don't have to do that with Gavi, and thanking the people that make it possible. I was crying just thinking about it. I never thought I’d be such a big wuss about my boys. My friends from high school know what a huge cynical poo-head I was about kids. They laugh at the transformation. I laugh too, because I’m so much happier this way! I hope you’re happy too!