We're Back

I feel like we've finally gotten off a roller-coaster. The holiday's are always busy but WOW this year was intense. A large part of that is due to the fact we are just getting better from a very nasty round with the common cold. Who knew it could be that horrible?

I will, as promised by trying my hardest, hardest, HARDEST to put up pictures of Hawaii tonight. So long as Kelly helps me find the right cords and shows me how to upload them on the new labtop.

Quick update on our holidays. We stayed here this year, which as great! We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house with Marrianne and then we trooped over to Sui's. We were supposed to be breaking in (Marrianne has a key to their apartment) so that we could stuff their stockings. (They have these HUGE stockings and the have never stuffed them so we decided it was high time to change that) However, Sui got home from her dinner much sooner than we had anticipated so instead we had to kidnap the stockings, take them to the back room and stuff them out of sight while Kelly 'distracted' Sui. Of course Sui knew what we were doing the whole time but it was fun anyway.

Christmas morning was a blast! We spent the better part of the morning learning how to play Rock Band. We had dinner at the Rees's house with their family and the Sloan's. Ainsley Sloan had me in tears with her live performance of Bon Jovi!!! We loved dinner and our time with the Rees's. Their boys are so cute!

New Years of course is always a big deal for us. We go to the Harris's and watch all three Lord of the Rings the extended versions. That's right, the extended versions. We start at 9 in the morning and usually end between 10-11 pm just in time for the New Year! It was fabulous. Sui and Mo weren't able to make it this year (sigh) but we had a ton of fun with Marianne and Randall! Marianne knows more about the movies and Tolkien than anyone I know. She makes it so fun and interesting it's like watching the movies for the first time all over again! This year I realized I'd lost some of the 'magic' you feel as a child. About half way through the movies I looked over and just saw it glowing from Marianne's face and I thought "What's wrong with me? I love these movies and all that they stand for." So I really tried to focus in on finding that again and by the end I think I had reconnected with a small part of that. I got all misty-eye'd during Sam's speech at the end of the second movie and was struggling with tears at the end of the third. 'Rekindling the magic' (in all of life not just Lord of the Rings) has now become one of my New Year's resolutions!

Well enough with that! It's time to head home and try to upload those pictures. Lots of love!